Thursday, March 26, 2020

(Grammar Unit 13) Modal verbs

Alan: Are we ready? Could you all 
stop talking, please?  

Erica: Shall I take minutes, Alan? 
Alan: Yes please, Erica. Now, 
management are extremely worried 
about the large number of people 
arriving late for work. They say that 
something must be done about it 
immediately. If not, they’ll need to 
start thinking about drastic measures. 
Anyway, as you may already have 
heard, the only proposal they could 
come up with so far was docking 
people’s pay for persistent lateness, 
which is what they introduced last 
month. 
Stan: Can I say something? They 
really shouldn’t have docked people’s 
pay just like that. They should 
have issued a written warning first. 
There are laws about disciplinary 
procedures, and they have to follow 
them. 
Alan: Yes, I agree, but they can’t have 
introduced a policy like that without 
getting legal advice. They must have 
found some loophole in the law. If 
they didn’t give written warning, it’ll be 
because they didn’t need to. 
Stan: But don’t you think that 
they ought to have tried to think of 
incentives that would encourage staff 
to come early, not penalize us for 
lateness? There are plenty of options 
I can think of. For example, the café 
could have reduced prices for coffee 
before 8.30! 
Alan: That might be popular! Anyway, 
that’s why we’re here today—to draw 
up some alternative proposals. 
Kristina: May I speak? It’s clear to me 
that they ought to introduce flexitime. 
If we were allowed to come in after 
8.30, there’d be a huge decrease in 
lateness—especially among mothers 
of young kids. I bet all our male 
managers don’t have to get their kids 
up and off to school before coming 
to work. 
Alan: You may be right. Any other 
suggestions? 
Jackie: Couldmake a suggestion? 
I think we should have childcare 
facilities on the premises. It’s really 
helpful for families with preschool age 
children. Most of us can’t afford 
a nanny or a day-care centre. 
Alan: So I think we agree that we 
should be trying to come up with 
ways to improve morale and increase 
motivation at work. We shouldn’t 
focus on punishing mistakes. 
Kristina: I agree. There are loads 
of things they could do to improve 
morale. For example, they could 
give us membership to the gym 
downstairs, we could have sports 
competitions. And what about stress 
management courses during working 
hours? Paid social evenings out 
together? A team building weekend 
away together? 
Ron: A weekend away with 
colleagues? You can’t be serious! 
We might as well stay in the office 
all weekend! 
Jackie: OK, you needn’t be sarcastic. 
Maybe that one might not be so 
popular with everyone … 
Alan: Thank you, Jackie. Lots of 
useful suggestions there. Can we 
have a show of hands for each one 
to get an idea of the general feeling? 
And before we go, would you all sign 
Erica’s meeting attendance list? 

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