Using English at Work

Lesson 2 - Checking Mail, Email, and Voicemail

message so that it stays in the voicemail system and I'm able to listen to it later. I "delete" the other message - I get rid of the other message. We usually delete drafts once we've finished the final document, for example. In this case, I'm deleting the second voicemail message, getting rid of it because I won't need to listen to it again. Next I look at my clock and I see that it's already 9:30 a.m. It's time for my morning meeting.

Let's listen again to this story of checking email, mail, and voicemail, this time the story will be read at a normal speed.

[start of script]

The first thing I do when I get to work each morning is to check my inboxes. I go to the mailroom to check my mail slot to see what mail has arrived overnight. There are always a lot of intra-office and inter-office letters and memos. Much of it is junk mail, so I spend a few minutes sorting through it.

The next thing I do is to turn on my computer to check email. I open my email program and my new messages automatically download into my inbox. Even though I have a pretty good spam filter, I still check through my trash folder carefully to make sure nothing important was filtered out. We're also not supposed to get personal emails at work, but sometimes my friends send or forward me messages to this address and I have to make sure I respond using my personal email address. When I don't have time to finish a message or when I get interrupted, I save it into my draft folder.

Finally, I check my voicemail. I call the voicemail system and enter in my PIN to bypass the outgoing message. I have two new messages, and after listening to them, I save one of them and delete the other.

I look at the clock and it's already 9:30 AM! It's time for the morning meeting. [end of script]

That's the end of our second lesson. In our next lesson, number three, I'm going to talk about attending, or going to, an office meeting.

This course has been a production of the Center for Educational Development, in beautiful Los Angeles, California. Visit our website at eslpod.com.

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Using English at Work

Episode 3 - Attending the Morning Meeting

SCRIPT

I arrive at the conference room right before the meeting starts, and sit down in a chair around the large conference table. Our manager passes out a handout of the meeting agenda with some announcements and goes over some bullet points regarding old and new business.

Then, he asks each person to give a status report on his or her projects. Each of us takes turns giving a quick rundown, while everyone else listens. Of course not everyone is paying attention, since they're thinking about their own reports and what they plan to say. Sometimes our manager will make some comments or give us some feedback, but usually there's very little discussion.

The meeting always ends the same way. Our manager gives a short summary of how our department is doing and a little pep talk to get us motivated.

Now it's back to our desks to do some work!

GLOSSARY

conference room - a big room used for having meetings at work, usually with a big table and many chairs

* For Monday's meeting, we need to have a large conference room with at least 23 chairs.

conference table - a big table in a conference room with chairs placed around it for meetings

* When the meeting ended, the conference table was covered with empty water bottles, coffee cups, papers, and pens.

manager - a person whose job is to be responsible for a department or a team; a group leader at work

* If you do your work well, the company might ask you to begin working as a department manager in a few years.

handout - a piece of paper that gives information about something that will be discussed during a presentation or meeting

* This handout has the main points of my presentation and my contact information: my name, phone number, and email address.

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