EnglishPod

The Office - Planning For The Worst #D0025

A: Well, right, let’s move to our next order of business, as many of you are aware, in recent weeks there has been a lot of media coverage surrounding this bird flu issue. And it’s come to my attention that our company lacks any sort of bird flu contingency plan.

B: Basically, we need to come up with a clear plan; we need to outline specific actions that our company can take to maintain critical business functions in case a pandemic strikes.

A: So, what I’d like to do is: first appoint someone to look after drafting our plan; Ralph, I’d like you to head up this project.

C: Sure, no problem. What issues do you want me to consider?

B: Well, let’s see, there are a few points we need to be thinking about... first, I’ll need you to analyze our numbers and figure out what kind of financial impact an outbreak might have.

A: You’ll also need to think about how we can avoid any of our employees getting infected; think of ways to reduce employee-customer contact, perhaps some IT solutions that will allow our people to work from home.

C: I guess you’ll need me to forecast employee absences as well, right? And I’ll think about the impact this will have on our clients. Hey, what about vaccines? Should we be thinking about getting vaccines for our employees?

A: Exactly right. So, I’ll leave this to you, and we’ll review the draft plan in two weeks. Okay, so, anyone want to order some KFC for lunch?

Key Vocabulary

order of business - an issue that must be discussed

bird flu - flu originated from birds that carry virus

contingency plan - a plan that prepares for a situation where things can go wrong

critical - extremely important

pandemic - a situation where a disease is spread out very quickly, and affects many people in many countries

draft - make a first version of something

impact - major influence or effect on something

outbreak - a sudden start of disease affecting many people

head up - lead and be responsible for

forecast - predict what is going to happen based on available information

vaccine - medical substance that protect people or animal against diseases

Supplementary Vocabulary

epidemic - event where a disease spreads really quickly and affects a large number of people

backup plan - a plan made in case events go badly

pandemic preparedness plan - a plan to prepare for the possible outbreak of a pandemic

transmit disease - pass disease from one individual to another

avian influenza - bird flu

influenza - flu; illness caused by a virus