Starten Sie den Audio-Text
Mit dem Audio-Player können Sie sich den Text anhören. Darunter finden Sie das Transkript.
The listening exercises in Business Spotlight Plus (p. 5) are based on the article “It's hard to say goodbye” (Names & News, p. 9). Here, we provide you with the audio file and transcript.
Click here to open the transcript
It's hard to say goodbye
Workers cost money, and when companies need to save costs, they often lay sb. offjmdn. entlassenlay off staff. But how do they decide who goes and who stays? Even in America’s hire-and-fire world, the decision can take weeks. Top management may set a targetZiel(vorgabe)target to cut a certain percentage of the workforceBelegschaftworkforce, for example, but it’s usually the head of departmentAbteilungsleiter(in)heads of department who have to come up with a list of names. “There is no good way to do this,” Gregory DeLapp, a human-resources executivePersonalmanager(in)human-resources executive, told The Wall Street Journal. “ultimatelyletztendlichUltimately, someone is unfairly treated in the end.”
In the past, layoffs went by seniorityhier: Betriebszugehörigkeitseniority — with junior employees being the first out the door. Today, they’re mostly based on skills and potential. However, while HR doesn’t decide who goes, they do troubleshoot sth.bei etw. nach Fehlern suchentroubleshoot the list to make sure certain groups aren’t disproportionately affectedbetroffenaffected and to avoid legal problems. What if, for example, a company fired an employee who’d recently made a complaint against a manager? That could lead to a costly and embarrassingunangenehmembarrassing lawsuitProzesslawsuit. Workers cost money, but being careless about how you get rid of sb.jmdn. loswerdenget rid of them might cost more.