Types of job and types of work

Products

A products can be raw materials, something made to be sold and service. Every product can be sold on the market. The stages in the life of a product are product lifecycle. Each product has its own brand name. This brand name is a name of the company which made these products so they can be easily recognized. A brand name should have a clear brand identity so that people think of fit in a particular way in relation to other brands.

Price

The price reflects how much the product costs. The price is created according to offer and demand. The price includes the costs and profits. We have three types of prices - low prices, average prices and high prices. Low prices mean the companies are selling goods at cost. High price means buy only people with a lot of money. Between low and high price is mid price of goods that aren't cheap neither expensive. Each product in the store has price tag. Price tag is a label attached to the products and showing the price.

10. MARKETING - THE FOUR PS, PLACE, PROMOTION(21, 24, 25)

Marketing is the process of planning, designing, pricing, promoting and distributing ideas, goods and services, in order to satisfy customer needs, so as to make a profit.

The four Ps are a useful summary of the marketing mix, the activities that your have to combine successfully in order to sell. The four Ps are product, price, place and promotion. Product means a decision, price what to charge, place how it will be distributed and where people will buy it, promotion how the product will be supported with advertising, speciál activities, tec.

Place

A wholesaler or a shop selling a particular product, such as cars, is a dealer. A reseller sells computers. Wholesalers and retailers are distributors.

Shops

A shop (BrE) or store (AmE) is where people buy things. Companies may call it a retail outlet or sales outlet. Here are some types of shop:

• chain store: part of a group of shops, all with the same name.

• convenience store: small shop in a residential area and open long hours.

• deep discounter: a supermarket with very low prices.

• department store: very large shop with a wide variety of goods, usually in a town centre.

• drugstore: shop in a town centre in the US which sells medicines; you can also have coffee and meals there.

• hypermarket: very large shop with a wide variety of goods, usually outside a town.

• supermarket: very large shop, selling mainly food.

In Britain, a shopping centre or shopping precinct is a purpose-built area or building in a town centre with a number of shops. Outside towns, there are shopping malls, where it is easy to park.

Promotion

Promotion means advertising and promotional activities. Advertising can be:

§ classified advertisements,

§ open air hoardings,

§ neon signs

§ display advertisements

§ TV commercial,

§ Special display.

Promotion is all the activities supporting the sale of a product, including advertising. A promotion describes:

• a special offer such as a discount or reduced price.

• a free gift: given with the product.

• a free sample: a small amount of the product to try or taste.

• competitions with prizes.

Supermarkets and airlines give loyalty cards to customers: the more you spend, the more points you get, and you can exchange these points for free goods or flights. Cross-promotion is where you buy one product, and you are recommended to buy another product that may go with it.

15. BUYERS, SELLERS AND THE MARKET, MARKETS AND COMPETITORS(19, 20)

Buyers and sellers

A person or organization that buys something is buyer or purchaser. Buying managers or purchasing managers in a company are responsible for buying goods that the company uses or sells. A person or organization that sells something is a seller or sometimes a vendor. People selling things in the street are street vendors.

The market

The market, the free market and market economy describe an economic system where prices, jobs, wages, etc. are not controlled by the government, but depend on what people want to buy and how much they are willing to pay.

There are word combinations with 'market':

· market forces/pressuresare the way a market economy makes sellers produce what people want, at prices they are willing to pay,

· market placeis producers and buyers in a particular market economy, and the way they behave,

· market prices are prices that people are willing to pay. rather than ones fixed by a government,

· market reformsare changes a government makes to an economy, so that it becomes more like a market economy.

Companies and markets

Particular goods or services have their own markets for example 'car market', 'the market for financial services', etc.

If a company:

· enters or penetrates a marketit starts selling there for the first time,

· abandons leaves gets out of a marketit stops selling there,

· dominates a marketit is the most important company selling there,

· corners or monopolizes a marketit is the only company selling there,

· drives another company out of a marketit makes the other company leave the market, perhaps because it can no longer compete.

Competitors and competition

Companies or products in the same market are competitors or rivals. Competitors compete with each other to sell more, be more successful, etc.

The most important companies in a particular market are often referred to as key players.

Competition describes the activity of trying to sell more and be more successful. When competition is strong, you can say that it is intense, stiff, fierce or tough. If not, it may be described as low-key.

The competition refers to all the products, businesses, etc. competing in a particular situation, seen as a group.

