Unit 5 Working together 5.1 Firms at work Vocabulary Fill the gaps with suitable words from the list. premises involved modem retailing corporation sector successful terminals bookkeeping monitor limited enterprise merge  1. Several companies are ... in the development. 2. Ltd stands for ... company. 3. Mining and farming are part of the primary .... 4. Shops and supermarkets are part of the .... industry. 5. Our economy depends on private ..... to combine capital and opportunities for investment. 6. The two firms want to ... to form a larger one. 7. We are moving because our business ... are too small. 8. The report shows our company had another ... year. 9. All the computer ... are linked to the main computer. 10. The ... joins the computer to the phone. 11. The ... department looks after the company’s figures. 12. Another word for a computer screen is ..... 13. In America a large firm is called a ..... 14. In American companies a director is called a ...... 5.2 Agreeing and disagreeing Functions & listening Listen to the recording: 1. You’re going to hear four conversations in which a number of men and women agree and disagree about different suggestions concerning working life. Listen to each conversation twice. 2. As you listen the first time, write down the topic of the conversation or the suggestion the people are talking about. Then listen a second time. 3. Listen again and decide which of the people agree or disagree with the topic or proposal. Put a √ for the people who AGREE or a × for those who DISAGREE. Conversation 1  Conversation 3  TOPIC: Smoking should be for bidden in offices________________________  TOPIC: ........................................... ..................................................……  1st woman (√)  1st man ( )  1st man (√)  1st woman ( )  2nd woman (×)  2nd man ( )  2nd man ( )  2nd woman ( )  3rd man ( )  3rd man ( )  3rd woman ( )  4th man ( )     3rd woman ( )    Conversation 2  Conversation 4  TOPIC: ........................................... ..................................................…..  TOPIC: ........................................... ..................................................……  1st man ( )  1st man ( )  1st woman ( )  1st woman ( )  2nd man ( )  2nd man ( )  2nd woman ( )  2nd woman ( )  3rd man ( )  3rd woman ( )  4th man ( )  3rd man ( )  3rd woman ( )      5.3 Prepositions This exercise gives you practice in using the right preposition together with a verb or a noun. From now on there will be an exercise of this type in each unit of the Workbook. So that you can revise these exercises later, use a pencil to fill in the gaps. Then you’ll be able to erase what you wrote and do the exercise again another time. Fill the gaps in these sentences with a suitable verb or noun + preposition from the list below. 1. In the middle of the meeting our client brought up the subject of compensation. 2. All reports need to be carefully written and above all facts. 3. The managing director was very satisfied; he my recommendations. 4. If we want to fill the post, we’ll have to a qualified technician. 5. The clerk managed to the two missing packages. 6. Computer operators wanted. Please the manager within. 7. The whole company is going to the South American order. 8. the management and the workers __________ each other _____ the strike. 9. The clerks had to work long after five to deal with the orders. 10. Our agent __________ $500 the fire-damaged merchandise. 5.4 The eternal coffee break Reading Read this article and then fill each gap below with one word. The eternal coffee break Computers and electronic communications are allowing many people to use their homes as offices. But offices will never disappear entirely. Instead, the office of the future may become more like home. AMERICAN managers who want to get more out of their white collar workforce will be in for a shock if they seek advice from Frank Becker, a professor at Cornell University who studies the pattern of office work. His advice: companies need to devote more office space to creating places like well-tended living rooms, where employees can sit around in comfort and chat. Mr Becker is one of a group of academics and consultants trying to make companies more productive by linking new office technology to a better understanding of how employees work. The forecasts of a decade ago-that computers would in crease office productivity, reduce white-collar payrolls and help the remaining staff to work better – have proved much too hopeful. Mr Becker predicts that the central office will become mainly a place where workers from satellite and home-based offices meet to discuss ideas and to reaffirm their loyalty to fellow employees and the company. This will require new thoughts about the layout of office buildings. Now, spaces for copying machines, coffee rooms, meetings and reception areas usually come second to the offices in which people spend most of the day working. Mr Becker sees these common areas gradually becoming the heart of an office. Managers, says Mr Becker, will also have to abandon their long-cherished notion that a productive employee is an employee who can be see. Appearing on time and looking busy will soon become irrelevant. Technology and new patterns of office use will make companies judge people by what they do, not by where they spend their time. That does not mean the end of the office, just its transformation into a social centre. New ideas about offices are catching on elsewhere. Digital Equipment Corp’s subsidiary in Finland has equipped offices with reclining chairs and stuffed sofas to make them more comfortable and conducive to informal conversations and the swapping of ideas. Companies such as Apple and General Electric are experimenting along similar lines. Steelcase, a manufacturer of office furniture, is one of the firms keenest to experiment with new office layouts and designs. The company’s research centre in Grand Rapids, Michigan, is a $11m building completed in 1989. It is designed around a series of office “neighborhoods” that put marketing, manufacturing and design people close to each other so that they can find it easier to discuss ideas and solve problems. Employees on different floors can see one another through glass, and easily go from floor to floor via escalator. Top managers work in a cluster of offices that are wrapped around an atrium in the middle of the building, rather than occupying the usual suite of top-floor offices. They can see, and be seen, by the people they manage. But, sometimes even the most communicative employee just wants to be left alone. 