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BUSINESS ENGLISH · BUSINESS ISSUES · UPPER-INTERMEDIATE (B2-C1)

REASONS FOR
LEAVING

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1 Warm up

In pairs, discuss the following questions.

1. What reasons could you have, or have you had, for leaving a company?
2. What do you think a company can do to reduce the number of people who leave the company?
3. How long would you expect to stay with a new company? Why?

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REASONS FOR LEAVING

2 Vocabulary focus
Part A: Match the following definitions to the words highlighted in the following sentences. There is
an extra definition.

a. the quality of always supporting someone or something in all circumstances

b. the speed at which employees leave a company and are replaced by new ones

c. take away someone’s job because there is no work for them to do

d. enter somewhere where you do not belong

e. make someone want to do something by giving them an interesting reason to do it

f. difficult to find, do, or achieve

g. careful thought about your life and achievements

h. the principles around what is right or wrong behaviour in a particular situation

i. the amount of enthusiasm a group of people have for a task at a particular time

1. After I failed to get the job, I had a period of self-reflection and decided that I was not really the
right person for the banking industry.

2. I expected to get a promotion quite quickly after I joined the company, but it proved to be quite
elusive for another five years.

3. As a result of the recession, eight people in the company were laid off when they reduced the size
of the sales department.

4. They tried to entice her to remain with the company by increasing her salary but she was intent
on leaving.

5. He was promoted to a senior position, not because he was particularly good at his job, but because
he had a high level of loyalty towards the company.

6. When senior management didn’t pay any bonuses last year, it had a negative effect on morale in
the company and a few people left.

7. The long hours and low pay meant the company had a high level of turnover with few people
staying for more than a year.

8. I wanted to ask her if she was OK because I could see she was upset, but I didn’t want to intrude
on her private life.

Which definition was not used?

1. What is it the definition for?

a. legal b. morality c. immoral d. illegal

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REASONS FOR LEAVING

Part B: In pairs, discuss the following questions.

1. Does your company have a high or low level of turnover? Why?

2. What would entice you to move to a different company?
3. What reasons do you think a company might have to lay off employees?
4. Do you think loyalty towards the company you work for is important? Why/Why not?
5. What achievement or experience that you want has been elusive for you so far in life?
6. When was the last time you had a period of self-reflection? Did you change anything as a result?
If so, what?
7. Do you think a company has the right to intrude into the private lives of its employees?

3 Answering Reading - Part 3

In Reading - Part 3, you will have to read a text of between 450 - 550 words. The text could be a
magazine or newspaper article on a business topic, or business literature on subjects such as management,
problems facing companies, or international trading.

Part A: Read the following paragraph from the article you will read later in the Reading - Part 3 task.

There was a time when people joined a company and would expect to stay there for their
entire working life. Communities and friendships were built around the workplace and loyalty
to the company was held in high esteem. Those days are gone. The world of business
has become a lot more cut-throat, both from an employer’s and an employee’s perspective.
Corporations will lay off workers at a moment’s notice if it means saving profits and so
employees have responded by keeping their options open, often moving from one job to
another to secure a better position.

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REASONS FOR LEAVING

Now answer the following questions which will help you more fully understand it.

1. What does it mean if something is ‘held in high esteem’?

2. What does the writer mean when they say that business has become a lot more ‘cut-throat’?

3. What does it mean if something can happen at ‘a moment’s notice’?

4. What are you doing if you are ‘keeping your options open’?

Part B: Now read the following paragraph from a different text.

At the end of the interview, it’s worth asking about the turnover rate. There are a number
of ways to do this, from the direct (‘How many people have left this company/department
in the last year?’) to the more subtle (‘What happened to the last person who did this job?’).
You are likely to get more information from how they answer than the answer itself. If there’s
negativity in the workplace or the company has had problems, it is likely to show in the way
they talk about it. As uncomfortable as some people may find asking these questions, it’s
much better than taking a job in a company where you are deeply unhappy. They could give
you a strong sign about whether you are making the right decision or not.

Now look at the following question and write an answer to it on the lines below without using the
same words as in the paragraph.

Why does the writer suggest asking about the turnover rate?

....................................................................................................

....................................................................................................

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REASONS FOR LEAVING

4 Reading - Part 3

Read the article below about employees leaving companies. For each question 1 - 6, mark one letter
(A, B, C or D) for the answer you choose.

Should I stay or should I go?