4. TIME AND TIME MANAGEMENT, STRESS AND STRESS MANAGEMENT(42, 43)

The timescaleor timeframe is the overall period during which something should happen or be completed.

The lead time is the period of time it takes to prepare and complete or deliver something. The times or dates when things should happen is a schedule or timetable.

If work is completed at the planned time, it's on schedule, completion before the planned time is ahead of schedule and later is behind schedule. If it happens later than planned it's delayed, there is a delay. If you then try to go faster, you try to make up time. But things always take longer than planned.

Stressis what we feel as a result of how we experience ourselves, others and our external environments. There can be positive and negative stress. Positive stress help us to solve problems in our life and work. Negative stress can result frustration or even burnout. Stress can be effectively recognized and managed. Choosing to live and work in a less sterssful way is downshifting or rebalancing.

9. WRONGDOING AND CORRUPTION, ETHICS(40, 41)

Insider dealing or insider trading:someone buys or sells securities using information that is not publicly available. Chinese wallsare measures that you can take to stop knowledge in one department of your company being illegally used by another department, to buy or sell shares for example.

Price fixing:a group of companies in the same market secretly agree to fix prices at a certain level, so they do not have to compete with each other.

Market rigging:a group of investors work together to stop a financial market functioning as it should, to gain an advantage for themselves.

Bribery and corruption

An illegal payment to persuade someone to do something is a bribe. The fraud is When someone offers to lend money but the borrower pays a fee before he gets the loan. Embezzlement is a type of fraud where someone illegally gets money from their employer. Money laundering means hiding the illegal origin of money, is common – gangsters buy property with money from drugs.

Code of ethics

Ethics are moral beliefs about what is right and wrong, and the study of this. Some actions are not criminal, but they are morally wrong: unethical. Areas where choices have to be made about right and wrong behaviour are ethical issues. Some organizations have a code of ethics or code of conduct where they say what their managers' and employees' behaviour should be, to try to prevent them behaving unethically.

Ethical investment

Investors are more and more concerned about where their money is invested. We take ethical investment very seriously. We don't invest, for example, in arms companies or tobacco firms. Environmental or green issues are also very important.

18. TRADING, INDICATORS(37-39)

Finance and economics

Finance is:

• money provided or lent for a particular purpose.

• the management of money by countries, organizations or people.

• the study of money management.

High finance involves large amounts of money used by governments and large companies. A person's or organization's finances are the money they have and how it is managed, etc. The related adjective is financial.

Economics is:

• the study of how money works and is used.

• calculations of whether a particular activity will be profitable.

Related adjectives: a profitable activity is economic; an unprofitable one is uneconomic. If something is economical, it is cheap to buy, to use or to do. If not, it is uneconomical.

Economic indicators(Inflation and unemployment, trade, Growth and GDP) are figures showing how well a country's economy (economic system) is working.

Inflationis rising prices, and the rate at which they are rising is the inflation rate. The related adjective is inflationary.

The unemployedare people without jobs in a particular area, country, etc. The level of unemployment is the number of people without a job. Unemployed people are out of work, and are also referred to as jobless (adj.) or the jobless.

Trade- The balance of payments is the difference between the money coming into a country and that going out. The trade balance is the difference between payments for imports (goods and services from abroad) and payments for exports (products and services sold abroad). When a country exports more than it imports, it has a trade surplus. When the opposite is the case, it has a trade deficit. The amount of this surplus or deficit is the trade gap.

Economic output is the value of goods and services produced in a country or area. Gross domestic product or GDPis the value of all the goods and services produced in a particular country. The size of an economy is also sometimes measured in terms of gross national product or GNP.This also includes payments from abroad, for example, from investments. Growthis when output in the economy increases. The growth rate is the speed at which a company's economy grows and gets bigger

Booms and bust

Demand is the amount of goods and services that people want in a particular period.

A boom is when there is rising demand, and other indicators are strong.

Stagnation is when the economy is growing slowly, or not at all.

Stagflation is when slow growth is combined with prices that are increasing fast.

Recession is a period when there is negative growth, a period when the economy is producing less. A slump is a very bad recession. A depression is a very bad slump.

Market indexes

If there is demand for shares in a company, for example because it is doing well, its share price goes up. If not, its price goes down. The overall value of shares traded on a stock market is shown by an index.

19. SHARE CAPITAL AND DEBT, SUCCESS AND FAILURE, MERGERS, TAKEOVERS AND SELL-OFFS (32 34)

Capital

Capital is the money that a company uses to operate and develop. There are two main ways in which a company can raise capital, that is find the money it needs: it can use share capital or loan capital, from investors.

