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'Hear English' is a blog that provides podcasts and transcripts to help people learn English, find us at http://hearenglishhere.blogspot.com/.Free image courtesy of 'stockfreeimages.com'The Water Cooler (Slow)Too slow? Try the faster version in the next post. They may look like busy professionals, but the staff at Colourful Solutions Ltd (Colsol), aren’t always as serious or hardworking as they appear, and we find out what mischief they’ve been up to as they talk around the water cooler.Click above to listen.  You can get the mp3. here.Episode 4 - A Word With The Boss (Slow) Too slow? Try the faster version in the next post. Featuring the vocal talents of Sophie Iafrate (Susan).  (Free sound effects courtesy of 'Soundjay.com'),  Keith: I suppose you’ve guessed why I wanted a word with you, Janet? Janet: Er, no.  I’ve noticed you’ve been late to work quite often over the past few weeks, so I wondered if it was something to do with that, but I wasn’t sure?K: Late for work?J: Yes, I presumed you maybe had some personal issues that you wanted to talk to me about.K: Err…no.  Ah…I mean yes, personal issues, that has been the problem.  Mmm, well obviously I have some level of personal issues, but I don’t really want to talk about them.J: Of course, I don’t want you to tell me anything you don’t feel comfortable with. It’s just that your recent late starts would normally mean that you’d be given a disciplinary meeting, unless, of course, if there was a reason, like if you were losing sleep due to personal issues.   K: Of course, yes.  I’m very sorry.  I suppose the last few weeks have been a little difficult personally, so I’ve not been sleeping well and have found it hard waking up in time for work, but, I’m ok now, so late starts are a thing of the past.  I guarantee it.J: Well, we won’t have to call you to a disciplinary meeting, and I appreciate you telling me and your apology, but I wish you had told me when the problems started, and we could have maybe helped you.K: Sorry Janet, thank you Janet.J: And, I suppose that explains why you’ve been distracted at work recently too.K: Distracted at work?J: Yes, your work rate is down and some of our clients have emailed me asking why you’ve not been responding to their messages.  I suppose your mind has been elsewhere recently.  K: Yes, that’s it, my mind has been elsewhere recently.J: You can say that again, your colleagues have been complaining that you’re not much fun to be around at the moment, that you get angry at people and that you’re not pulling your weight around the office. K: I hadn’t realised it had affected my work so badly.J: Well rest assured that everyone else has!  But, as you have personal issues, I’m sure if you apologised and explained yourself then that would smooth things over.K: I’ll do just that, and I’ll put 110% into my work over the next few weeks to make up for it.J: Good.  And it would be nice if you could put aside your immaturity too.K: My immaturity?J: Well, it would be nice for the rest of the staff to have a few weeks off from your practical jokes.  Personally I think a fun office atmosphere is helpful, but your immature attitude often seems to do more harm than good.K: I see.  I’ll try to act in a more professional manner.J: See that you do.  It’s a shame really.  Not long ago I was thinking about increasing your pay and responsibilities, but because of your silliness and these last two weeks, I’ve had discussions with Human Resources about docking your pay.K: Docking my pay?  J: Originally we had thought about docking your pay for a year, considering your abysmal performance, but now I’m aware of your personal issues, I will try to convince them just to dock your pay temporarily, we’ll have a pay review after 2 months, and re-instate it if your performance returns to normal.K: Well… thank you Janet.J: Well, I make no promises, but I’ll put it forward.  Is there anything else?K: No, I think that’s everything.…later…Susan: I saw you got up the courage to have a word with Janet about that pay rise you wanted.  I know you had been losing a lot of sleep over it.  Did you get as much as you wanted?K: I think I negotiated a good deal.S: Nice going Keith.  I find Janet a really tough negotiator.  K: Well I think she’s met her match with me.S: Whenever I ask Janet for something, I come out of the meeting feeling like I’ve done really well but when I think about it afterwards I realise I’ve ended up in a worse position than when I started.  K: Well I managed to get her to commit to a pay review in 2 months to re-instate my pay.S: You mean, you went in asking for a pay rise, and came out with a pay cut.K: Now I think about it…yes.  But I felt like I’d done really well.S: Well, now I’m convinced that Janet’s met her match with you.K: Hmm…