Why employees leave

A. There was a time when people joined a company and would expect to stay there for their entire working life.
Communities and friendships were built around the workplace and loyalty to the company was held in high esteem.
Those days are gone. The world of business has become a lot more cut-throat, both from an employer’s and an
employee’s perspective. Corporations will lay off workers at a moment’s notice if it means saving profits and so
employees have responded by keeping their options open, often moving from one job to another to secure a
better position.

B. However, the reasons for leaving any company are often similar. Improved salary and benefits is an obvious one.
Having extra money in your pay packet is enticing for most people. In recent times, we have seen an increase in
people looking for work-life balance. A 2022 survey involving 163,000 employees in 34 countries, showed 65%
of them saw this as the most important factor, beating salary. Even if you enjoy your job, if there’s no time to
spend with friends and family, happiness can be elusive.

C. Another common reason for leaving is the relationship with the manager. A variety of negatives, such as low
engagement with the work, feeling underappreciated, and poor mental health can often be linked to this one
factor. A good relationship with the manager can transform a worker’s relationship with the company, but equally,
a poor manager can destroy it, regardless of the company. The working environment is also a common complaint.
Employees subjected to an office without much natural light, or too much noise can also increase levels of
dissatisfaction.

D. There are factors outside of a company’s control that can fuel the urge to leave, however. Birthdays tend to prompt
self-reflection around a career, particularly significant ones such as turning 40 and 50. Job-hunting tends to rise
by around 12% prior to a birthday. There are also events such as school reunions which have the same effect,
no doubt brought on by comparisons to the imagined lives of former classmates. There’s a 16% increase in job
searches following employees meeting up with long-term friends and associates.

E. Losing employees has a damaging effect on a company both in terms of its profits and morale. People leaving,
particularly if they are well-liked by their colleagues, can lead to others reevaluating their attitude towards staying.
It also increases workload for others and breaks routines. The cost of training a replacement is also significant and
it’s often nine months to a year before the new employee is expected to work at the required level.

F. As a result of this, some companies are taking measures to reduce turnover by identifying employees who might
leave. For example, software can monitor when an employee is spending time on job hunting sites or social media
such as LinkedIn. Information gathered from security cards can be used to indicate that someone is attending
interviews. While it’s within the law, these measures certainly intrude on employee’s privacy. Yet the global
investment bank Credit Suisse, for example, claimed to have saved between $75 million and $100 million in training
and rehiring costs using these measures. With so much money at stake, it’s unlikely companies will be questioning
the morality of the situation any time soon.

Sources: Chron, Randstad, Harvard Business Review, BBC

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REASONS FOR LEAVING

1. What does the writer say about how employees’ relationships with companies have changed?

a. Workers weren’t able to move from company to company previously.

b. Companies cannot be trusted as much as they used to be.

c. There is a lower level of commitment on both sides these days.

d. Increasing profits has taken the place of providing a living wage.

2. What does the writer say is the key motivation for employees to switch jobs?

a. An increase in disposable income.

b. More equal time for work and leisure.

c. Having a greater number of paid days off.

d. The opportunity for foreign travel.

3. According to the writer, a poor manager could be responsible for

a. employees often b. an increase in the c. distracting lights d. team members

missing amount of sick and high levels of feeling
deadlines. leave taken. noise. disconnected.

4. According to the article, the most significant factor causing people to look for a new job which a
company cannot anticipate is
a. employees comparing themselves to people they went to school or university with at
gatherings.
b. the fear that people have of ageing without achieving their goals in life.

c. wanting to be able to spend more time with family and friends as they get older.

d. having friends who make far more money than they do.

5. Which of the following factors caused by an employee quitting is NOT mentioned by the writer?

a. The negative effect on morale for co-workers.

b. The need for colleagues to cover the leaver’s job.

c. The increased likelihood of missing work targets.

d. The financial impact of refilling the position.

6. What is the writer’s attitude towards techniques used by companies to reduce the risk of
employees leaving?
a. They are helpful in providing other work options for the employee.

b. Although they are legal, they shouldn’t be allowed.

c. As a cost-saving measure, they’re very effective.

d. While they are not against the law, they are morally questionable.

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REASONS FOR LEAVING

5 Speaking - Part 1

In pairs, take it in turns to ask each other the following questions. Try to give full answers and your
personal opinions just as you would in the exam. In the exam, this section will last around three
minutes, but try talking until the teacher asks you to stop to get as much practice as you can. If you
know your partner, remember that the examiner will not know you in the exam, so act as though you
know nothing about them.