Share capital

Share capital is contributed by shareholders who put up money and hold shares in the company. Each share represents ownership of a small proportion of the company. Shareholders receive periodic payments called dividends, usually based on the company's profit during the relevant period. Capital in the form of shares is also called equity.

Loan capital (debt)

Investors can also lend money, but then they do not own a small part of the company. This is loan capital, and an investor or a financial institution lending money in this way is a lender. The company borrowing it is the borrower and may refer to the money as borrowing or debt. The total amount of debt that a company has is its indebtedness. The sum of money borrowed is the principal. The company has to pay interest, a percentage of the principal, to the borrower, whether it has made a profit in the relevant period or not.

Succes

A successful company - over the years, it has distributed some profits or earnings to shareholders, but it has also kept profits in the form of retained earnings and built up its cash reserves; it is sitting on a cash pile or cash mountain. These reserves may be used for investment or to make acquisitions: to buy other companies.

Debt and debt problems

Here are some expressions that can be used to talk about a company's debts, or a country's foreign debts:

Failure

Failure is for example bankruptcy. If a company is in serious financial difficulty, it has to take certain legal steps. In the US, it may ask a court to give it time to reorganize by filing for bankruptcy protection from creditors, the people it owes money to. In Britain, a company that is insolvent, i.e. unable to pay its debts, may go into administration, under the management of an outside specialist called an administrator.

Takeovers

In business, a takeover is the purchase of one company (the target) by another (the acquirer, or bidder). In the UK, the term refers to the acquisition of a public company whose shares are listed on a stock exchange, in contrast to the acquisition of a private company.

12. THE BALANCE SHEET, THE BOTTOM LINE(30,31)

An assetis something that has value, or the power to earn money. These include:

• current assets: money in the bank, investments that can easily be turned into money, money that customers owe, stocks of goods that are going to be sold.

• fixed assets: equipment, machinery, buildings and land.

• intangible assets: things which you cannot see. For example, goodwill: a company's good reputation with existing customers, and brands (See Unit 22): established brands have the power to earn money.

If a company is sold as a going concern, it has value as a profit-making operation, or

The value of an asset at any one time is its book value. This isn't necessarily the amount that it could be sold for at that time. For example, land or buildings may be worth more than shown in the accounts, because they have increased in value. But computers could only be sold for less than book value.'

Liabilities

Liabilities are a company’s debts to suppliers, lenders, the tax authorities, etc. Debts that have to be paid within a year are current liabilities, and those payable in more that a year are long-term liabilities, for example bank loans.

Balance sheet

A company's balance sheet gives a picture of its assets and liabilities at the end of a particular period, usually the 12-month period of its financial year. This is not necessarily January to December.

The company’s annual report contains, among other things, a profit and loss account. A company’s gross profit is before charges are taken away, its net profit is afterwards. The final figure for profit or loss is informally the bottom line. If a company is making a loss, may say that it is in the red.

5. SALES AND COSTS, PROFITABILITY AND UNPROFITABILITY, GETTING PAID(27-29)

Salesdescribes what a business sells and the money it receives for it. money received from sales = turnover money from sale = revenue

Here are some more uses of the word 'sale':

a.make a sale: sell something

b.be on sale: be available to buy

c.unit sales: the number of things sold

d.Sales: a company department

e.a sale: a period when a shop is charging less than usual for goods

f.The sales: a period when a lot of shops are having a sale

Costs

The money that a business spends is its costs:

• direct costs are directly related to providing the product (e.g. salaries).

• fixed costs do not change when production goes up or down (e.g. rent, heating, etc.).

• variable costs change when production goes up or down (e.g. materials).

• cost of goods sold (COGS): the variable costs in making particular goods(e.g. materials and salaries).

• indirect costs, overhead costs or overheads are not directly related to production

• (e.g. adminstration).

Some costs, especially indirect ones, are also called expenses.

Costing is the activity of calculating costs. Amounts calculated for particular things are costings.

When we tolk about profitable and unprofitable products, we talk about costs and prices. When the product is profitable we make a profit. The opposite is a loss. When we make neither a profit nor a loss we break even.

Shipping and billing

When you ask to buy something, you order it, or place an order for it. When the goods are ready, they are dispatched or shipped to you.

An invoice is a document asking for payment and showing the amount to pay.The activity of producing and sending invoices is invoicing or billing.

