Oral topic №8

Definitions of employment and labor. When we speak about employment we usually mean paid work done by a person or a group of people. Labor, in its turn, refers to the routine work that people do in their jobs, for example manual labor or managing employees. Manual labor usually refers to physical work that requires little formal education. Managers include those who supervise other workers. Examples of skilled professionals include doctors, lawyers, and dentists. Very often managers are called white collar workers because their job does not involve manual labor.

Types of employment: full-time, part-time work, flexi time arrangements, telecommuting(working from home), self-employment.

A full-time job is job for all normal working week. Nowadays is very popular part-time job. This is the practice of dividing a full time job between two people. Jobs are irregular, and workers are often self-employed without earning pensions and without paying taxes. This sort of employment is common in urban areas of developing countries. There is also informal employment.

Self-employment is working for one's self. Self-employed people work for himself instead of an employer, drawing income from business that they operate.

Distinguish permanent and temporary job. A permanent job doesn’t finish after a fixed period; a temporary job finishes after a fixed period.

With technological advances, more and more people resort to telecommuting. They work away from the employer’s office and maintain close contact with coworkers and managers through electronic mail and telephone. Telecommuting decreases time spent driving to and from the office and decreases pollution from automobiles. But some managers prefer to direct people directly and some employees may dislike telecommuting because of isolation from coworkers.

A freelancer or freelance worker is somebody who is self-employed and without a long-term commitment to any of employer.

Compensation for work. When we talk about pays of senior managers we mean compensation and remuneration. For a senior executive, remuneration may include the right to buy the company’s shares at low prices. There may be performance-related bonuses if the manager reaches particular objectives for the company.

Also employees receive compensation when they are forced to leave the organization. This money is in the form of a compensation payment, or severance payment.

Problems at work. The main problems at work are sexual harassment, discrimination, sexism and racism.

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, it is sexism.

Racism is when someone is treated unfairly because of their race.

Looking for a job, recruitment.

The process of finding people for particular jobs is recruitment or hiring. A company may recruit employees directly or use headhunters, recruitment agencies or employment agencies. Headhunting is a process of enticing people for very important jobs from a former place of work on the new.