BEP 94 – Comunicazione: Risoluzione dei conflitti (1)

People do not always get along, so dealing with conflict is part of any job. And as often as not, work disagreements get resolved as much as in informal discussions in the hallway, as they do in the conference room. Così, in this two-part series on resolving conflict, we’ll be studying useful language for discussing and resolving disagreements.

We will be focusing not on major conflicts between companies or inside organizations, but rather on the everyday sort of disagreements that all of us have to deal with to be successful in our work.

Nell'ascolto, Elegant is a company that designs and manufactures bathroom fixturessinks, toilets, e così via. Ben has recently joined Elegant as a training specialist. When he started, he was promised that Elegant would hire someone to help him with his work-load, but instead he is still doing almost everything by himself. He was also promised the opportunity to do some course design, but instead his manager, Gerry, insists on closely supervising all of Ben’s work. Ben feels like he is working harder than anyone else in the office: He is always the last one to leave the department in the evening. But he doesn’t feel that his hard work is getting recognized.

Mentre ascolti, pay attention to the language that Gerry and Ben use to deal with this disagreement.

Domande sull'ascolto

1. Gerry says he wants to “sit down informally and thrash things out a little.”
2. What do you think this means? A strain is something that is tiring and, perhaps, irritating.
3. What does Gerry say is “getting to be kind of a strain?” What solution does Gerry propose?

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BEP 76 – Valutazioni delle prestazioni: Definendo gli obiettivi (2)

Questa è la seconda in due parti Pod di inglese commerciale lezione su performance appraisals. In the first lesson, we covered giving feedback. In questo Podcast ESL, we will discuss setting goals.

The American poet Carl Sandberg once said, “Nothing happens unless first we dream.To this we can add the words of time management expert Diana Scharf Hunt: “Goals are dreams with deadlines.

To reach our dreams, it’s necessary to set goals. Without goals, there is no change, no development, no success. This is just as true for an individual as it is for an organization. Ecco perchè, along with feedback, goal setting is a very important part of the appraisal process. So in this follow-up podcast on job appraisals, we’ll be focusing on strategies and expressions for setting goals during the appraisal interview. Much of the language we’ll be learning in this lesson is also useful in any meeting where we need to discuss and set targets.

Wendy and Derrick, Wendy’s manager, have already discussed her progress and set goals for the areas of customer satisfaction and job training. As the listening continues, they turn to talking about two important productivity measurements.

Pay attention to the language Derrick uses to structure the conversation and to negotiate and agree goals with Wendy.

Domande sull'ascolto

1) What are the two important productivity measurements that Derrick discusses with Wendy?
2) How does Derrick feel about Wendy making one-off (questo è, special) solutions for each customer?
3) What does Derrick advise Wendy to tell a customer who has not booked enough bandwidth?

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BEP 75 – Valutazioni delle prestazioni: Dare feedback (1)

Valutazioni delle prestazioni – a volte chiamate valutazioni o revisioni delle prestazioni lavorative – sono un modo potente per sviluppare il potenziale del personale. Queste abilità sono importanti non solo per HR (Risorse umane) professionisti, ma per qualsiasi manager o supervisore che abbia responsabilità su altro personale.

Affinché le valutazioni delle prestazioni abbiano successo, però, è importante che siano condotte in modo strutturato. Inoltre, è importante che l'abilità e la diplomazia siano utilizzate per gestire i due compiti principali della valutazione – dare un feedback efficace e fissare gli obiettivi.

Quindi questa è la prima di una lezione podcast di inglese commerciale in due parti che si concentra sulla struttura, abilità e diplomazia nella valutazione delle prestazioni. In questo podcast, ci occuperemo di dare un feedback. Nel secondo, ci occuperemo della definizione degli obiettivi.

Questo episodio si concentra sul dare un feedback efficace che crea un ambiente positivo e costruisce la fiducia. Queste capacità di feedback sono utili non solo nella valutazione delle prestazioni, ma anche in qualsiasi situazione che richieda commenti critici a qualcuno sul proprio lavoro.

Wendy è una nuova assunta presso il call center di videoconferenza di ConStar. Lavora lì da circa 10 mesi, compresa la formazione, quindi ora è il momento della sua prima revisione semestrale del rendimento. Derrick, il responsabile della funzione operativa, darà a Wendy la sua valutazione.

Come un “coordinatore della videoconferenza” per ConStar, Il lavoro di Wendy richiede l'utilizzo di attrezzature speciali per impostare e collegare videoconferenze per Fortune 500 clienti. I clienti di ConStar tengono regolarmente riunioni remote tra più sedi in tutto il mondo. Il lavoro di Wendy è creare collegamenti tra le sedi e risolvere i problemi dei clienti quando chiamano l'help desk.

Che tipo di feedback darà Derrick a Wendy? È davvero intelligente, ma tende a scaldarsi sotto il colletto quando lavora sotto pressione. Questo significa, si arrabbia quando sente lo stress del lavoro. A volte perde la pazienza, ei suoi colleghi se ne sono lamentati.

Domande sull'ascolto

1) Quante riunioni sta gestendo Wendy al giorno in questo momento?
2) Qual è il problema principale su cui Derrick vuole fornire un feedback a Wendy?
3) Che consiglio dà Derrick a Wendy per aiutarla a correggere il problema?

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Notizie di affari 06 – offshoring

This Business English News podcast examines the topic of offshoring jobs. “offshoring” means to move part of a company’s operations (usually supporting functions such as finance or HR) to another countryliterallyoff shore.Another commonly used term related to this topic isoutsourcing” – this means to use a different company to handle some supporting tasks. The key difference is that outsourcing doesn’t necessarily mean the work is done in a different country.

The topic of offshoring, or outsourcing work overseas, is certainly a popular one these days, and many people in Western Europe and North America are quite concerned that this practice will lead to less job opportunities in their countries. Tuttavia, our story details a report from a well know management consultancy that concludes these concerns may be exaggerated oroverblown.

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Notizie di affari 04 – Stile di gestione

Our Business English news story today is about the changes in management style taking place around the world.

After you listen to the story, we’ll explain some of the new English vocabulary and provide further examples of how they can be used.

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