 Lesson 1. Essential Job Vocabulary Welcome to lesson 1 of the Business English Course, Essential Job Vocabulary. Let's begin by answering the question, Where do you work? This seems like a simple question, but there are many ways to answer it. I work at, I work in, I work for, or I work with. You're going to learn when to use each preposition. You can say, I work at, or for, and then the name of the company. For example, I work at Espresso English, or I work for Nike. You can also use for if you work directly for a famous person. For example, I work for Tom Cruise, I'm his Public Relations Manager. You can say, I work in a place. For example, I work in an office. I work in a school. I work in a factory. You can also say, I work in a city or country. I work in Paris. I work in France. You can say, I work in a department. For example, I work in the marketing department. I work in human resources. I work in sales. And you can say, I work in a general area or industry. For example, I work in finance. I work in medical research. I work in consulting. You can say, I work with, and then mention the things or people that are the objects of your day-to-day work. For example, I work with computers. I'm a teacher. I work with special needs children. If you want to add more details about your work, you can say, I'm responsible for, or I'm in charge of, or my job involves. For example, I'm responsible for updating the company website. I'm in charge of interviewing candidates for jobs. My job involves giving tours of the museum. Notice that after these phrases, we use the ing form of the verb. So let's review. I work at a company. I work for a company or a person. I work in a place, city, country, department, or general area or industry. And I work with people or things. In conversational English, the question, where do you work? Is commonly phrased as, what do you do? Or, what do you do for a living? You can answer with one of the I work phrases we just learned. Or you can say, I'm a, or an, and then your job title. For example, I'm a teacher. I'm an accountant. How do you answer this question if you don't have a job? You can say, I'm unemployed. Or, I'm between jobs at the moment. Here are some other reasons you might not have a job. I'm a student. I'm a stay-at-home mom or dad. If you work for yourself, you can say, I'm self-employed. If you have your own company, you can say, I own a small business. Or, more specifically, I own a restaurant. Or, I own a graphic design company. Describing your job. Do you like your job? Here are some different ways to talk about how you feel about your work. My job is interesting or exciting. I find my work very rewarding. This means it satisfies you and makes you feel good. The work is quite challenging. Challenging can be a way to say it's difficult, but with a positive connotation, you enjoy the difficulty. My job is tough, tiring, or demanding. These words mean it's difficult with a negative connotation, and it makes you tired. The work is rather dull, boring, or repetitive. Dull is another way to say boring, and repetitive means you do the same type of task multiple times. There's not much variation. Essential Employment Vocabulary When you are officially accepted into a new job at a company, you are hired by the company. For example, I was hired by an insurance company just two weeks after graduating from college. When you're hired, you become an employee of the company. The company becomes your employer. The other employees in the company are your colleagues or coworkers. The person above you who is responsible for your work is your boss or supervisor. You can work full-time, usually about 40 hours per week, or part-time, usually 15 to 25 hours per week. A small number of companies offer flex time, meaning the employee can set his or her own schedule. In some jobs, you work shifts, meaning the hours aren't the same every day. Instead, you work a specific block of hours that the manager schedules. If you work overtime, it means you work extra hours in addition to your normal schedule. We typically use the expression go to work for arriving at work and get off work for leaving work. For example, I go to work at 8.30 and I get off work at 5. Your commute is how long it takes you to arrive at work by car or public transportation. For example, I have a 20-minute commute. Some jobs allow you to work remotely. That means you can work from home or another place with an internet connection and to communicate with your coworkers by phone, email, and video conferencing. As an employee of the company, you earn a salary, money you receive regularly for your work. Don't make the mistake of saying, win a salary. The correct verb is earn. If you're good at your job, you might get a pay raise, or a raise, an increase in your salary. You could also get a promotion, an increase in importance and authority. At the end of the year, some companies give their employees a bonus, extra money for work well done. The opposite of hire is fire when your company forces you to leave your job. For example, Peter was fired because he never came to work on time. Usually if someone is fired, it's because they did something bad. If an employee loses his or her job because of a neutral reason, like the company reducing its size, then we say the employee was laid off. For example, Donna was laid off when her company started having financial problems. If you decide to leave your job, there are three verbs you can use. I'm going to quit my job. I'm going to leave my job. I'm going to resign. Quit is informal. Resign is formal, and leave can be formal or informal. When an old person decides to stop working, the verb for this is retire. In most countries, people retire around age 65. If you're older than that and you've stopped working, you can describe your current situation by saying, I'm retired. You've finished lesson one. Now you can take the vocabulary quiz to practice using these words and sentences. There's also a bonus quiz with extra vocabulary related to professions. Come back tomorrow for lesson two, interview English.