Warm Up
Match the job words on the left to their de?nitions on the right.
- a career a. a job or series of jobs someone does in their working life, often in one professional area
- a profession b. a job that someone does (formal)
- an occupation c. a speci?c job, e.g. Assistant Manager
- a position d. a type of work that needs special training or a particular skill
- a vocation e. a type of work which people feel they are suited for and spend a lot of time doing
Types of workers
Match the people to what they do.
- an agency worker a. has a contract with a hiring company but does work for other companies
- an apprentice b. sells their work or services to di?erent companies
- a freelancer c. works for a company for a short, ?xed period of time
- an intern d. works for a company with no ?xed limit on their contract
- a permanent employee e. works in a place to get experience of a job, often without being paid
- a temporary employee f. works to learn a skill and earn a small amount of money
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Types of work
Match the types of work to the situations.
- casual work
- ?exible work
- full-time work
- part-time work
- self-employment
- shift work
- working on a zero hours contract
- volunteer work
- Aline prefers to work at the supermarket during the night because the pay is better.
- Christine’s employer allows her to start work later as she takes a course in the mornings.
- Every day, John starts work at 9am and ?nishes at 5:30pm.
- Hannah helps out at the beach picking up litter. She doesn’t get paid.
- Hugo works for the local restaurant at the weekends when it gets busy.
- Iain has his own delivery company.
- Lena occasionally paints pictures which the local art gallery sells.
- Susie works at the hospital on Tuesdays and Fridays.
Which of these types of work have you done? Which do you think are the best?
Not working
Match the reasons for “not working” to the de?nitions.
- You are looking after a newborn baby.
- You’re not going to work because your company won’t increase wages.
- You reached the age of 65 and stopped work.
- The company wants to cut costs so they let you go.
- You had an operation a few weeks ago and are now recovering.
- You didn’t meet the company’s sales targets so you lost your job.
- ?red/sacked
- made redundant
- on maternity/paternity leave
- on sick leave
- on strike
- retired
Phrases
Match the underlined phrases to the de?nitions below.
- We should sit down and work through this calmly.
- We have a lot to do today. We really need to get down to work.
- Frederico has his own way of doing things. You have your work cut out.
- You need to work up to that. Start with something easy ?rst.
- It takes time to become a manager. You have to work your way up.
- We have to work out how to increase sales in Asia.
- ?nd a solution to a problem
- get a better position in a company you work for
- have a di?cult job to do
- manage a complicated problem step by step
- prepare to do something di?cult
- start doing something with a lot of e?ort
Classify
Study the following de?nitions and then classify the jobs below as ‘white-collar jobs’ or ‘blue-collar jobs’.
a blue-collar worker: somebody who does physical, unskilled work, for example in a factory or on a building site
a white-collar worker: somebody who does “mental” work, for example in an o?ce, rather than physical work
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a banker |
a bricklayer |
a builder |
|
a computer programmer |
a lumberjack |
an accountant |
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an electrician |
a sailor |
a sales representative |
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a secretary |
a tailor |
a university lecturer |
Blue-collar : ____________________________________________________
White-collar:____________________________________________________
Complete the sentences below with the following jobs.
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chef |
?ight attendant |
manager |
nurse |
plumber |
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porter |
private detective |
psychologist |
surgeon |
vet |
- Janet has been extremely depressed lately. I think she needs to see a .
- My dog has been coughing a lot. I must take him to the .
- Laura loves taking care of other people. I think she’ll be a when she grows up.
- One of the pipes in my bathroom has burst, and there’s water all over the place! I need to call a
.
- Alan was very suspicious of his wife, so he hired a to ?nd out if she had been seeing another man.
- The told me that I needed at least one month to recover from the knee operation.
- Leave your bags here. The will take them to your room.
- Alison loves travelling, so she decided to become a .
- Can I speak to the , please? I would like to complain about the customer service here.
- The food at this restaurant is excellent. Compliments to the !
US/UK English
Match the following British English job titles on the left to their equivalent US titles on the right:
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UK |
US |
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1. |
a shop assistant |
a. |
a babysitter |
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2. |
a postman |
b. |
a bartender |
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3. |
a dustman |
c. |
a garbageman |
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4. |
a headmaster/headmistress |
d. |
a mailman |
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5. |
a childminder |
e. |
a pharmacist |
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6. |
a chemist |
f. |
a principal |
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7. |
a barman/barmaid |
g. |
a sales clerk |
Reading Comprehension
Mum: Hi remember me?
Dad: Oh yeah, aren’t you … wait, aren’t you the mother of my children?
Mum: Yes, how are you doing? Haven’t seen you in a while! (laughs)
Dad: Now I’ve put them to bed, I’m great! (laughs)
Mum: Today was exhausting!
Dad: Tell me about it. What time were you up?
Mum: About 4.30. I need that early morning time to get myself together and actually do some work before it all goes to hell.
Dad: Every night, I tell myself I’m going to do that, and every morning when the alarm goes o?, I tell myself I need just a few more minutes of sleep.
Mum: You’re a night owl, I’m an early bird, it’s just how we are.
Dad: But I want to be an early bird and watch TV at night instead of doing the work I need to do. By the way, thanks for helping me out today. I owe you. Tomorrow, they’re mine.
Mum: It’s ?ne. Apart from when Justin dropped his yoghurt, I think it went pretty well.
Dad: Oh, I don’t think anyone even noticed the screaming child while I was presenting – and if they did, they probably didn’t want to say anything in case they have their own children screaming on call in the future.
Mum: I don’t think I’m convinced about this hybrid working situation. Don’t get me wrong, I love not having to commute every day. With my job, that’s easily two hours of the day I get back. But organising myself and kids and work?
Dad: Yeah, it’s a challenge. Some days I feel on top of it all, but there are days when I feel like I’m a terrible employee, a terrible father and a terrible husband.
Mum: (with joking intonation) Oh honey, don’t think like that. Trust me, you’re a terrible husband EVERY day, not just some days.
Dad: Just for that, I’m not going to tell you where Becky hid the chocolate spread.
Mum: I’ll just go and buy more.
Dad: or the car keys…
Mum: Fine. You’re a wonderful husband on most days.
Dad: I’ll be wonderful tomorrow while you’re in your meeting. What are you doing again?
Mum: I’m just leading the meeting, but the CEO is going to be there. I just have to keep order, but it would be di?cult with Becky shouting at Justin in the background.
Dad: I’ll take them to the park. Don’t worry.
Mum: Thanks. Was Justin alright earlier?
Dad: Yes, he calmed down. I don’t know what to do about his phone. I had to tell him several times to get o? it and do his homework. But then, of course, I’m on my phone texting Je? about work. So, I felt like a real hypocrite. He can’t use his phone but I can use mine? I don’t know what message we’re sending to kids there.
Mum: I think we’re going to have to sit them down together and explain what we do a bit. They’ve just had to adapt to us being around all the time and it’s weird for them. I don’t think we’ve ever really explained the situation.
Dad: You’ve got a point. Maybe if tomorrow we …
Read the conversation and click the link to do the activity