Business English: Working in an office

In this lesson, we are going to focus on a typical day of an administrative assistant. 

Administrative assistants are needed in corporate offices, schools, government institutions, and in many more office settings. 

So what do administrative assistants do exactly? 

They organise the work of a business or an institution. 

"I work for a company which produces high-end clothing. My job involves quite a lot of paperwork.
I spend most of my time in the office in front of a computer. 

I type emails to customers and I open, sort and distribute incoming mail. I also need to answer incoming phone calls, and sometimes I show visitors round the company. 

I make appointments and keep record of who has visited the office. Occasionally I have to plan and attend meetings as well as take detailed minutes of what has been been said." 


VOCABULARY 

• involve - include doing 
• paperwork - work that uses paper, e.g. reports, forms 
• type - write using a keyboard [type / write an email] 
• appointment - arrange a time when you meet someone [make an appointment] 
• keep record - when you write something so that it can be kept and used in the future 
• attend - go to 
• minutes [plural] - a summary or record of what is said or decided at a formal meeting [take the minutes] 

Exercise 

Complete the dialogues with the words from the list in the correct form. 

attend / go to          show round          produce          involve
appointment            arrange                 organise
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Dialogue 1 
A: What does your company do? 
B: It .................... all kinds of labels - price labels, bottle labels, even postage stamps. 

Dialogue 2 
A: Let me ............... you ............... the office. Our sales representatives work in this open plan area. Over there is the office of our Senior Sales Manager. Do you know her? 
B: No, I don't. 
A: Let me introduce you to her. 

Dialogue 3  
A: I've .................... to see the manager on Friday, but I'm afraid I'm going to be away. 
B: OK. Do you want me to make another .................... for you? 
A: Yes, please. That would be great. Next Wednesday or Friday, if possible. 

Dialogue 4 
A: Do you have to .................... meetings? 
B: Yes, sometimes, if my boss is away and he can't go. 

Dialogue 5 
A: What does you work ....................? 
B: Basically, I have to .................... travel arrangements, including purchasing airline tickets and making hotel reservations. 


Answers: 
​1. produces; 2. show ..... round; 3. arranged; appointment; 4. attend / go to; 5. involve; organise; 


TASK:
Write down about a typical day at work. 

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Other lessons:
Collocations with Job (Part 1) 
Collocations with Job (Part 2) 
English Lesson: Jobs and Skills 
Business English: How to Talk about Your Job Responsibilities 
English Lesson: Collocations for Success 
English Lesson: Collocations for Feelings 
Commonly Used Phrases in Spoken English 


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