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2 Work and offtce politics

Reading

1    | yocabulary and listening

Read the slx newspaper headlines.Then discuss with a partner what you think happened in each case.

1.    Woman wins £22.000 in sexual harassment case

2.    Mother wins posthumous racial discrimination daim

3.    New legislation outlaws age discrimination in the workplace

4.    Tribunal upholds mother’s right to work part-time

5.    Government crackdown on bullying in the workplace

6.    Unfair dismissal verdict upheld in landmark case for the disabled

A Listen to a short extract from a news programme.Which of the stories above do the two reports talk about? What happened in each case? How did the company respond?

2    I Listen again

Listen and complete the flrst report.

The family of a black man who committcd suicidc aftcr

being subjected to (1)-----bullying have

agrccd an (2)___settlemcnt from his

cmploycrs. Julian Smith hanged himsclf at his family

home two years ago and his mother (3)______

the company for racial discrimination on bchalf of hcr son.

The company conductcd a (4)_____

im cstigation. which rcvcalcd that whitc collcagucs had

(5)---------Julian in his work and ostracised

him following an (6)--------he had madę to

managcmcnt about abuse and name-calling.

In a statement the company cxprcsscd

(7)-------at its handling of the affair and

statcd that it was instigating (8)____to

cnsurc that all discrimination is stamped out.

3    I Speaking

Discuss these questions with a partner.

1.    Have you heard of any cases of unfair dismissal or discrimination in the workplace? What happened?

2.    Have you heard of anyone ever suing a company? Why? Did they win?

3.    Do you think workers have too many rights or too few?

4 | Describing jobs

Make surę you know what the jobs in the box on the left are.Then discuss with a partner which of the expressions in the box on the right you could use to describe the jobs. Use each expression as many times as you want.

a care assistant	challenging
a football manager	emotionally demanding
a GP	financialły rewarding
a history academic	highly stressful
a househusband	high-powered
a housewife	immensely rewarding
a journalist	incredibly competitive
a labourer	incredibly tedious
a management consultant	not very fulfilling
a marketing manager	physically demanding
a plumber	slightły demeaning
a psych iatrist	very varied
a refuse collector
a social worker
a stockbroker
a Street cleaner

Change partners.Tell your new partner which of the jobs you would/wouldn’t like to do. Why / why not? Do you know anyone who does any of these jobs? What do they think of their job?

5 | While you read

You’re going to read an artide about a woman who madę a change in her work Hfe. Read the article and answer these questions.

1.    What change did she make? Why?

2.    Do you think she madę the right decision? Why / why not?

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