2013年商务英语高级考试听力原文5
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Man: It seemed like the right thing to do at the time, and it has paid off in some ways. Certainly, we did need to make savings in order to compete with other companies. We were paying out far too much on basic services. It just wasn’t allowing for realistic profit margins. Well, the new premises are attractive. The whole place looks much smarter, more in line with the image we’re looking to project. And there’s no problem, yet, with getting the customers in. It’s pretty busy, in fact. The advertising does seem to be helping to keep the products moving. But in terms of staffing, while there’s no problem recruiting them round here, it is proving tricky to get their skills up to standard. We’re just too busy dealing with the customers to have time to work on that. Man: It’s gone fairly well. I mean, it was never going to be straightforward, shifting an operation of this size somewhere completely different. Anyway, it had to be done, because so much of the shopfloor was empty. We just didn’t require that sort of area for the equipment. The suppliers seem to have adapted well. Productivity’s up, the managers are happy, the facilities aren’t perfect, but they’ll do. What we didn’t do was to properly predict how many new operatives we’d be needing, and that does mean that the ones we have got are having to do far too much overtime to make up the shortfall. Still, I hope the new adverts will attract a new wave of applications. Woman: I don’t know - I just can’t get used to it. Everything’s so different here. Not just the building, although of course that’s a big factor. But it’s also their ways of going about things. It’s a completely different corporate culture they’ve brought with them. I guess it must be a recipe for success, otherwise they wouldn’t have been able to buy us out. But it would help if this place was better. I mean, the whole building’s so ugly. Just to look at it when you arrive in the morning makes you feel depressed. And the canteen’s too small for all of us, and there’s only one lift. Most of the managers seem unhappy, and I don’t blame them. I’m not sure how long I’m going to stay, to be honest. Man: I feel we had little choice but to go. I think it would have been very different if it had been part of our plan. Right up until the last minute, I thought we were going to be able to renegotiate, but they were just so stubborn about the terms, so it was impossible to sign the renewal. Well, at least we’ve finally got the computers, phones and so on sorted out – that was a real nightmare at the beginning. And the paperwork’s back under control, so the managers are looking a bit more content. It’s a pity it’s so much harder to get to than the last place, and it means more people are inevitably turning up late. I’m really not sure what to do about that side of things. Woman: I still don’t know if we made the right decision, to be honest. I thought it was logical at the time, that it was fairly straightforward to shift the equipment, arrange a new lease, and so on, and that we’d then be much better placed for getting deliveries. And that has worked out OK; I mean, they are managing to get things to us on time now, with the shorter distance to come. But in the food business, you depend on your reputation, and I think that one bad review has done us an awful lot of damage. We’re just not getting enough customers through the door. The waiters are spending time doing nothing, because of the empty tables. 相关资料 |
