CAREER LADDER BUSINESS VOCABULARY IN USE

 

BUSINESS VOCABULARY IN USE 7. CAREER LADDER

 

A A job for life Many people used to work for the same organization until they reached retirement: the age at which people retire, or end their working life. Career paths were clear: you could work your way up the career ladder, getting promotion to jobs that were more senior, with greater responsibility. You would probably not be demoted: moved to a less senior job. To leave the company, you could resign or hand in your notice. B A job for now Modco has downsized and delayered. The number of management levels in the company hierarchy has been reduced from five to three, and many managers have lost their jobs. Modco has reorganized and restructured in order to become flatter (with fewer layers of management) and leaner (with fewer, more productive employees). C In-house staff or freelancers? Modco has outsourced many jobs previously done by in-house personnel: outside companies clean the offices, transport goods and collect money from customers. This allows Modco to concentrate on its main business activities. Modco uses more freelancers, independent people D Losing your job If you do something wrong, you are …… ·         Dismissed ·         Fired ·         Sacked ·         terminated If you’ve done nothing wrong, you are …. ·         Laid off ·         Made redundant ·         Offered early retirement Employees who are made redundant may get advice about finding another job, retraining, etc. this is called outplacement advice. EXERCISES 7.1 Complete the tables with forms of words from A, B and C opposite. You may wish to refer to a dictionary. 7.2 Match the sentence beginnings (1-5) to the correct endings (a-e). The sentences all contain words from A and B opposite. 1 Career paths aren’t what they used to be; a and they will be replaced by temporary workers. 2 He worked his way up from b companies won’t take care of use for life any more. 7.3 Carla used to work for an Italian magazine publishing company. She talks about how she lost her job. Choose the correct form of the words in brackets to complete the text. Edizione Fenice is a magazine publishing company, and a very nice company to work for. I was director of a magazine called Casa e Giardino. Then, Fenice was bought by an International publishing group. We had to have regular performance (1) __________ (review/reviews/reviewer) with one of the new managers. After a few months they started laying staff (2) __________ (off/on/out). Our own journalists were put on temporary (3) __________ (contracts/contractual/contracting) or replaced by (4) __________ (freelancer/freelancers/freelanced).

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