节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2013-11-11
难易度:High
关键字:annoyance, deprive, resentment, clause
Today our lesson is about Saying Goodbye and losing good employees can be very
tough.
Ben is having a rough time because one of his best employees is going to be
leaving, and it's depriving him of a great worker.
All of this stress is keeping him up at night.
So he's asking Uncle Bob for some advice on this situation.
Let's continue reading and listening to this conversation.
(Music).
Saying Goodbye.
He's also creating a lot more work for you.
Now you'll have to retrain people or get a replacement for him.
Exactly.
It makes me wonder if I shouldn't have all my employees sign contracts or
something.
Contracts don't keep employees from leaving, Ben.
And if you aren't careful, they can cause a lot of resentment.
I can see that.
But if contracts don't keep employees from leaving, why do so many companies use
them?
One reason is that contracts can help keep your employees from leaving to work
for your competitors.
How do they do that?
Many contracts include a clause that prevents employees from working for a
competitor for a period of time.
(Music).
OK, let's go back to the beginning of this section.
Uncle Bob... he says here: He's also creating a lot more work for you.
OK. So Terry is going to leave.
He's depriving Ben of a great worker.
Terry is that great worker.
Uncle Bob says: He's creating a lot more work for you.
Now usually creating is a good thing.
But as we can see here, this is kind of a negative thing to create more work for
somebody.
Uncle Bob says: Now you'll have to retrain people or get a replacement for him.
And that is a lot more work.
If you have responsibilities, you want to make sure that you fulfill them so
that you don't make more work for other people.
Exactly.
So what does Ben say?
"Exactly!" Wait! That's your line, Carolyn.
Yes, Gabe, that is my line.
Exactly.
Mm.
It makes me wonder if I shouldn't have all my employees sign contracts or
something.
Hmm... it makes me wonder about something.
It's a good phrase to know.
Well, Uncle Bob says: Contracts don't keep employees from leaving, Ben.
And if you aren't careful, they can cause a lot of resentment.
They certainly can cause a lot of resentment.
And that is a word from our Word Bank.
Resentment is a very unhappy feeling that occurs when you feel like someone has
done something wrong to you or that you haven't been treated fairly.
That's right.
So you might start to resent that person.
That's the verb form.
What do you resent, or what causes resentment in your life?
Or my life - what causes resentment is when I don't know how to say no up front
right away when I need to.
It's important to know how to say no to people.
Because if you just say "OK, yeah, sure. Do whatever you want," then later you
will start to feel resentment towards people...
because you didn't know how to say no in the first place.
That's right.
So having employees sign contracts can cause some resentment.
Maybe they feel like you don't trust them as an employee.
And Ben continues.
I can see that.
But if contacts don't keep employees from leaving, why do so many companies use
them?
That's a very good question, Ben.
Lots of companies, of course, use contracts.
You have to sign one as soon as you enter the workplace.
Well, Uncle Bob says: One reason is that contracts can help keep your employees
from leaving to work for your competitors.
So of course if you need to leave, that's OK, but you might go and work for a
competitor.
What is a competitor, Carolyn?
Well, that is someone that you are competing against.
So Ben has his company that makes apps.
So if any of his employees decide to leave and work for another company that
makes apps, then they have gone to work for one of his competitors.
All right, so.
Did you have to sign a contract like this when you started working at your
company?
Well, what does Ben say here?
Well, he asks: How do they do that?
How do they do what?
Well, Uncle Bob says many contracts include a clause that prevents employees
from working for a competitor for a period of time.
OK. So there's something within the contract that says you can't work for a
competitor for a certain amount of time.
Let's take a look at this word from our Word Bank, this word "clause." Now
Carolyn, what is a clause?
Well, it's an official statement that is included in a legal document like a
contract that states something very clearly.
And it usually prevents you from doing something or requires you to do
something.
And so a contract might have all sorts of clauses, things uh, like rules.
They tell you what you can and cannot do, what you should expect about the
company or about working for the company.
Now this particular clause prevents employees from working for a competitor for
a period of time after you quit.
I know that a lot of companies are like this.
I know that Studio Classroom is also like this.
We had to sign that kind of contract.
That's right.
But maybe you had to sign a contract when you rented your house or your
apartment.
Maybe there was a clause that said no pets allowed.
You may not have any pets in this apartment.
I know many places that have that rule.
Well, I think it's time for us now to learn something new with Michelle in the
Language Lab.
(Chinese).
Well, it's time to go back to our teachers.
Well, in our conversation today, Ben and Uncle Bob have been talking about
Terry, one of Ben's best employees who is quitting.
He has to leave the job for some reason.
Uncle Bob did suggest that maybe Ben has a contract that he has his employees
sign.
Well, of course if you go to work at a company, you might have to sign a
contract.
But that's only one kind of contract.
Can you think of other kinds of contracts you might have to look at and sign in
life?
What other kinds of contracts are there?
Well, earlier I mentioned that if you want to rent a house or an apartment, you
need to sign a contract, some sort of a leasing agreement.
And if you get married, you are making a contact with another person that you
are going to be with them for the rest of your lives.
Well, that is a pretty serious and important contract.
Friends, what other kinds of contracts can you think about?
Talk about them in English.
And of course, we will see you next time to learn more with Ben and Uncle Bob
right here at Studio Classroom.