Trade credit

Trade credit is a period of time before customers have to pay, usually 30 or 60 days. Discount is a reduction in the amount they have to pay.

11. ORGANIZATIONS, E-COMMERCE(11,12,26)

Business is the aktivity of producing, buying and selling goods and services. Businesses vary in size, from the self-employed person working alone, through the small or medium enterprise (SME) to the large multinational with activities in several countries.

Commerce is used to refer to business:

· in relation to other fields: 'literature, politics and commerce'.

· in relation to government departments that deal with business: the

US Department of Commerce.

· in the names of organizations which help business: chambers of commerce.

· on the Internet: electronic commerce or e-commerce.

Enterprise is used in a positive way to talk about business, emphasizing the use of money to take risks.

· free private enterprise is business activity owned by individuals, rather than the state,

· enterprise culture is an atmosphere which encourages people to make money through their own activities and not rely on the government,

· enterprise economy is an economy where there is an enterprise culture,

· enterprise zone is part of a country where business is encouraged because there are fewer laws, lower taxes, etc.

A freelancer are people how work for themselves.

“Ltd” means limited company. The other shareholders and I have limited liability. “PLC” means public limited company, so anybody can buy and sell shares. “Inc” stands for Incorporated a corporation, a term used especially in the US for companies with limited liability.

Organizations with “social” aims such as helping those who are sick or poor, or encouraging artistic activity, are non-profit organizations. They are also called charities.

An e-commerceoperation is selling goods over the Internet. Visitors don´t have trouble finding what they want, adding items to their shopping cart and paying for them securely by credit card. From an online store the goods are delivered to customer’s house.

8.WORK AND JOBS, WAYS OF WORKING, PAY AND BENEFITS(1,2,3)

Types of job and types of work

A full-time job is for the whole of the normal working week; a part-time job is for less time than that.

You say that someone works full-time or part-time.

A permanent job does not finish after a fixed period; a temporary job finishes after a fixed period. You talk about temporary work and permanent work.

Nine-to-five job with regular working hours. There's also a system of which means we can work when we want, within certain limits. Shifts may be on the day and night. Working from home using a computer and the Internet is becoming more and more popular.

Salary is paid every mounth. Wages are paid every week. We can get perks, for example free meals. We can get a basic salary, plus commission: e percentage on everything we sell.

For good results in a year we can get extra money a bonus. Fringe benefits are a company car, payments for our pensions etc. Compensation and remuneration are formal words used to talk about pay and benefits, especially those of senior managers.

6. THE DEVELOPMENT PROCESS, MARKETING(BVIU-INT 14, 21)

Market research is finding out what people want. This may involve questionnaires or surveys, with questions about what people buy and why, perharps with interview in the street or by phone. There may by consumer panels and focus groups. Sales forecasts, estimates of how many products will be sold.

Rollout is the process of making a product available, perhaps in particular places, to test reaction.

Product launch is the moment when the product is officially made available for sale.

Marketing is the process of planning, designing, pricing, promoting and distributing ideas, goods and services, in order to satisfy customer needs, so as to make a profit.

2. RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION, SKILLS AND QUALIFICATIONS(3,4)

Recruitment- the process of finding people for particular jobs is recruitment. Someone who has been recruited is a recruit. A company may recruit employees directly or use outside recruiters, recruitment agencies or employment agencies. Outside specialists are called headhunters.

An applicant applied for the job by completing an application form. His CV (curriculum vitae – the „story“ of his working life) and a covering letter explaining why he wanted the job and why he was the right person for it.

Selection process is the methods that the company uses to recruit people. The company look at the backgrounds of applicants. Thein experience of different jobs and their educational qualifications. The company reference by writing to their referees.

1. MANUFACTURING AND SERVICES, MAKING THINGS, MATERIALS AND SUPPLIERS(13,16,17)

Industry is the production of materials and goods. An industry is a particular type of business activity, not necessarily production.

Some of the manufacturing industries that make up the manufacturing sector are:

Some of the services or service industries that make up the service sector are:

Products are made either in manufacturing plants or in workshops. Mass production concerns manufacturing plants. Products from workshops can be made for individual customers.

Inputs include raw materials, labour, parts and knowledge. Quantities of raw materials, components, work-in-progress and finished goods in a particular place are stocks. Produsers receives materials and components from its suppliers or partners. Out sourcing is using outside suppliers to provide components and services.

17. LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT STYLES, BUSINESS ACROSS CULTURES(44-46)

The greatest leaders have charisma, an attractive quality that makes other people Leadership admire them and want to follow them.

A leader may be described as a visionary, someone with the power to see clearly how things are going to be in the future. People often say leaders have drive, dynamism and energy.

Leaders were distant and remote, not easy to get to know or communicate with. Today, managers are more open and approachable: you can talk to them easily. There is more management by consensus, where decisions are not imposed from above in a top-down approach, but arrived at by asking employees to contribute in a process of consultation.

Encouraging employees to use their own initiative, to take decisions on their own without asking managers first, is empowerment. Decision-making becomes more decentralized and less bureaucratic, less dependent on managers and systems. This is often necessary where the number of management levels is reduced.

To empower employees, managers need the ability to delegate, to give other people responsibility for work rather than doing it all themselves. Of course, with empowerment and delegation, the problem is keeping control of your operations: a key issue of modern management.

Culture is the "way we do things here". "Here" may be a country, an area, a social class or an organization such as a company or school. You often talk about:

■ company or corporate culture: the way a particular company works, and the things it believes are important.

■ canteen culture: the ways that people in an organization such as the police think and talk, not approved by the leaders of the organization.

■ long-hours culture: where people are expected to work for a long time each day.

■ macho culture: ideas typically associated with men: physical strength, aggressiveness, etc.

Distance between managers and the people who work under them varies in different cultures. Some companies are not very hierarchical, with only three management layers. Deference and distance may be shown in language. Some languages have many forms of address that you use to indicate how familiar you are with someone. English only has one form, 'you', but distance may be shown in other ways, for example, in whether first names or surnames are used.

16. PEOPLE AND WORKPLACES, BUSINESS PEOPLE AND BUSINESS LEADERS(6,9,10)

The people who work for a company, all the people on its payroll, are its employees, personnel, staff, workers or workforce.

Labore unions, organizations defending the interests of workers are called trade unions in BrE.

An executive is usually a manager at quite a high level. All the directors together are the board. The marketing director is the head of marketing, the IT director is the head of IT, etc. These people head or head up their departments. Informally, the head of an activity, a department or an organization is its boss.

Non-executive directors are not managers of the company; they are outsiders, often directors of other companies who have particular knowledge of the industry or of particular areas.

A businessman, businesswoman or businessperson is someone who works in their own business or as a manager in an organization.

An entrepreneur is someone who starts or founds or establishes their own company. Someone who starts a company is its founder. An entrepreneur may found a series of companies or start-ups. Entrepreneurial is used in a positive way to describe the risk-taking people who do this, and their activities. Some entrepreneurs leave the companies they found, perhaps going on to found more companies. Others may stay to develop and grow their businesses.

A large company mainly owned by one person or family is a business empire. People in charge of big business empires may be referred to, especially by journalists, as magnates, moguls or tycoons.

14. PERSONAL FINANCE, FINANCIAL CENTRES(35,36)

Personal finance is the money available to a person or a family, for example salery, wage, savinges atc.

Most people have a current account for writing cheques, paying by debit card and paying bills. They can also have a deposit account or savings account for keeping money longer term. This account pays them interest. Banks also offer Internet banking and telephon banking. You can have some unit trusts, shares in investment companies that put money from small investors into different companies. Many people have a mortgage, a loan to buy their house. You can also pay contributions into a private pension, which will give you a regular income when you stop working.

Financial centres are places where there are many banks and other financial institutions. London as a financial centre is called the City or the Square Mile, and New York is Wall Street.

Financial centres bring together investors and the businesses that need their investment. A speculator is an investor who wants to make a quick profit, rather than invest over a longer period of time.

Brokers, dealers and traders buy and sell for investors and in some cases, for themselves or the organizations they work for.

Other financial products include:

■ commercial paper is short-term lending to businesses,

■ bonds are longer-term lending to businesses and the government,

■ currencies (foreign exchange or forex) are buying and selling the money of particular countries,

■ commodities are metals and farm products.

A futures contract is an agreement giving an obligation to sell a fixed amount of a security or commodity at a particular price on a particular future date.

An options contract is an agreement giving the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell a security or commodity at a particular price at a particular future time, or in a period of future time.

These contracts are derivatives.

13. INNOVATION AND INVENTION, THE DEVELOPMENT PROCESS(15,14)

Invention is designing and making something for the first time. Innovation is thinking of new ideas, methods, products, etc. Design is making plans or drawings for how something is to be made. Development is making a new idea successful, for example by making or improvinga product. Technology is using scientific knowledge for practical purposes.

