U3: Problems and solutions

Solving an employee problem

Problems on the job

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Vocabulary

[TODD] I asked you here to talk about your occasional tardiness.
[HARRY] Oh, okay.
[TODD] You see, it's becoming a bit of a problem. Sometimes you're as much as an hour late.
[HARRY] I know.
[TODD] So what's going on?
[HARRY] I'm really sorry. I've been meaning to talk to you about this.
[TODD] Okay, So what's the story?
[HARRY] Well, as you know, my wife's just got new job.
[HARRY] And it's now me who drives the kids to school every morning. That's what's making me late.
[TODD] I know how that is. I have two kids of mu own. But regardless, we have to figure out a solution to this.
[HARRY] I agree.
[TODD] Another possibility would be for you to stay an hour later in the evenings. We have a lot of engineers who work late. They often have questions for us. You could deal with them. Would that work for you?
[HARRY] Yeah, that would work. That would definitely work. Thanks, Todd. I appreciate your flexibility on this.
[TODD] Let's try this for a couple of weeks, and see how it goes. And I want to emphasize that we value your work. This isn't a big deal.

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Key words:

tardiness, flexibility, disorganized, sloppy, argumentative, offensive, instructions,