Unit 16
Optimization in
Management
職場攻略/辦公日常
Workplace English/Workplace communication
BRAIN STORM
Share your ideas with your teacher and try to make sentences.
What do you think is the meaning of Optimization?
VOCABULARY
Repeat these sentences after your teacher.
1. deployed (v.) 有效運用；部署
He was deployed to work out of town.
2. optimization (n.) 優化，完善
Our company needs a managing optimization.
3. pushback (n.) 反對；抵制
We got a pushback, as a response.
4. oversight (n.) 監督；監察；監管
The manager was given an oversight of the project.
5. incessantly (adv.) 不間斷地
She incessantly said that she was correct!
6. bridge the gaps (phr.) 彌補差距
How can we bridge the gaps of their feelings?
7. onerous (adj.) 繁重的；麻煩的；艱鉅的
How can we complete the onerous tasks?
Dialogue
Read the dialogue aloud with your teacher.
How has it been managing your team since the switch to working from home?
Relatively smooth, I’d say. We’ve deployed some optimization software that’s helping us manage from afar in a more personalized, albeit digitized, manner.
We’ve also licensed some software for that purpose, but we’ve seen some employee pushback against excessive oversight.
Sure, no one likes their boss breathing down their neck incessantly, online or off!
The employees are mad that we are gathering their behavioral data. But we need that data to bridge the gap between management and the rest of our team.
Ideally, the data gathered will be used for good, but that’s not always the case, so I totally understand the pushback.
We’re not really asking for anything onerous. Just clock in virtually, and leave the webcam on throughout the day for compliance.
A webcam on all day? Don’t you think that’s a bit invasive?
I suppose it’s because our company is an old dinosaur. We’re trying to replicate old management techniques online.
It’s time to evolve, Eric. It’s survival of the fittest out there!
Grammar
Albeit
If you look in the dictionary, you will see that “albeit” is a synonym for “although.” While they are similar in meaning, they can‘t be used interchangeably. They are similar in that they both introduce information that conflicts with other information, whether in the same sentence or in wider context. They are dissimilar in that “albeit” cannot be used to introduce an independent clause, whereas “although” can.
1.We had a great vacation, albeit one quite different than what we’d originally planned.
2.After taking control of the company she implemented some strict, albeit necessary, changes.
3.He went along with her plan, albeit somewhat reluctantly.
4.___________________________________________________________________.
DISCUSSION
Make a conversation with your teacher.
1.What Industry do you think, benefits from a management optimization?