Information or knowledge that belongs to an individual or company is proprietary. A product developed using such information may be protected in law by patents so that others cannot copy its design.

Other companies may pay to use the design under licence in their own products. These payments are royalties.

In publishing, if a text, picture, etc. is copyright, it cannot be used by others without permission. Payments to the author from the publisher are royalties.

The area of law relating to patents and copyright is intellectual property.

The original concept is the basic idea for something.

Market research is finding out what people want. This may involve questionnaires or surveys, with questions about what people buy and why, perhaps with interviews in the street or by telephone.

There may be consumer panels and focus groups, where ordinary people meet to discuss product ideas informally. The researchers will make sales forecasts, estimates of how many products will be sold.

Rollout is the process of making a product available, perhaps in particular places, to test reaction.

Product launch is the moment when the product is officially made available for sale.

7. GLOBAL ISSUES(IE – ethical business, fair trade, environment)

Business ethics is a behavior that all businesses should stick to. The Society for Business Ethics is a global institute that deals with business ethics and application of moral principles. It was formed in 1980.

Labor related issues like gender discrimination at workplace, employee harassment, minority community participation, working conditions, and child labor are also some general ethical issues. We could include: manipulating people emotionally, creation of false documents to show increased profits, lack of transparency, harming the environment, sexual discrimination etc.

Fairtrade – Guarantees a better deal for Third World producers. One of the most important aspects of Fair Trade is this: funds are specifically designated for social, economic and environmental development projects.

Simply buying a Fairtrade product can help a village get clean water or children to go to school. Four and a half million farmers and their families, in 36 countries, benefit from Fairtrade.

The Fairtrade Foundation permits companies whose products meet the international standards of Fairtrade to put the name “Fairtrade” on their products. These products include coffee, tea, cocoa, and fresh fruit. Under the Fairtrade system the producers receive a fair price which includes extra money, called a “social premium”, to help them improve their living and working conditions. Fairtrade gives them advance payments to help with production costs and long-term contracts so they can plan for the future.

In general, global trade has made people in the rich developed countries richer and people in the poor developing countries poorer.

Environmental issues are harmful aspects of human activity on the biophysical environment.

It may include climate change, pollution, environmental degradation, and resource depletion etc. The conservation movement lobbies for protection of endangered species and protection of any ecologically valuable natural areas.

Environmental issues are addressed at a regional, nation or international level by government organizations. An environmental organization is an organization that seeks to protect, analyze or monitor the environment against misuse or degradation from human forces. Some of the environmental issues that are of interest to environmental organizations are pollution, waste, resource depletion and increasingly on climate change.

The largest international agency, set up in 1972, is the United Nations Environment Programme. Governments enact environmental policy and enforce environmental law and this is done to differing degrees around the world…

Concerns for the environment has prompted the formation of Green parties, political parties that seek to address environmental issues. Initially these formed in Australia, New Zealand and Germany but are now present in many other countries.

20. PEOPLE AND WORKPLACES, THE CAREER LADDER, PROBLEMS AT WORK(6-9)

The people who work for a company, all the people on its payroll, are its employees. But these words can mean just the people carrying out the work of a company, rather than those leading it and organizing it: the management. We can divide them into white and blue collar workers, and management.

Labor unions are organizations defending the interests of workers are called trade unions in BrE.

When workers are not happy with pay or conditions, they may take industrial action:

• a strike: workers stop working for a time.

• a go-slow: workers continue to work, but more slowly than usual.

• an overtime ban: workers refuse to work more than the normal number of hours.

Many people used to work for the same organization until they reached retirement: the age at which people retire, or end their working life. Career paths were clear: you could work your way up the career ladder, getting promoted: moved to a less senior job.

Problem at works are health, safety, bullying and harassment, discrimination etc.

If someone such as a manager bullies an employee, they use their position of power to hurt or threaten them, for example verbally. Someone who does this is a bully. Sexual harassment is when an employee behaves sexually towards another in a way that they find unwelcome and unacceptable.

If people are treated differently from others in an unfair way, they are discriminated against.

If a woman is unfairly treated just because she is a woman, she is a victim of sex discrimination. In many organizations, women complain about the glass ceiling that allows them to get to a particular level but no further.

If someone is treated unfairly because of their race, they are a victim of racial discrimination or racism. Offensive remarks about someone's race are racist and the person making them is a racist.