Work — B1 Vocabulary

B1 VOCABULARY · WORK

Three Mondays

PICTURE

(you add this)

"He says it's not work if nobody can fire you."

Job verb phrases · *sacked / redundant / resign / retire* · *job* vs *work* · jobs from nouns (*-er, -or, -ian, -ist*)

Reading

Speaking

LEAD-IN

The banned question

"What do you do?" is banned.

1. In pairs, find out about each other's work or studies without either of you using the words job or work.

2. How far did you get before one of you slipped?

3. Which other words turned out to be almost impossible to avoid?

PICTURE

(you add this)

VOCABULARY · B1 & B2

The life of a job — order it, then sort it.

1. Put into a plausible career order (there is room for argument):

• apply for a job

• retire

• get promoted

• do a training course

• resign

• be made redundant

• set up a business

• do overtime

2. Who chose?

Sort into the worker decided / the company decided:

be sacked (fired)

resign (quit)

be made redundant

retire

3. What's the difference between sacked and redundant — whose fault is it, if anyone's?

4. Job or work?

________ is countable ( a ________ , several ________s ); ________ is uncountable ( I'm looking for ________ — no article, no plural ).

Correct the classic error: I found a work.

VOCABULARY · B4

People from jobs: add the ending — *-er, -or, -ian, -ist*.

Two of them also change their spelling slightly. Which?

science → ________

law → ________

music → ________

pharmacy → ________

farm → ________

translate → ________

BEFORE YOU READ

Three Mondays

Three people, three very different changes to their working lives.

READ ONCE AND ANSWER

PICTURE

1. Which of the three did NOT choose their big change?

2. Who seems happiest now?

(you add this)

READING

Three Mondays: how work changes in one lifetime

Farid, 44 — "The email arrived at 9.06."

"I worked for the same logistics company for nineteen years. Warehouse floor, then team leader, then — after a management training course I paid for myself — I got promoted to operations manager. I was proud of that. Then last March the company was bought, and forty of us were made redundant by email. Not sacked — nobody had done anything wrong, they simply didn't need us. It's strange: being fired would almost have been easier. At least it would have been about me. For two months I was unemployed and invisible. Then my old supplier called: 'You know everyone in this industry. Why are you applying for jobs instead of taking mine?' I'm self-employed now, a consultant. I earn less than before and worry more. But nobody can send me that email twice."

READING (continued)

Three Mondays: how work changes in one lifetime

Olive, 31 — "I resigned with nothing planned. Everyone said don't."

"I was a well-qualified corporate translator — permanent contract, good salary, five years in. I resigned anyway, with no job to go to, which every sensible person tells you never to do, and they're right, and I'd do it again. The work wasn't bad; it was beige. I did a nine-month pastry course — me, back at school at thirty, in my first year of anything — and now I do shifts in a bakery from 4 a.m. and run cake workshops at weekends. Part-time money, full-time life. My old colleagues ask, very kindly, when I'm coming back. My hands smell of butter and I'm in charge of nothing but ovens. I'm not coming back."

READING (continued)

Three Mondays: how work changes in one lifetime

Henrik's father, 67 — "They gave me a clock. I gave them forty-one years." (as told by Henrik)

"Dad retired in June — forty-one years as an electrician, the last twenty running his own two-man business. At the party they gave him a clock, which he found hilarious: 'Now I have time, and a machine to watch it with.' We worried about him — men like Dad don't stop well. For a month he reorganised the garage into museum condition. Then the neighbours discovered a retired electrician lives on the street, and now he's fully booked until autumn, refuses all payment, and is paid entirely in dinners, plants and gossip. Mum says he's doing more overtime than before. He says it's not work if nobody can fire you."

COMPREHENSION

Farid (F), Olive (O), or Henrik's father (H)?

1. Left a permanent job voluntarily, against all advice. ______

2. Lost a job through no personal fault. ______

3. Ran a small business for two decades. ______

4. Paid for their own training in order to get promoted. ______

5. Now works very early mornings. ______

6. Now works constantly, for free, and calls it not-work. ______

LANGUAGE FOCUS

Find, complete and build.

