Active - Passive - BE 4 Unit 5: Job Satisfaction

Summary

We use the passive when the person who performs the action is unknown, unimportant, or obvious.

• We are  not interested in who performs an action or it is not necessary to know.
• Describe processes and procedures because we are more interested in the process itself than who carries it out.
• To write in a more informal style because it is less personal than the active. It is often used in reports, minutes, and business correspondence.

Passive constructions are common in formal contexts, for example in reports or minutes, and they help to create an impersonal style. Using it as a subject enables us to avoid mentioning the person responsible for saying or doing something.

It was felt that the system needed to be changed.

It was decided that expenditure would be limited to $250.000

It was suggested that staff be given stock options.

It was agreed that the proposal should be rejected.

 

Present Simple

The minutes are always taken by a member of HR.

Past simple

The performance reviews were carried out over the summer.

Present perfect

Bonuses and other incentive programmes have been cut since the recession.

Past perfect

Employees felt their jobs had been made more interesting through training.

Present continuous

The survey stated that employees become unhappy when they feel that their concern are being ignored by management.

Future simple

Employee will now be expected to act on the reviewer’s suggestion as soon as possible.

Modal verbs with passives

The report stated that more employees should be encouraged to provide feedback on management.

Passive infinitives

They were happy to be accepted on the fast-track programme.

Over time, job satisfaction has been defined in a number of ways.

Edwin Locke said that job satisfaction was determined by the differences between what one wants in a job and what one has in a job.

Herzberg states that satisfaction and dissatisfaction are driven by the different things – motivation and hygiene factors (such as pay), respectively.

Motivation can be seen as an inner force that drives people to perform.

One of the most famous ways of measuring job satisfaction is the Minnesota Job Satisfaction Questionnaire, which was created in 1963.

Some researchers say that people who are satisfied with life tend to be satisfied with their job.

Passives

On a scale that measured causes of happiness, unemployment was ranked in joint second place along with health, behind marriage separation.

 A political career on its own is so fragile that it is difficult to apply the concept of job satisfaction when people may be thrown out of office after five years.

Do you think it is right that increasing number of travelling employees are being asked to stay in cheaper hotel and find budget airline seats?

If I am not satisfied with my job description, I’ve been told I can rewrite it.

People are better informed about job opportunities now than they were ten years ago.

When asked why so many employees had left the company after the merger, the CEO admitted that not enough attention had been paid to personal issues.

Management understood that the dispute had to be resolved without delay if further strike action was to be averted.

Some experts are convinced that in a decade or two, nobody will be expected to work more than 40 hours a week on average.

Active passive forms

Being young in business is often a good thing.

If you are young, people usually praise you when things go well and forgive you when things go wrong.

However, many experts claim that youngsters nowadays are victim of youth ageism.

According to a recent report, teens often feel they  miss out on opportunities to advance because they are perceived as inexperienced.

Many complain that they are denied interesting and challenging jobs.

They say they are held back by an outdated idea of careers where young people start at the bottom and slowly work their way up.

If teenagers are the most restless of age groups, they argue, perhaps it is because they  lack interesting challenges at work.

Of course, one might object that there is nothing outdated about the idea of starting at the bottom and ending at the top.

Indeed, it would be a very strange world if careers worked the other way round.

And if teenagers are not offered exciting jobs, perhaps it is because such jobs are rare and people usually get them after gaining sufficient experience.

*

The working week has been cut to 30 hours by the management since the downturn.

My team was given a new assignment.

The employees are being listened to by Management.

A lot of change was caused by the new regulations.

Customer should be encouraged to give feedback.

New email addresses are always set up by Ben in IT.

Some important maintenance were carried out overnight.

The new workers will be expected to speak good English.