Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 1100, Making and Receiving a Job Offer.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 1100.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
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This episode is a dialogue between Salima and Jake about getting a job.
Let's get started.
Hello.
Hi, this is Jake Nagano at Fix-It Corp.
How are you today?
Oh, hi, Jake.
I'm fine.
How are you?
Good.
The reason I'm calling is that we'd like to offer you the position you interviewed for last week.
Oh, that's great.
I was really impressed with Fix-It.
I'm glad to hear it.
We're prepared to offer you a starting salary of $55,000.
You will get full medical and dental coverage, and vision coverage is optional.
I see.
And vacation time?
Vacation days, personal leave and sick leave accrue one day per month in your first year and then increase with your tenure with the company.
You'd be a junior specialist.
And you'd be working under Monique Stansfield, the department manager.
Is the salary negotiable at all?
Well, we would consider any counter offers, but this is a typical compensation package for new hires in these positions.
I see.
I'll need to hear back from you by Wednesday.
Will that work?
Sure.
No problem.
Just one more thing.
I heard that the company has a box at the stadium.
Let me stop you right there.
I hope that's not a deal-breaker, because it's taken me.
I mean it takes years for employees to get invited.
No, not a deal-breaker at all.
I'm just a fan.
In that case, it would be a pleasure to welcome you aboard.
We listen in on a phone conversation in this episode.
Salima answers the phone by saying hello.
Jake says, hi, this is Jake Nagano at Fix-It Corp.
How are you today?
Corp is a short word for corporation, which is another word for a company.
Jake works for Fix-It Corp.
Salima says, oh, hi, Jake.
I'm fine.
How are you?
Jake says, good.
Then Jake gets to the purpose of his call.
And notice how he introduces that in a business setting here.
One often uses the phrase the reason I'm calling is that, and then you give the person the reason that you are calling.
Well, here Jake says the reason I'm calling is that we'd like to offer you the position you interviewed for last week.
To offer someone a position is to tell someone that you want to give him a job.
And, of course, the person, if he wants the job, will accept your offer or not.
Here, Jake is offering Salima this position, this job, for which she interviewed last week.
Salima says, oh, that's great.
I was really impressed with Fix It.
To be impressed here means to have a very positive reaction to or a very positive idea about, in this case, the company.
Jake says, I'm glad to hear it, meaning I'm happy that you liked our company.
We're prepared to offer you a starting salary of $55,000.
We're prepared means we are willing to give you a starting salary of $55,000.
A starting salary is the amount of money you get paid when you first start working for a company.
Salary S-A-L-A-R-Y is the amount of money you get at your job, the amount of money the company pays you to work for them.
Jake says you will get full medical and dental coverage, and vision coverage is optional.
Jake is telling Salima that the company, Fix-It Corp., will pay for her medical and dental coverage.
Medical and dental coverage refers to health insurance that will pay for your bills, your expenses, if you get sick.
In the United States some companies pay for all of the health insurance, although my guess is most companies will pay for part of the insurance.
You have to pay for part of it yourself.
It depends on the company.
Vision, V-I-S-I-O-N coverage, refers to health insurance for any problems you have with your eyes.
If you need glasses or you need to have some special surgery done on your eye, it might be covered, that is, it might be paid for by vision insurance.
Selina says, I see, meaning I understand.
And vacation time?
Selina is asking how many days of vacation she gets.
Jake says, vacation days, personal leave and sick leave accrue one day per month in your first year and then increase with your tenure with the company.
Vacation days refer to the days that you don't have to go to work and get paid for it, days that you would go on a holiday or just sit home and relax, which is what I often do on my vacation.
Personal leave L-E-A-V-E refers to one or more days when you don't work, not because you're on a vacation, but because you have some other personal reason for not being able to go to work.
Maybe you have to have surgery done, or maybe a friend of yours needs help and you have to call your job and say you can't go that day.
Some companies will give people, their employees, a certain number of personal days.
This is part of personal leave.
The word leave here means days that you are not working time, that you are not working at your job.
Usually, when you take a personal day or personal leave, you are still getting paid by the company, just as you would on your vacation.
Sick leave, you probably can guess, refers to days that you are sick and therefore cannot go to work.
These accrue, according to Jake, one day per month.
To accrue, A-C-C-R-U-E, means they accumulate, they increase gradually.
Basically what Jake is saying here is that every month that Salima works at Fix-It Corp, she will get a little bit more vacation time, a little bit more personal leave.
She'll get one day per month.
Now it's not clear if that one day a month policy applies to vacation, personal leave and sick leave.
I'm guessing it doesn't.
That would be a lot of paid time off from your job.
But who knows?
Maybe Fix-It Corp has a lot of money.
Jake says the vacation days, personal leave and sick leave will increase with Salima's tenure with the company.
Your tenure, T-E-N-U-R-E, is the amount of time that you are working at a certain company.
In most companies, the longer you work at the company, the more vacation time and personal leave you are given.
Salima then asks, what would be my job title?
Your job title is the name of the position that you have in the company or in the organization.
Jake says you'd be a junior specialist.
