At work: colleagues and routines Colleagues Look at this extract of someone talking about their job and their colleagues. Well, Philip is my opposite number [has the same position/does the same job as me] in the company's New York office. He and I have a good working relationship [how we communicate and work together]. Last month we got a new boss, who quickly established a good rapport [/raep'a:/ communication/relationship] with everyone in the office. I do socialise with my workmates [informal: colleagues, especially in nonprofessional jobs] but we try not to talk shop [informal: talk about work]. The company is generally very hierarchical [/haiar'aikiksĽ has a structure with powerful and less powerful people]; there's a pecking-order [a system where some people have the right to get benefits/promotions before others] for everything. I do a job-share [we each have a 50% contract for the same job] with a woman called Rosemary. It suits us both as we each have children to look after. Daily work routines Nancy gets to work at about 8.45. She has to clock in and clock out [use an electronic card to record the time she arrives and leaves each day]. She works fixed hours; she has a nine-to-five job. Brett can come in at any time from eight o'clock till ten in the morning; he works flexi-time / he's on flexi-time, but his core hours are 10.00 to 12.00 and 2.00 to 4.00. Archie doesn't go to the office at all. He works from home with his computer; he's a j teleworker. Bert works different times each week; every third week he works nights; he does shift work / he's a shift worker. Mick has his own company; he's self-employed and I works from home. His wife works for different companies at different times; she's freelance / she works freelance. During the day (different work-patterns) Most of the day I do routine tasks, but occasionally there's a crisis or I have to meet a deadline [have something finished by a fixed day or time]. At certain times of the year I have a very heavy workload [amount of work I have to do] but at other times it can be quite light. I start work at my machine at seven o'clock when I'm on the day shift. The job's very mechanical [you don't have to think about what you are doing] and repetitive [the same thing every day]. All I ever think about is knocking off at three [informal: finishing work]. The shift I hate most is the night shift. I start at ten and work all night till six in the morning. The job's a bit monotonous [boring because it never changes]. \ I have a glamorous job [very exciting, which everyone admires]. I'm a pilot. The hours are irregular and antisocial [do not enable one to have a normal social life], b I'm not stuck behind a desk [informal: sitting in an office all day] and there's a I of variety. The stress levels can be quite high when you know people's lives dep on you. I feel sorry for people who are stuck in a rut [stuck in a job they can't escape from] or working in dead-end j [jobs with no prospects of promotion] Types of work I have a lot of paperwork to do by tomorrow, [letters/reports to write, forms to comp My father did manual work all his life and was very fit. [hard and physical] I think I'd like vocational work, like being a nurse or a teacher, [which helps people] 32 English Vocabulary in Use (advanced) Exercises 7.1 Correct the mistakes in this paragraph. I think I have a good work relationship with most of my colleagues. I tried to establish a good report with them from the very beginning. The person I like most is my opposite member in our office in Paris. Generally, when I socialise to my colleagues outside of work we try not to talk about shop, but it's not easy and sometimes we have a good gossip about people who are not there. 7.2 Í 7.3 Give three adjectives which you think describe each of these jobs (for example, stressful, glamorous, dead-end). Think of words you would use in your own language, then try to translate them into English. Use a dictionary if necessary. 1 assembly-line worker 5 lifeguard 2 shop steward 6 trawlerman 3 PR officer 7 private eye 4 bodyguard 8 refuse collector Use words and phrases from B and C on the opposite page to complete these sentences. 1 I would get bored if I had a nine..................................................................... 2 When I arrive in the morning and leave the office in the evening I use this card to 7.4 I 3 I'm very tired; recently I've had a very heavy..................................................................... 4 I don't want an office job. I don't want to spend all day stuck..................................................................... 5 I can clock in any time between eight and ten and clock out between four and six; I'm on..................................................................... 6 I'd hate to feel trapped in my job and to be stuck in..................................................................... 7 He's not here this evening, he's working nights; you see, he does....................................................... 8 I work for different companies at different times as it suits me. I'm................................................ 9 I used to work for someone else, but now I'm my own boss; I'm....................................................... 10 I stopped working in the hamburger restaurant. It was just a dead-.................................................. 11 When I was working in the factory, all I could think of all day was the moment when I could knock..................................................................... 12 Being a nurse is a good job, but you can't go out much with friends. The hours are a bit..................................................................... Using a dictionary if necessary, give one example of ... 1 a manual job 2 a vocational job 3 a job with great variety 4 a job with irregular hours 5 a job with routine tasks 6 a job with regular deadlines 7 a job with lots of paperwork English Vocabulary in Use (advanced) 33