Vamos a filosofar un rato. Y es que para hablar de persona nada mejor que recurrir a quienes primero pensaron en ella y la conceptualizaron.

John. Hi, I am John. I'll never forget the first time I met one of the most important contacts of Red Bank, he was one of the most frequent customers and I just wanted to try to get on well with him and set a good business relationship, it was important for both companies to know about our companies’ histories in order to try to share ideas for our future cooperation. I traveled for a couple of hours and went to his office to meet him in person. Making a good impression was one of my main goals, I wanted to show him all my respect and admiration. I wanted to greet him with a handshake, and I thought I could call him by his last name. When I put my hand out, I saw that he wanted to greet me with a hug, so it was awkward to say hi to both of us. Then, I said his last name when addressing him, but he just used my name, it was extremely uncomfortable. Then I realized that I had just made assumptions about the level of formality he expected because he knew that both companies had been doing good business with each other for a couple of years and he felt comfortable enough to address me a bit less formally. After that situation, I learned not to assume what other people think about meeting for the first time, we all have different ideas.

Claire. I am Claire. I had never worked with a virtual team before, and this one was quite special due to it being with an international company. Even if I was excited, I knew it was also challenging due to having to deal with people from different countries, and what was more, I had never had the opportunity to get to meet some of them. There were many things about working with people from different countries. For instance, we had different time zones, our IT systems were different as well and even our local regulations were different, so, what each person could, or was able to, do for the project was completely different. We also had some differences in interpersonal relationships, we all had different ways of working, we all dealt with deadlines differently and our ideas about replying to emails were different too. It is important to consider that English was the main language in the project and for many people, it was difficult since it was not their first language, so trying to communicate effectively was a big problem for both native and non-native speakers. In order to help us all get on the same page, we had to set some rules in order to make our teamwork work well. We wrote a document with the purpose of establishing rules for the most important points. In the end. I found it really useful, and the project was a great success. I'm looking forward to working on my next international project.

Tim. My name is Tim. Some years ago, I had to face a rough patch at work. One of the most important members of the team quit his job and I got too overloaded when he left. I started to work overtime, and I had to deal with stress. My boss was really helpful, she proposed to create new and realistic goals for the project carried out in the company at that moment. She also taught me the smart approach to goal setting. It's an acronym, S-M-A-R-T. You use it to create goals that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Timely. I used it to work on the things I was feeling overwhelmed with. It helped me organize my tasks in order of importance. I still use the approach and it has helped me deal better with my assignments.

Pamela. I’m Pamela. Let’s talk about the last time I had a problem with my business flight. I was about to go back home, and I remember it was the last flight of the day and I knew it was always a big risk, but it was delayed. We waited for a long time, but it was finally cancelled. One of the members of the crew took us with the agents to the departure area, booked a hotel for all of us and re-booked the flights. I knew that the next flight would not have the capacity to take all the passengers, so I hurried back through the airport and I was the first one to get to the desk we had just been sent. It was the best decision I could always make since there were only six seats left for the next flight. I was so lucky since everyone else had to take connecting flights in order to get to their destinations.

The Great Train Robbery

One of the most famous robberies in British history was at 3 am on the morning of 8th August 1963. A gang of 15 men stopped a Travelling Post Office Train which was traveling to London from Glasgow in Scotland. They must have planned this robbery in previous weeks because they stopped the train by changing the signal to read, so they must have known when and where the train would be passing. They stole letters containing £2.6 million in cash (this would be £46 million today). The robbers may have stolen more but maybe the time was hampered. When they finished stealing, they drove away to a farmhouse near the railway line where they shared out the money between them.

They could have escaped but unfortunately for them, a neighbor told the police about the men hiding in the farmhouse. When the police went there, they found post office bags and fingerprints, and all the robbers except four were caught and sent to prison. A hypothesis for this robbery is that the four men who were not caught may have escaped first with the money because most of the money was never found.

One of the most curious things that happened with this robbery was that the most famous of the robbers, Ronnie Biggs, was sent to prison for 30 years but in June 1965, after only 15 months in prison, he escaped in a furniture van and ran away to Brazil, maybe the robbers who escaped could have helped him to run away. He lived there until May 2001, when he decided to return to the UK and was sent back to prison.

Script:

Host: Thanks for participating in our program, now I think we have another caller. Cristopher, welcome to our program, so…uh…what do you think about the new policies?

Cristopher: hello? Well, what I wanted to say is that the way we're doing things is absolutely wrong!

Host: and... Why do you think so?

Cristopher: Well, just look at what the government is doing with prisons nowadays. Don't they see that those inmates are criminals? I just don't get it...why would the government like to offer them a really good lifestyle? Don't you think they might be having a better life there, than many of us living on the outside? Now they have lots of things, in there they can play video games, their places are provided with big TVs and they can also use their phones, they have access to all the technology they want. And if that is not enough, they can also receive their families there. I think they're probably living a life of luxury.

Host: Well…I can see your point…

Cristopher: Yeah, it's ridiculous! I'm telling you! How is it possible that now they're going to get dancing and cooking classes?

Host: Oh wow, so, what do you propose?

Cristopher: I think it's time to go back to the good old days…prisons are for punishment. The new policies must make them work! They must work hard, hard, extremely hard. I don't know, some kind of…physical work.

Host: Well Cristopher, I am afraid we have another caller, but thanks for calling…and our next caller is Samantha…Welcome…

Samantha: Good afternoon everyone, well… before starting I’d like to say that the last caller, I think his name is Cristopher, does not have any idea about what he is saying…He doesn't know what he is talking about. Nobody said prisons are funny. And I don’t even want to mention what he said about the hard work, I’m speechless now. I believe that the only problem with prisons nowadays is that we put too much effort into punishing instead of talking about rehabilitation. Why don't we try to teach inmates to live a normal and useful and independent life, for them to use that knowledge once they're released?