And you'd be working under Monique Stansfield, the department manager.
The term junior J-U-N-I-O-R refers to someone with less experience and usually fewer responsibilities in a company.
The opposite of junior would be senior, S-E-N-I-O-R.
So a senior specialist would be someone who works for a company, who has a lot of experience and a lot of responsibilities.
A junior specialist would be someone who is new to the company, who doesn't have as much experience as other people at the company and probably has fewer responsibilities in the job.
Jake says that Salima will be working under Monique Stansfield.
To work under someone is to be supervised by someone.
In this case, it means that Monique Stansfield will be Salima's boss, the person that Salima reports to or is supervised by,
Salima says, is the salary negotiable at all?
When we say something is negotiable, N-E-G-O-T-I-A-B-L-E, we mean it's open for discussion.
It's something that you can ask for an increase in, in many job offers that Salary is negotiable.
You can say, well, $55,000 isn't a lot.
Can I get a little bit more?
Could I get $60,000?
Or could I get $70,000?
Jake answers by saying, well, we would consider any counteroffers...
But this is a typical compensation package for new hires in these positions.
Jake says that Fix-It Corp. will consider counter offers, C-O-U-N-T-E-R-O-F-F-E-R-S.
Counter offers are proposals that that you make back to someone who has offered you something.
In this case, Fix-It Corp has offered Salima $55,000.
Salima can then say, well, I'd like $60,000.
That is a counter-offer.
You offer me one thing, I offer something different back to you.
That's part of negotiation.
Jake says however, that what the company is offering Salima is a typical or usual compensation package.
Compensation package just refers to the combination of the salary and the benefits that are given to someone for working at a company.
It refers to both the money, that is, and in this case, the insurance and the vacation days and the sick leave and the personal leave.
Altogether, those things are part of the compensation package.
Compensation comes from the verb to compensate, which means to give someone something for his or her efforts or work.
Jake says, why don't you think about it?
I'll need to hear back from you by Wednesday.
Will that work?
Jake is telling Salima to think about the offer and that he needs to hear back from her by Wednesday.
To hear back means to have a response from someone.
If I send you an email and tell you that I need to hear back from you by Wednesday, that means you need to send me a reply to my email by Wednesday, before Wednesday
Will that work?
Jake asks.
In other words, is that okay?
Salima says, sure, no problem.
Just one more thing.
I heard that the company has a box at the stadium sporting games are played, such as American football or baseball.
A box is a special place in the stadium, usually up high, that is owned by a rich company or person.
That is sort of like your own little suite, your own little room, that where you can sit and drink and eat and watch the game.
You don't have to sit down in the main part of the stadium.
If a box is owned by a company, sometimes the employees of the company get to go and use the box.
Go and see the game.
Jake says, however, let me stop you right there, meaning let me interrupt you.
I hope that's not a deal breaker, because it's taken me.
I mean it takes years for employees to get invited.
A deal breaker is something that would make it impossible for two people to reach an agreement to make a deal.
A deal, D-E-A-L, is an agreement.
So a deal breaker is something that would prevent you from reaching an agreement.
Jake is basically saying here that even if...
Salima is hired by the company.
It will take years before she will have enough seniority, that is, she will have enough experience at the company to be invited to this box.
Salima says, no, not a deal breaker at all.
I'm just a fan, a fan of whatever team plays at this stadium.
Jake says, in that case, it would be a pleasure to welcome you aboard.
The expression to welcome someone aboard A-B-O-A-R-D is usually said when you are on a big boat or a ship.
To go aboard means to go onto a ship or some other sort of large transportation vehicle.
But it can also be used metaphorically, as it is here, to welcome someone to a new organization, or to welcome someone to your company.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Hello.
Hi, this is Jake Nagano at Fix-It Corp.
How are you today?
Oh, hi, Jake.
I'm fine.
How are you?
Good.
The reason I'm calling is that we'd like to offer you the position you interviewed for last week.
Oh, that's great.
I was really impressed with Fix-It.
I'm glad to hear it.
We're prepared to offer you a starting salary of $55,000.
You will get full medical and dental coverage and vision coverage is optional.
I see.
And vacation time?
Vacation days, personal leave and sick leave accrue one day per month in your first year and then increase with your tenure with the company.
What would be my job title?
You'd be a junior specialist, and you'd be working under Monique Stansfield, the department manager.
Is the salary negotiable at all?
Well, we would consider any counteroffers, but this is a typical compensation package for new hires in these positions.
I see.
Why don't you think about it?
I'll need to hear back from you by Wednesday.
Will that work?
Sure, no problem.
Just one more thing.
I heard that the company has a box at the stadium.
Let me stop you right there.
I hope that's not a deal-breaker, because it's taken me.
I mean it takes years for employees to get invited.
No, not a deal-breaker at all.
I'm just a fan.
In that case, it would be a pleasure to welcome you aboard.
Dr. Lucy Say has many job titles.
One of them is script writer.
Thank you, Lucy, for your wonderful scripts.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you 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 2015 by the Center for Educational Development.
