The Future of Work in legal English
One day offices will be a thing of the past.
— Sir Richard Branson
Start Here Let's break this into 4 parts.
Seminar
1
History of Work
What is a pun?
US vs UK English
General Employment Vocabulary
Seminar
2
Acting for an Employee
Know Your Rights
Are you joking?
Telecommuting
Seminar
3
Acting for an Employer
ILO
How to Document Behavior
How to Avoid Getting Sued
Seminar
4
The Future of Work
Diversity
Work Jokes
Labor Contracts 101
Let’s Get Started!
The best way to predict the future is by creating it.
— Abe Lincoln
Diversity
The new buzzword in the workplace is diversity. We have all heard the term but what do we do with it? In this article we will define what diversity really means and how inclusion goals can help develop your organization and how to set them out.
Why is it important for workplaces to have performance goals in diversity and inclusion?
This creates a sense of belonging within the company. The employees feel they can share something, and it’s a better place to work for everyone if other people can’t understand where they’re coming from. It is easier to be open minded and accept recommendations and comments from colleagues and coworkers when the sense of belonging exists.
A low level of diversity is an obstacle for recruiting
In the modern day workplace both of generation Z and millennials both say that diversity is one of the key factors in training a company. Around 55% of generation Z respondents feel that diversity and inclusion policies are more important than salary in the initial hiring stages.
Some employees feel they cannot be themselves at work
One of the factors that leads to performance increases is that employees can be themselves and they can feel comfortable in their own skin at work. In a recent study in the United States, the LGBTQ segment revealed that only 40% felt comfortable really revealing their identity at work.
Studies have shown diverse organizations perform better
One of the factors that leads to performance increases is that employees can be themselves and they can feel comfortable in their own skin at work.
Who is Joan C. Williams?
Described as having “something approaching rock star status” in her field by The New York Times Magazine, Joan C. Williams has played a central role in reshaping the conversation about work, gender, and class over the past quarter century. Williams is a Sullivan Professor of Law, Hastings Foundation Chair, and Founding Director of the Center for WorkLife Law at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. Williams’ path-breaking work helped create the field of work-family studies and modern workplace flexibility policies.
Williams’ work on social class has influenced scholars, policymakers, and the press. It includes her prize-winning Unbending Gender: Why Family and Work Conflict and What To Do About It (Oxford, 2000), Reshaping the Work-Family Debate: Why Men and Class Matter (Harvard, 2010), and widely read reports such as The Three Faces of Work-Family Conflict (co-authored with Heather Boushey). Williams has played a central role in documenting how work-family conflict affects working-class families, through reports such as “One Sick Child Away From Being Fired” (2006) and “Improving Work-Life Fit in Hourly Jobs” (2011).
Williams’ Harvard Business Review article, “What So Many People Don’t Get About the U.S. Working Class” has been read over 3 million times and is now the most read article in HBR’s 90-plus year history. In addition, Williams uses the findings of social science to create stable schedules for hourly workers and interrupt implicit bias at major U.S. companies.
What is a Joke? Puns v. Jokes
The word pun and the word joke both exist; they are both nouns; they are both verbs. They have different meanings in the different parts of speech and we will take a further look down below. A tip to help improve your English is to learn all of the vocabulary in the jokes and puns, since the words have double meanings, therefore you can expand your communication skills.
Verbs:
To make jokes, talk humorously with the intention to make people laugh.
Nouns:
A joke is just an amusing story.
Boss!
Boss!
Boss!
I use artificial sweetener at work.
I add it to everything I say to my boss.
A guy goes in for a job interview and sits down with the boss.
The boss asks him, “What do you think is your worst quality?”
The man says “I’m probably too honest.”
The boss says, “That’s not a bad thing, I think being honest is a good quality.”
The man replies, “I don’t care about what you think!”
I always tell new hires, don’t think of me as your boss, think of me as a friend who can fire you.
Work!
Work!
Work!
I get plenty of exercise at work – jumping to conclusions, pushing my luck, and dodging deadlines.
How do construction workers party?
They raise the roof.
I have a lot of jokes about unemployed people but none of them work.
Don’t let it kill you, it is only your job!
Hard work never killed anyone, but why take the chance?
I have all the money I’ll ever need; if I die by 4:00 p.m. today.
Just for the lawyer …
Early to bed, early to rise makes people suspicious.
Key Takeaway
- Jokes should be amusing.
Labor Contracts 101
Essential Clauses of an Employment Contract
Non-solicitation of Employees
Non-solicitation of Clients
Restraint of Trade
A contract in restraint of trade is one in which a party (the covenanter) agrees with any other party (the covenantee) to restrict his liberty in the future to carry on trade with other persons not parties to the contract in such manner as he chooses
Intellectual Property
The employer’s property before/after the employment
The employee’s property before/after the employment
The property created together
Which is the most important to you?
Key Takeaways
- Your employees can become your biggest competition
About the Author Eric Froiland
Eric is a legal English teacher from the United States and has been based out of Bogota, Colombia for the last 10 years. He is the owner and founder of Legal English Innovation SAS, which is recognized as the top legal English academy in Colombia and is an official Test of Legal English Skills (TOLES) examination center.
