Episode 143

EPISODE 143
LEVEL A2

READING COMPREHENSION

Company pay policy

As an employee of our company you will receive your wages on the 27th of each month. Your salary is paid one month in arrears.
Payments go directly into your bank account via direct deposit. Please make sure you complete the pay form with your bank details and give it to the payroll department in order to receive prompt payment.
If you are on the sales staff, you will also receive commission of 5% on every sale. This is payable with your monthly salary. If you sell more than expected in one month you will also receive a performance-related bonus. This sum is held in the company account until the end of the fiscal year.
Overtime is paid at 1.5 times your basic hourly rate. You will receive this rate for any work you do over 40 hours per week.
At your annual appraisal, you will have the opportunity to discuss with your supervisor whether you are entitled to a raise.
It’s not company policy to give advances on salary. The exception is in an employee’s first month of employment. Please speak to the head of the payroll department if you want to take advantage of this offer.

 

Exercise 1

Match these definitions to the concepts they describe:

1. when your pay is sent straight into your bank account
2. a percentage of the sale
3. later than the period for which it is paid
4. the amount of money paid for work
5. more than the standard number of working hours per week
6. increase in pay

commission
direct deposit
overtime
raise
wage
in arrears

 

Exercise 2

Combine the words from the two boxes to form collocations as in the text:

annual / bank / direct / fiscal / hourly / monthly / pay / payroll / sales
+
account / appraisal / department / deposit / policy / rate / salary / staff / year

1. ____________________________________
2. ____________________________________
3. ____________________________________
4. ____________________________________
5. ____________________________________
6. ____________________________________
7. ____________________________________
8. ____________________________________
9. ____________________________________

 

Exercise 3

Complete these fragments of the text with prepositions (at/in/into/of/on/to/with):

1. paid one month _____ arrears
2. directly _____your bank account
3. complete the pay form _____ details
4. you are _____ the sales staff
5. paid _____ hourly rate
6. to discuss _____ you supervisor
7. you are entitled _____ a raise
8. to give advances _____ salary
9. to take advantage _____ this offer

 

I know English idioms!

This lesson’s reading text takes us to the topic of pay. Let’s learn an idioms which uses the word “pay” in a seemingly business context:

• to pay dividends

We know this expressions as one meaning “to receive money when you are a shareholder”. Here, though, it means “to cause good results at a time in the future”:
All that extra training will pay dividends one day.

 

Phrasals, phrasals…

A very similar meaning as the above idiom has may be expressed thanks to a phrasal verb:

• to pay off

All her hard work paid off in the end, and she finally reached the long-awaited managerial position.

And how to say it in Polish? Maybe “zwrócić się” or “opłacić się”.

 

Grammar corner

Let’s look at this sentence from the reading text: If you sell more than expected in one month you will also receive a performance-related bonus. We can easily identify it as an example of the first type conditional sentences:

If + present tense / will + infinitive

Complete these conditional sentences with the correct forms of the verbs in brackets:
1. I (go) _____________ to work tomorrow if I (feel) _____________ better.
2. If you (give) __________ me your personal details, I (arrange) _____________ it for you.
3. If they (come) ___________ on time, we (start) _____________ the meeting punctually.
4. She (be) _____________ promoted if she (work) _____________ harder.
5. If you (not know) _____________ it, you (have) _____________ to learn it.

 

GLOSSARY

pay policy – polityka płac
employee – pracownik
to receive – otrzymać
wages – tygodniówka, tu: wynagrodzenie
salary – pensja
paid in arrears – płatny z dołu
payment – płatność
directly – bezpośrednio
bank account – konto bankowe
via – przez
direct deposit – bezpośrednia wpłata na konto
to make sure – upewnić się
to complete – wypełnić
pay form – formularz wypłaty
payroll department – dział płac
prompt- szybki
sales staff – pracownicy sprzedaży
commission – prowizja
payable – płatny
monthly – miesięczny
to expect – oczekiwać, spodziewać się
(performance-related) bonus – premia (za wyniki)
sum – suma
to be held – być przechowywanym
fiscal year – rok podatkowy
overtime – nadgodziny
… times – … raza/y
basic – podstawowy
hourly rate – stawka godzinowa
annual – coroczny
appraisal – ocena pracownika
opportunity – sposobność
supervisor – przełożony
to be entitled to sth – byc uprawnionym
raise – podwyżka
to give advances on salary – wypłacać zaliczki na poczet pensji
exception – wyjątek
employment – zatrudnienie
the head – szef
to take advantage of – skorzystać, wykorzystać

 

 

 

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