Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 1,300, Diversifying a Workforce.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 1,300.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
This episode is a dialogue between Audrey and Simon about trying to get different kinds of people working at a company.
Let's get started.
Have you seen these design ideas?
They're stale.
Maybe it's time we diversified our workforce.
It's pretty homogenous right now.
It's not that homogenous.
We have people from different cultures and backgrounds, people who are bilingual and multicultural.
That's not what I mean, and you know it.
We're missing a huge demographic.
Having more diversity will help us find new ways to tackle problems and come up with creative ideas.
Are you saying we've become stodgy?
I'm not adverse to change, you know.
I know that.
I don't know.
But a more diverse workforce will also prevent discrimination lawsuits.
That's the reality we live in.
I really don't know.
Do you really think hiring more men to design women's bras is a good idea?
Of course.
We have a unique appreciation for them.
Audrey begins our dialogue by asking Simon, Have you seen these design ideas?
They're stale.
Design D-E-S-I-G-N is a plan for how something is going to look, or the actual way that something looks, the form it takes, perhaps the colors that are present.
We're not sure what Audrey is talking about in terms of design here.
It could be designed for clothing.
It could be designed for a computer or a phone.
In any case, she says that the design ideas they have are stale.
S-T-A-L-E.
Here, stale means not new or not interesting.
Stale is used to mean outdated or perhaps old.
Simon says, The workforce, W-O-R-K-F-O-R-C-E, is the group of people who work at a certain company.
It could also refer to all of the people who work in a given community or even in a certain country.
But Simon, I think, is talking about the people in this particular company.
Simon thinks it's time, meaning the company should think about Diversifying the workforce.
To diversify D-I-V-E-R-S-I-F-Y means to have more variety, more variations, different kinds of in this case, people.
We're not sure exactly what Simon is talking about.
He could be talking about people from different backgrounds, different experiences.
I'm not sure if that will help their design ideas, but Simon thinks so.
He says it's pretty homogenous right now.
Homogenous, H-O-M-O-G-E-N-O-U-S, refers to something being all the same.
If the workforce is homogenous, everyone comes from the same kind of background or has the same experience perhaps.
Audrey says it's not that homogenous, meaning we do have some different kinds of people working for us.
We have people from different cultures and backgrounds, people who are bilingual and multicultural.
Bilingual, B-I-L-I-N-G-U-A-L, means someone who can speak two languages.
The prefix bi, B-I, means two, so bilingual is two languages.
If someone spoke three languages...
He would be trilingual, T-R-I, meaning three.
Someone who speaks more than three languages is usually called a polyglot, P-O-L-Y-G-L-O-T.
Audrey says that their employees are also, at least some of them, multicultural.
Multi, M-U-L-T-I, as a prefix, means many.
So, representing many different cultures, or having experiences in many different cultures.
Simon says, He says, we're missing a huge demographic.
The term demographic D-E-M-O-G-R-A-P-H-I-C here means a certain group within the larger population.
He says, having more diversity means will help us find ways to tackle problems and come up with creative ideas.
To tackle T-A-C-K-L-E problems means to deal with difficult situations or To solve difficult problems or find solutions to problems.
To tackle means to take care of or to handle.
Come up with means to create or to invent something.
Simon says that having more diversity in their workforce will help them find new ways to come up with creative C-R-E-A-T-I-V-E ideas.
New and interesting ideas.
Audrey says, are you saying that we've become stodgy?
Stodgy, S-T-O-D-G-Y, is similar to stale.
It means old and boring, not interesting, or perhaps old-fashioned.
Audrey says, I'm not adverse to change, you know.
To be adverse, A-D-V-E-R-S-E, to something means not wanting to or being interested in doing something.
In this case, in changing.
Audrey says she's not adverse to change.
Simon says, I know that.
Audrey responds, but how will the rest of the company react?
That is, what will other people think or say?
Simon says, I don't know, but a more diverse workforce will also prevent discrimination lawsuits.
Discrimination D-I-S-C-R-I-M-I-N-A-T-I-O-N refers to not treating people equally, not doing the same thing for one group that you would do for another in a way that would generally be considered illegal or against the law.
A lawsuit L-A-W-S-U-I-T is when a legal case is is brought against a company or individual by someone who thinks that he has been harmed by that other person damaged in some way.
Usually a lawsuit is over money.
The person wants money in order to make up for some harm that he has suffered because of what another person has done.
For example, if someone runs into your car with his car and doesn't want to pay for the damage, for the damage fact that your car no longer works, let's say you might bring a lawsuit against that person.
You might go to a judge and say, this person has ruined my car.
I want him to pay me money.
And you can use the government to help you force that person to pay you money.
That's basically what a lawsuit is.
A discrimination lawsuit then would be someone who takes a company or a person to court and makes the court correct the problem, if you will.
That might include giving that person money.
Simon says that's the reality we live in, meaning the world we live in is such that we need to protect ourselves to prevent discrimination lawsuits.
Audrey says, I really don't know.
Do you really think hiring more men to design women's bras is a good idea?
Now we learn that Simon and Audrey work at a company that makes bras.
A bra B-R-A is something that a woman usually wears under other clothing, under a shirt or a dress that protects and supports her breasts the two things that are found at the top of a woman's body usually.
I guess men also have breasts, but we don't normally think of them as wearing bras, though perhaps some of them should.
Anyway, Audrey is wondering whether Getting more men to work for the company will really be a good idea, since the company makes bras for women.
Simon says, Unique, U-N-I-Q-U-E, is one of a kind or unlike anything else.
Appreciation, A-P-P-R-E-C-I-A-T-I-O-N, is an admiration for something or a feeling of pleasure or respect for something or someone.
A unique appreciation here means that men, unlike most women, are able to think about bras in a different way perhaps.
You probably can understand why men might have a unique appreciation for bras.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Have you seen these design ideas?
They're stale.
Maybe it's time we diversified our workforce.
It's pretty homogenous right now.
It's not that homogenous.
We have people from different cultures and backgrounds.
People who are bilingual and multicultural.
That's not what I mean and you know it.
We're missing a huge demographic.
Having more diversity will help us find new ways to tackle problems and come up with creative ideas.
Are you saying we've become stodgy?
I'm not averse to change, you know.
I know that.
But how will the rest of the company react?
I don't know.
But a more diverse workforce will also prevent discrimination lawsuits.
That's the reality we live in.
I really don't know.
Do you really think hiring more men to design women's bras is a good idea?
Of course.
We have a unique appreciation for them.
We thank our scriptwriter Dr. Lucy Say for her always creative scripts.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thanks for listening.
Come back and listen to us again right here on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2016 by the Center for Educational Development.