1. According to Frank Becker, it is good for workers to have somewhere .................. where they can sit and ....................... to each other. 2. Computers have ............. led to an increase in office productivity. 3. A central office will be a place where off-site workers can ..............for discussions and conversation. 4. Communal rooms will become the .................. of an office. 5. It will no longer be desirable for workers to come to work on .............. and look ............. all the time. 6. Workers will be judged by what they .............. not ..............they spend their time. 7. Offices will become ................... canters. 8. At Steelcase in Michigan workers in different ........... are close to each other. And the managers are .............. on the top floor. References 5.1 Firms at work 1. involved 2. limited 3. sector 4. retailing 5. enterprise 6. merge 7. premises 8. successful 9. terminals 10. modem 11. bookkeeping 12. monitor 13. corporation 5.2 Agreeing and disagreeing Conversation 1 Topic: smoking should be forbidden in offices. 1st woman √ 1st man √ 2nd woman χ 2nd man χ 3rd man √ 3rd woman √ Transcript 1st woman: I think it’s time that smoking was forbidden once and for all in all offices. 1st man: I agree entirely. And I think the management should be firm on this. It should be abolished on the firm’s premises. 2nd woman: now waits a minute. I can’t say I share your views on that. The staff should be asked to vote first. 2nd man: Now, that’s just what I was thinking. We don’t live in a dictatorship, you know. I think grown people should be allowed to decide for themselves if they want to smoke or not. 3rd man: Maybe, but don’t you think non-smokers’ health can suffer if the smokers are allowed to continue? 3rd woman: Quite right, I couldn’t agree more. And it might also be a way of educating people to live and work in a more healthy fashion. Conversation 2 Topic: All companies should offer their employees free lunches. 1st man √ 2nd woman √ 2nd man × 2nd woman √ 3rd man √ 4th man √ 3rd woman × Transcript 1st man: You know what, I think all companies should offer their employees free lunches. 1st woman: Quite right, I couldn’t agree more with that. After all if we have to work here all day and have no time to go home in the lunch hour it’s only fair. 2nd man: I can see what you mean. But what happens if the canteen food doesn’t suit you? Or just isn’t tasty? 2nd woman: That’s a good point. But I still think free lunches are a good idea. The company should have to give the employee the money to buy their own, if the lunches are not satisfactory. 3rd man: Yeah, I’m all in favor of that. The company made very high profits last year. They can afford it. 4th man: I couldn’t agree more. They could offer a wide variety of dishes to suit all tastes. It would be only fair. 3rd woman: Hm, I see things rather differently myself. I would like my lunch hour left to myself to decide where and what I eat. Conversation 3 TOPIC: Overtime should be abolished so that people without jobs can find work. 1st man √ 1st woman √ 2nd man × 2nd woman × 3rd man × 4th man √ 3rd woman √ Transcript 1st man: It’s quite clear that overtime should be abolished so that people without jobs can find work. 1st woman: Yes, I’m all in favor of that .it would mean that lots of extra jobs could be created. 2nd man: Well, my opinion, for what it’s worth, is that the employers are mot prepared to take on additional staff. They say it would be too expensive. 2nd woman: Now, that’s just what I was thinking and another thing .if overtime is cut, it’ll simply mean that we’ll have to word twice as hard in normal working hours for the same money. 3rd man: I don’t think \it’s a good idea either. The people who are unemployed are not necessarily the ones who have the skills to do our jobs. 4th man: Perhaps, but don’t third we need to demonstrate alternatives to increased overtime. Anyway, my wife and family are side of not seeing me as much as they could. 3rd woman: That’s good point and we should also emphasize that the company should take on unemployed people and retrain them in the necessary skills they might not possess. Conversation 4 TOPIC: managers should have far more control over what employees do 1st man √ 1st woman √ 2nd man × 2nd woman × 3rd woman √ 3rd man × Transcript 1st man: You know, I believe that we managers should have for more control over whey employees do. 1st woman: You know, that’s exactly what I think. We need to know what work they are doing at every point during the Kay. That is the only rational way to organize an office today. 2nd man: I can’t say I share your views on that. My employees are not machines. They’re human beings. In my experience you get work done far more efficiently if you allow employees to work at their own pace. 2nd woman: Now, that’s just what I was thinking the important thing is to allow each individual to work at a certain number of tasks, but not to watch over them too closely. They do a better job that way. 3rd woman: I can see what you mean, but my experience shows that only certain employees can be left need watching closely or else they waste the firm’s time. And they are here to word after all. 3rd man: Maybe, but don’t you think, there is a limit to how closely we should watch our staff? After all, I don’t know about you, but I only have one pair of eyes. I can’t watch 25 people all at once and do my own work at the same time. 5.3 Prepositions 2. based on 3. approved of 4. advertise for 5. account for 6. apply to 7. benefit from 8. blamed for 9. backlog of 10. bid for 5.4 The eternal coffee break 1. comfortable chat / talk 2. not 3. meet / gather 4. heart / center 5. time busy 6. do where 7. social 8. departments not