节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2013-08-26
难易度:High
关键字:requisite, chronically, dubious, terminate, ground
Hello, and welcome to Studio Classroom.
My name is Gabe.
And my name is Carolyn.
And you're joining us for a lesson called Managing Difficult Workers.
All right. We're going to be looking more at that word "difficult" in our
lesson.
But sometimes it's true, sometimes it's hard to work with other people.
Sometimes their behavior makes it difficult to work with them.
What kinds of behavior make it difficult to work with the people that you know?
Carolyn?
Well, there are a lot of different things.
Maybe they always have a bad attitude.
It doesn't matter what happens, it's always something bad or negative.
And they just look at the glass half-empty instead of half-full.
OK, that could be one problem.
I can think of another problem.
Maybe some people just think they know all of the answers, and they don't listen
to anything that anybody else says.
And so it's really hard to communicate with them or to present your ideas.
It can be difficult working with those kinds of people.
Well, there are many different kinds of behavior that make it difficult to work
with people.
Right now we're getting started in our lesson Managing Difficult Workers.
(Music).
Managing Difficult Workers.
Dealing with difficult workers can be... difficult.
Hi, Uncle Bob.
Can I ask your opinion on something?
Sure. My door is always open.
You know I hired a few employees last month, right?
Yes, I remember.
How are they working out?
In two cases just fine - better than fine, actually.
Terry and Angela are great.
But...
Well, in Ralph's case... things aren't so good.
What's the problem?
He definitely has the requisite skills.
In fact, he's quite talented.
But I'm having a problem with his attitude.
I see.
For starters, he calls at the last minute to say he can't come in.
Then when he does come in, he's chronically late.
(Music).
Well, it does sound like there is a little bit of a problem with one of the
employees.
But let's go up to the beginning of the lesson: Dealing with difficult workers
can be... difficult.
Now this is a lesson on how to deal with difficult workers.
And it's interesting to see a person being described as difficult.
So let's take a look at that word for a minute.
Gabe, what does it mean if a person is difficult?
Well, this basically means that they are difficult to work with or difficult to
be around.
It's true, usually we think of a situation as being difficult, like maybe your
homework is difficult.
But you can use this word to describe people as well, those who are just hard to
be around, difficult to be around.
That's right.
Well, continuing on:
Last month Ben hired new employees for his company.
So yes, if you remember from our lesson last month, Ben was going to hire some
employees because he needed some help with his business.
Now how do we continue, Gabe?
All right.
Well, this month he needs advice on dealing with employee problems.
So, he hired somebody.
But every time you hire somebody, you're not sure how it's going to work out.
Sure enough, there are problems with his new employees.
That's right.
And Uncle Bob had warned him that he would be facing some new challenges if he
desired to bring on new people into his company.
Well, let's start our conversation.
Would you like to be Ben or Uncle Bob?
Can I be Uncle Bob today?
Um... oh, OK. Sure. That means I will be Ben.
So I get to start.
Hi, Uncle Bob.
Can I ask your opinion on something?
A great question, great question there, Ben, asking someone's opinion on
something.
That means you're just asking for their opinion.
You can... you can ask the same question: Can I ask your opinion on something,
or opinion "about" something?
Great. OK.
Here's Uncle Bob.
Oh, sure. My door is always open.
Oh. Wow, your door is always open?
Yeah.
Um, that's kind of an interesting phrase.
Really? You left your door open all the time?
No, no, no.
No, no, no, no, Carolyn.
No? No?
You know what, I think... I think that Steve and Ken should probably help
explain this phrase in the Information Cloud.
Sounds like a good idea.
Let's do that now.
Hi, friends.
You must be wondering, why is Uncle Bob's door always open?
I mean, Ken, why doesn't he just shut it?
Well, I'm sure he shuts it sometimes.
But "my door is always open" is actually an expression that means you should
feel free to go to a person to discuss any issues that may come up anytime
without hesitation.
Right.
You can imagine if the door of someone's office is always open, you can simply
walk right in and talk to the person inside anytime you feel like it.
And that's talking about the door being opened in a physical sense.
However, when used as an expression, "my door is always open" is idiomatic,
meaning I'm accessible.
You can always feel free to approach me and talk to me.
This expression is especially useful if you're a boss or a teacher.
You can say to either your employees or students, "My door is always open." It
basically means that you will always be there for them if they need you.
In the business world, we sometimes talk about an open-door policy,
which is a management style that encourages employees to ask questions, share
opinions or concerns with members of senior management.
Right.
An open-door policy promotes communication within businesses and helps
lower-level employees feel more comfortable about approaching their superiors.
(Chinese).
Well, thank you, guys.
I'm very glad to know that Uncle Bob did not actually leave his door open, that
he is just very happy and willing to talk to Ben at anytime.
Now I think I have the next line as Ben.
You know I hired a few employees last month, right?
Yes, I remember.
How are they working out?
I'd like to interrupt myself here.
How are they working out?
Well, you can ask this question.
If something is working out, that means it implies there's a result of some
kind.
So you made a decision, and of course there's a result or consequence.
You can find out what the consequences are by asking this question, "How is that
working out?" So how was that working out?
Oh, well. And yes, that does mean that what is happening now after you've made
that decision.
And talking about hiring employees:
In two cases just fine - better than fine, actually.
Terry and Angela are great.
But...
Ooh. Yes. You see that "but" there.
There is obviously something not quite right because only two of the employees
he hired are working out great.
That's right.
Of course, as we could see earlier, Ben was probably a little negative.
Uncle Bob could probably tell, he could sense it.
And then so Ben is sharing something positive here.
Two employees are great, but he's not finished yet.
That's why Uncle Bob says, "But..." So you can kind of do that too when you're
speaking with your friend.
Well, I will continue.
Mmhm.
Well, uh, in Ralph's case... things aren't so good.
Hmm, interesting.
In Ralph's case.
So we're seeing this word "case" here.
In two cases just fine.
But in a Ralph's case, things aren't so good.
So a case here means a situation.
In this situation, things aren't so fine.
Uncle Bob says: What's the problem?
He definitely has the requisite skills.
Ooh, that is a great word, the word "requisite." It is from our Word Bank.
It means that something is required in order to complete a task or a job.
All right.
So required, or they are the necessary skills.
You have the requisite skills for working at our company.
Please come and join us.
This reminds me of another word that I saw when I was in school, actually.
The word "prerequisite," P-R-E and then the word requisite.
That means you needed to already have completed something or already took...
taken some kind of class before you can take this class.
It's a prerequisite course.
That's right.
So you might have to take some prerequisite classes for upper-level math.
You need to make sure you have all of those requisite skills in math before you
can take advanced mathematics.
Well, continuing.
In fact, he's quite talented.
But I'm having a problem with his attitude.
I see.
So Uncle Bob understands.
But what does Ben say?
For starters, he calls at the last minute to say he can't come in.
Then when he does come in, he's chronically late.
OK. Let's look at that word from our Word Bank: chronically.
If you are chronically something, that means it happens a lot or frequently.
But unlike the word "frequently," chronically is usually a negative thing.
So of course, being late is not good.
If someone is chronically late, that means they're always late.
Well, we do not want to be chronically late, or late at all, for the Language
Lab, where Michelle is going to teach us something great.
Hi, everyone. I'm Michelle.