1. Find in the text: two ways to lose a job ( be made ________ · be ________ ), two ways to leave by choice ( ________ · ________ ), and the phrase for starting your own company ( ________ ________ a business ). Which pair is closest in meaning: sacked/fired or sacked/redundant?

2. Adjectives: without a job = ________ · working for yourself = ________ · with strong qualifications = ________ · the opposite of permanent = ________ · the opposite of full-time = ________ .

3. Prepositions: work ________ a company (two options) · ________ charge ________ something · responsible ________ something · ________ my first year (of a course).

4. Word building: promote → ________ · apply → ________ · retire → ________ · resign → ________ · qualify → ________ · employ → ________ . Where is the stress in application, resignation, qualification?

PRACTICE · F1

Complete with the correct verb phrase in the correct form.

1. Nurses and factory workers often have to ________ shifts — days one week, nights the next.

2. She ________ for over forty jobs before she got an interview.

3. He ________ last month — the boss caught him selling office equipment online. Zero sympathy.

4. When the factory closed, three hundred people ________ redundant.

5. After the scandal, the minister ________ — jumped before he was pushed, they say.

6. My grandmother ________ at 60 and immediately became busier than ever.

7. Everyone in the department has to ________ a training course on the new software.

8. They ________ a business selling plants online. From their kitchen. It works.

9. I ________ so much overtime this month that the office chair has my shape.

10. After five years, she finally ________ promoted — new title, corner desk, same salary. Hm.

PRACTICE · F2

Circle the correct option.

1. I'm looking for work / a work, ideally a job / a work in design.

2. He's unemployed / self-employed — he runs his own plumbing business.

3. It's only a temporary / part-time contract — six months, but full-time hours.

4. She's in charge for / in charge of the whole night shift.

5. I'm responsible of / for customer accounts.

6. My daughter's at / in university, in / at her third year.

7. He works for / at a German company but works from / in home on Fridays.

8. You're very well qualified / employed for this role — when can you start?

SPEAKING

The career interview

Interview your partner about their real — or invented — career story so far, and their imagined future.

• Have you ever done shifts or overtime? Would you ever set up a business? What would make you resign on the spot? When do you want to retire — and will you actually stop, or become Henrik's father?

• Use at least eight target items between you.

• Introduce your partner's most surprising answer to the class.

• Alternative: write a fantasy resignation letter — five lines, formal tone, at least one built noun, and one dignified final sentence.

PICTURE

(you add this)

TEACHER'S REFERENCE · HIDE OR DELETE BEFORE CLASS

Answer key

B1 One defensible order: apply for a job → do a training course → do overtime → get promoted → (be made redundant / resign) → set up a business → retire. Argue freely.

B2 The worker decided: resign (quit), retire · The company decided: be sacked (fired), be made redundant. Sacked = your fault (misconduct or performance); redundant = the company no longer needs the position — not a personal fault.

B3 job is countable (a job, several jobs); work is uncountable (I'm looking for work). Correction: I found a job / I found work.

B4 scientist · lawyer · musician · pharmacist · farmer · translator

GIST Farid did not choose — he was made redundant. Happiest: a strong case for Henrik's father, though Olive glows too. Class discussion.

COMPREHENSION 1 O · 2 F · 3 H · 4 F · 5 O · 6 H

LANGUAGE FOCUS 1 be made redundant · be sacked/fired; resign · quit (retire also leaves by choice); set up a business. Closest pair: sacked / fired. 2 unemployed · self-employed · well-qualified · temporary · part-time. 3 work in/for · in charge of · responsible for · in my first year. 4 promotion · application · retirement · resignation · qualification · employment — stress falls before -ation: applicAtion, resignAtion, qualificAtion.

F1 1 do · 2 applied · 3 was sacked (fired) · 4 were made · 5 resigned · 6 retired · 7 do · 8 set up · 9 have done (did) · 10 got

F2 1 work / a job · 2 self-employed · 3 temporary · 4 in charge of · 5 for · 6 at / in · 7 for / from · 8 qualified

HOMEWORK Write "Three Mondays" about your own life in one paragraph (100–130 words): a past role, your current one, and an imagined future one — with at least twelve target items.