商務禮節美語第182期:下崗,解僱 laid off(上)

Paul和Sara夫婦倆跟老朋友Jesse和Miika一起吃飯。

P: It's so good to see you guys! It's been forever!

M: We should try to set a monthly dinner 've missed you!

S: So what's new?

J: Tracy just turned four. She's growing ridiculously fast. Seems like yesterday she was a tiny infant in my arms.

S: 's so sweet. Did she like the teddy bear we sent?

M: She loved it! She named it Puki and the two of them are inseparable!

兩對夫婦很久不見。It's been forever! 是誇張的說法，意思就是好久不見。 So what's new? 有什麼新鮮事呢？ Jesse和Miika的女兒Tracy剛過四歲。She's growing ridiculously fast. 長得太快了。 Tracy很喜歡Paul和Sara送的泰迪熊，走到哪裏都帶在身邊，The two of them are inseparable.

P: So how's work these days, Jesse? Times are tough, huh?

J: You know, you guys are such old friends...I'm not going to beat around the bush. I got laid off last month.

經濟不好，Times are tough. Jesse說，大家都是老朋友，我就不拐彎抹角了。I am not going to beat around the bush. Beat around the bush, 是兜圈子的意思。I got laid off我被裁員了。

S: Oh, that's awful! But we should level with you hospital cut me back to part-time.

M: I'm so sorry to hear that! You work such long hours! What explanation did they give?

S: They said they were outsourcing most of the hospital's paperwork to costs like a third of what they are spending now.

J: Makes sense from a business perspective, but it's very unfortunate for you.

Sara也坦白地說，她在醫院的工作從全職改成兼職了。 Level with somebody，向某人坦白。 Part-time，兼職工作。醫院減少她的工作時間是爲了節省開支，把大部分文書工作，paperwork，都外包到印度去了。

S: How about you? Why did you get a pink slip?

J: The company is "restructuring"h in this case is a fancy word for going bankrupt.

P: Well, you two are some of the most resilient people I what's the plan?

M: I'm taking more freelance writing work. I can do that from home and still watch Tracy. That way we save on daycare.

J: And I'm thinking I'll go back to school and finish my Master's Degree. Then when the economy picks up, I'll be much more marketable.

Miika說自己打算多做一些自由撰稿工作，freelance writing work. Jesse則打算回去完成碩士學位，Master's Degree，等待市場回暖。