Office workers 'admit being rude'

MOST office workers say introducing people at

they are rude or bad- meetings and this is
mannered at work. Two out often bad for working
of three workers relationships.
regularly arrive late for Psychologist Dr Colin
meetings, most ignore Gill believes that
emails and three out of people are not as polite
four use bad language. In as they were twenty years
a survey of 1,000 ago. He said: 'Courtesy
workers, two-thirds say is no longer something
that pressure of work is that is so much respected
the reason for their bad in our society.' People
manners. think it is 'stuffy to be
Other common examples polite or formal.'
of bad office etiquette Now some organisations
include ignoring are actually investing
colleagues and answering money in training their
mobile phone calls during junior managers to be
meetings. Using mobile polite. Office Angels is
phones in meetings is encouraging people to
impolite and distracts arrive on time for
others, research by the meetings, turn oft mobile
University of Surrey phones and avoid bad
shows. If you respond to language. 'Avoiding bad
a call when speaking to manners at work is such a GLossary
somebody, it means that simple thing to do,' Mr
the phone call is more Jacobs says, 'and it can distract stop
important than the have a dramatic impact on people paying
person, the survey said. improving your working attention
If you answer a call environment and your stuffy old fashioned,
during a meeting, it relationships with boring, not friendly
could mean that you think others.'
the meeting is not
important.
Mr Jacobs, managing
director of Office
Angels, a recruitment
firm, says it is easy for
people to forget their
manners in the working
environment, which is
often very informal and
very busy. Workers can
forget proper etiquette
such as

A-Read the article again and answer the following questions.

1 What reason do office workers give for their bad manners?

2 Why is it impolite to answer a mobile phone during a meeting?

3 Are people today more polite than they were 20 years ago?

1
 4 What are some organisations doing to improve workers' manners?

5 What are the benefits of avoiding bad manners at work?

6 Do you agree that “courtesy is no longer respected” and “it’s stuffy to

be polite”? Why / why not?

B-Complete the text with these words from the article

Admit avoid ignore introduce invest improve respond

A recruitment firm gives this advice to new workers:

It is important to __________________________time in your relationships with
others
at work. Get to know the people who work near you: ________________yourself to
them and tell them something about yourself. If people ask for_ your help,
always ____________positively. Don't _________________emails or phone calls
just because you are busy. If you make a mistake, it is better to ____________
it and then apologise. When things go wrong, stay calm and
_____________shouting and using bad language. Remember, good manners help to
______________your working environment, and you will find you can enjoy your
work more.

C- Synonyms

Look at the following groups of words. Which word does not belong in
each group?

1 rude, stuffy, bad-mannered, impolite

2 courtesy, politeness, etiquette, impact
3 communicate, answer, reply, respond
4 regularly, commonly, rarely, often

D-Prefixes

Add the following prefixes to the adjectives below to make words with
the opposite meaning. Use a dictionary if necessary.

Un- in- dis- im-

1. formal 4.polite 7.friendly 10.respectful

2.satisfied 5.practical 8.efficient 11.patient

3.honest 6.considerate 9.important 12.appropriate

E-Use words from exercise D to complete the definitions.

Someone who is bad-mannered is
impolite

.
Someone who ...
1 ... doesn't tell the truth is
2
_____________
2 ...wants to do things in a hurry and finish quickly is_________
3 ...doesn't like other people and doesn't want to talk is
___________
4 . . . works slowly and doesn't do their job well is
______________
5 ...doesn't think about other people's needs or wishes
is____________
6 ...isn't happy with the way things happened is
_________________