TEXT
John is the production manager at an industrial plant; his working day starts at 6AM.
While waiting for the coffee to brew, and before his wife and children join him for breakfast, he scans his emails and check the night shift’s reports on his phone to see if there is anything that requires his immediate attention; such as an accident, an environmental incident, or an equipment breakdown.
When there is an unforeseen event, he usually calls his administrative assistant to reschedule his day’s appointments. He usually does that during his drive to the office, after he drops his son off at the high school.
They have two children, his daughter is going to kindergarten; his wife walks her to the school before going to work. Her manager agrees to let her do some of her works at home, so that she can leave the office before 3PM to go pick up their daughter when her class is over at 3PM.
John is glad there is no special issue with the plant this morning. He can follow his agenda, which includes the routine safety meeting at 8AM, followed by the production meeting. He then have a few hours to answer his emails, read the production reports and go for a quick tour of the plant.
In the afternoon they have a management meeting, with all the Managers and the General Manager. It is month’s end and they have to present their monthly reports which include the analyses of the Key Performance Indicators for the month, plus their plans for the rest of the year.
After the meeting, he plans to work on the budget; he must submit his projections of production, manpower, expenses, equipment availability, capital project expenditure, etc. for the following year and the trend for the next 5 years. The Accounting Department wants to have that by next week, so that they can consolidate the figures into the general budget, the draft of which is due in 2 weeks.
He still needs to get the equipment availability figures from Maintenance, the capital project guideline from Engineering, and sales figures from Marketing. HSEC (Health, Safety, Environment and Community Relations) has already provided its projections.
He has also scheduled interviews with 3 of his Superintendents, for their annual performance evaluation. The Human Resource Department has set the deadline a week from today, and he is slightly behind schedule.
He figures that if the day is quiet, as it seems so far, he should be able to catch up and finish his tasks before their due dates.
He feels a bit relaxed during his drive to the office. Maybe he can finish early and drive his son to his hockey game. His wife can do it, but his son really wants him to watch him play.
As he enters his office, Mary, his administrative assistant, greets him with a worried look on her face. John senses that some thing is happening and gets himself prepared for the bad news.
-Have you seen the email from the GM a few minutes ago? She asks.
-No, replies John, I was driving, and everything looked OK the last time I checked.
-It has nothing to do with the plant, Mary says. The Prime Minister is making an impromptu visit and the General Manager wants you to make a presentation to the PM about the plant, at 10 AM, in the main Board Room, then to accompany him and the PM during the plant tour and the lunch.
-I hate politicians, says John in low voice; his perfectly planned day has just been ruined by one of them.
RELATED VIDEOS
IDIOMS, EXPRESSIONS, ALTERNATE MEANINGS
I blew the dust off the books.
He scored the winning goal just before the whistle blew.
His car had been blown to pieces.
When I got paid I blew it all on a night out.
I had a chance to win the game but I blew it at the last minute.
He blows hot and cold on that subject.
I blows my mind that he turns down that offer.
I can run a mile in five minutes.
Trains are still running, despite the snow.
The road runs across the border.
A climbing rose bush runs up the side of the door.
There’s a beautiful cornice running around all the ceilings.
The film runs for two hours.
A magazine subscription usually only runs for one year.
Buses are running an hour late, because of an earlier accident.
The truck’s brakes failed and it ran off the road.
Trains run on rails.
Electricity is running through this cable.
An angry muttering ran through the crowd.
A shiver of fear ran through his body.
She ran her finger down the page, looking for her name.
Could you run the video backwards, please?
He ran for President.
She was the runner up in the golf tournament.
Ahead of the curve
Good at predicting trends and prepare for new things before others Example: “Apple was well ahead of the curve, it had scalable fonts and Graphical User Interface while most other computers only worked with texts.”
Hit the nail on the head
To say exactly the right thing. Example: “Kim hit the nail on the head when she said our products are out of touch with the young generation”
On the back burner
To put a work on hold so you can focus on another, more urgent one. Example: “John has to put his plan to go to his son’s hocket game on the back burner while he is working to finish the budget on time”
Off the cuff
To do something without preparation, or to improvise. Example: “The Prime Minister was caught off guard by questions from the journalists on the news that broke out just minutes before, he had to speak off the cuff”
SPEAKING PRACTICE
Make a sentence using one or more of the following words:
blow, run, brew, scans , incident, breakdown, schedule, appointments, issue, agenda, tour, Key Performance Indicators, budget; projections , manpower, expenses, equipment availability, capital project expenditure, trend, consolidate, draft performance evaluation. deadline, due dates, impromptu