(Franz Lee and Carl Cotton both work for Carnforth Bank. Franz Lee is the Human Relations Manager and Carl Cotton is the Public relations Manager. They’re talking about their own daily work.)

场景：公关部经理办公室      人物：Mr. Lee、Mr. Cotton

Mr. Lee: Carl, as the PR manager of our company, what do you enjoy most about your work?

Mr. Cotton: Well, you know, we’re part of one of the fastest growing markets that’s ever existed. So it’s very satisfying to see how we’ve been able to be successful among fierce competition and to see the way we’re helping change the nature of banking services in the future. I think that’s both very exciting and satisfying.

Mr. Lee: Sure. Now we’re a global company with operations in almost every continent.

Mr. Cotton: Yes, Franz, how do you define your responsibility as human resource manager for the company?

Mr. Lee: My main job is to coordinate the company’s workforce, including hiring, firing, and interpersonal relations. And I would like to call myself a “company doctor”, because I serve as the go-to person for questions about benefits, and I’m often called on to settle disputes or problems among staff.

Mr. Cotton: What do you think is the most interesting part of your work?

Mr. Lee: Well, the most interesting part, the part that I really like to see is seeing the people change.

Mr. Cotton: That’s impressive. What have you learned from your work?

Mr. Lee: What I have learned is how to get people to be realistic about what their strengths and weaknesses are, to get them committed to making changes quickly, and it’s very rewarding when people actually take that on and make a change in the business.

Mr. Cotton: How long does it normally take you to get people to change? It’s said that people can hardly change.

Mr. Lee: Well, I could normally do that in a fairly short period of time. I’ve got some techniques that I’ve developed over the years, that I get people engaged in the process of change very quickly. And if they can’t change, I have a saying “If you can’t change the people, you have to change the people!” So those who won’t change change another way. They have to go.

Mr. Cotton: That seems like an effective way to get people to change.

Mr. Lee: Yeah, yeah, it is. So, Carl, what about your typical working day?

Mr. Cotton: I would typically get up at six o’clock, I’d go out for a run, have some breakfast, be in the office by eight, and then probably go to some meetings. I spend a lot of time working with people inside the company on things like, the way the businesses are going, strategic development. And then the people outside the company, particularly investors, clients and the media, perhaps companies that we’re interested to form new relationships with. It’s always a busy day. What about you, Franz? What is your typical working day like?

Mr. Lee: Sure. I would probably start at about 9 o’clock. I don’t switch on a computer as the first thing. (Mr. Cotton: That’s good.) I would normally talk to someone either by phone or face to face. That’s how I would start the day.

Mr. Cotton: As a departmental manager, do you have a lot of mails to respond to in your daily work? As for myself, I have eighty to a hundred e-mails everyday, even though, you know, sometimes they don’t require answers. Email is like a conversation. They send you an email because they want a response fairly quickly. That takes an amount of attention and there are obviously lots of phone calls and so on as well.

Mr. Lee: Well, I don’t have a lot of mails, actually. My day-to-day interactions are mainly negotiating with the staff, arranging training sessions and keeping track of the related expenditures and claims. Since personnel disputes also come within my domain, settling allegations of sexual harassment, mitigating personality conflicts, and investigating disputes over working conditions are all part of my job.

Mr. Cotton: Yeah, I can imagine that, so you call yourself a “company doctor”.

Mr. Lee: That’s right. As departmental managers, communication is always the most important part of our work.

Mr. Cotton: I agree!