Host: Amazing! I completely agree with you.

Samantha: Punishments are just creating a kind of more professional criminals’ group… When prisoners are only punished and then released, they only go back to commit even more serious crimes. However, if we talked about rehabilitation, we would see they would be taught to be useful to society, which means they would never go back to jail. That's why I think it is important for them to be taught new skills, they must learn things related to computers, languages or any other areas of knowledge. It's the only way we can avoid people going back to prison…

Woman: Good morning, how may I help you?

Man: Well, this is James speaking and… This morning when I went walking my dog as I usually do, I saw these yellow boxes in front of many houses in my neighborhood, including mine. I was wondering what they were out there for and I saw all of them had this number. I decided to call to see what your business is about.

Woman: Sure, thanks for calling, in fact, we are not a business, we are just having a campaign in order to raise awareness about the importance of recycling.

Man: I don’t know. I mean, yeah, I think it is a good idea, but I really use a lot of paper here. So, if that is what you are looking to find every day, you will find my box empty.

Woman: I see, but we not only collect paper and we do not do it every day! In fact, we only do pickups every other week.

Man: Oh, well then, so I think I use other products I can recycle so maybe I could help, I guess. I mean, I am friends with many of the neighbors so I think I can ask them to put their recycled materials in the box. Well, I’d like to help out!

Woman: That’s great, sir. You’re doing the right thing. OK, I need you to give me your last name in order to fill the helpers’ form.

Man: James Blenheim

Woman: James... How do you spell it? B-L-E-N-A-M?

Man: No, actually it’s B-L-E-N-H-E-I-M.

Woman: Oh, I’m sorry.

Man: No worries!

Woman: Well, Mr. Blenheim, I’ve just sent an email to the address we found in our database. Is it [email protected]?

Man: Sure! So, I’m guessing those yellow boxes are for recycled paper, but what else can we put there besides it?

Woman: Oh yes, you can also use newspapers, paper towels. Aluminum, plastic, and glass soft drink containers, steel cans…

Man: Oh, so I can put plastic laundry detergent bottles as well, right?

Woman: Sure thing!

Man: Cool. Hey, what if I wanted to use different colors for every material?

Woman: Oh, you can call us and ask for new colorful boxes, so the blue one would be for metal, the green one for glass and plastics, and the yellow one would only be used for paper. So, would you be interested in those colors?

Man: Um, I’ll think about it. But that’s cool, thanks!

Woman: My pleasure. Do you have any other questions?

Man: Nope, that’s all!

Listen to the following conversation. Then complete the blanks with the words you hear.

It is believed that the creation of a company is an easy process in which you will get money as soon as you start. However, this is not a reality, lots of the great companies that are known today are the result of a process of trial and error, the founders of the companies failed a lot of times before their companies were successful. 1

Even though several companies manage to be successful, there are always conflict situations within them which they must overcome, one of the most difficult is to face a deficit that can be caused by mismanagement, hence the importance of the periodicity of the Board of directors’ meetings which must be held annually or biannually so that the income obtained by the company is reviewed and there is control thereof. 2 y 3

The second problem that can arise is when there is a great demand for products, but the company has a scarcity of its raw material which makes it difficult to sell more products, this is due to disorganization in the purchasing and production area, which a solution must be given as soon as possible so that sales are not compromised in this way.

A third situation that, although it is not a problem as such if it can cause delays in the company, is maternity leave, since it must be taken into account that an employee will stop working for a while and that job must be filled by someone suitable. At this point, it is important to plan against in which period the person is going to be absent and how their work can be supplied without the company being compromised, it is necessary perhaps to hire someone else or perhaps just a redistribution of work in other workers is sufficient.

Other situations that arise are in which an employee is fired or the employee resigns. These cases should always be handled by the human talent area, it is important that if the company dismisses an employee it is justified to avoid possible lawsuits and that it has evidence that justifies said dismissal. In cases where the employee leaves the company, it must be made clear that there is a notice period where the employee will work until he is replaced, a time that does not exceed one month. 4

Finally, one of the biggest problems for companies is when there is a deficit and staff are made redundant, it is an extremely complicated situation because lots of people depend on the job they have in that company and most of the time these are pushed to the limit, In such a way that employees are not notified of the problems that the company has so that they are prepared, but they are informed when there is nothing that can be done. 5

In conclusion, problem situations must be avoided by companies for better functioning of the same, although some problems are relevant, the important thing is that the company is prepared and that the problems can be faced assertively.

Listen to the conversation and decide if the statements are True or False.

Be_Ingles_Intermediate2_Unit2_Activate4_listening_audio

Paula: Good afternoon Henry, sorry to interrupt but I think I have a serious problem. I’m at the meeting with the inspectors and I’ll start my presentation in approximately 35 minutes, but I have just spilled the coffee on my laptop, and it does not even startup, I have all my slides there!

Henry: Are you serious? Are you saying it won’t turn on?

Paula: You are right.

Henry: All right, no worries. Didn’t you make a backup of it?

Paula: I did! I put the USB on my desk.

Henry: I see, but your door is locked anyway. Well, try to convince the inspectors to reschedule your presentation. When the lunch break ends, I’ll ask my assistant

with a laptop to replace the damaged one.

Paula: I’m afraid it is not possible. The inspectors have a really busy schedule, they are quite organized with the itinerary. How long do you think it will take him to get here?

Henry: Approximately 40 minutes, I’ve called him, and he does not get the phone, I think he is still having lunch. So, the best thing would be to arrange your presentation in 45 minutes.