1. Are you working at the moment or are you studying? What is your job or the subject that you
study?
2. Tell me something about what interests you in your work or the subject that you study.
3. What kind of company would you like to work for in the future?
4. How long would you like to continue doing what you do at the moment?
5. What kind of career would you like to have in the future?
6. Which industry interests you the most? Why?
7. What difficulties do you think you might have in your career in future?
8. Would you be interested in working abroad in the future?
9. What would your ideal job be?
10. What is it about a company that makes you want to work for them?

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TEACHER MATERIALS · UPPER-INTERMEDIATE (B2-C1)

REASONS FOR LEAVING

Transcripts

4. Reading - Part 3

Reader: Should I Stay or Should I Go?

Reader: Why employees leave

Reader: There was a time when people joined a company and would expect to stay there for their
entire working life. Communities and friendships were built around the workplace and
loyalty to the company was held in high esteem. Those days are gone. The world of
business has become a lot more cut-throat, both from an employer’s and an employee’s
perspective. Corporations will lay off workers at a moment’s notice if it means saving
profits and so employees have responded by keeping their options open, often moving
from one job to another to secure a better position.

Reader: However, the reasons for leaving any company are often similar. Improved salary and
benefits is an obvious one. Having extra money in your pay packet is enticing for most
people. In recent times, we have seen an increase in people looking for work-life balance.
A 2022 survey involving 163,000 employees in 34 countries, showed 65% of them saw
this as the most important factor, beating salary. Even if you enjoy your job, if there’s no
time to spend with friends and family, happiness can be elusive.

Reader: Another common reason for leaving is the relationship with the manager. A variety of
negatives, such as low engagement with the work, feeling underappreciated, and poor
mental health can often be linked to this one factor. A good relationship with the manager
can transform a worker’s relationship with the company, but equally, a poor manager
can destroy it, regardless of the company. The working environment is also a common
complaint. Employees subjected to an office without much natural light, or too much
noise can also increase levels of dissatisfaction.

Reader: There are factors outside of a company’s control that can fuel the urge to leave, however.
Birthdays tend to prompt self-reflection around a career, particularly significant ones such
as turning 40 and 50. Job-hunting tends to rise by around 12% prior to a birthday. There
are also events such as school reunions which have the same effect, no doubt brought on
by comparisons to the imagined lives of former classmates. There’s a 16% increase in job
searches following employees meeting up with long-term friends and associates.

Reader: Losing employees has a damaging effect on a company both in terms of its profits and
morale. People leaving, particularly if they are well-liked by their colleagues, can lead to
others reevaluating their attitude towards staying. It also increases workload for others
and breaks routines. The cost of training a replacement is also significant and it’s often
nine months to a year before the new employee is expected to work at the required level.

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TEACHER MATERIALS · UPPER-INTERMEDIATE (B2-C1)

REASONS FOR LEAVING

Reader: As a result of this, some companies are taking measures to reduce turnover by identifying
employees who might leave. For example, software can monitor when an employee is
spending time on job hunting sites or social media such as LinkedIn. Information gathered
from security cards can be used to indicate that someone is attending interviews. While
it’s within the law, these measures certainly intrude on employee’s privacy. Yet the global
investment bank Credit Suisse, for example, claimed to have saved between $75 million
and $100 million in training and rehiring costs using these measures. With so much money
at stake, it’s unlikely companies will be questioning the morality of the situation any time
soon.

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TEACHER MATERIALS · UPPER-INTERMEDIATE (B2-C1)

REASONS FOR LEAVING

Key

1. Warm up

5 mins.
This task opens the lesson with focusing students on the main topic. These ideas are covered later in the Reading
task they will do and so provide a useful background to what they will have to do.

2. Vocabulary focus

Part A
10 mins.
This focuses on some of the key vocabulary that is used in the Reading - Part 3 task later in the lesson. Ask
the students to connect the definitions to the vocabulary used in context. Ask them to do it unaided in the first
instance, but allow them to use a reference later if needed. Be sure they can correctly pronounce the target
vocabulary.

1. g. careful thought about your life and achievements

2. f. difficult to find, do, or achieve
3. c. take away someone’s job because there is no work for them to do
4. e. make someone want to do something by giving them an interesting reason to do it
5. a. the quality of always supporting someone or something in all circumstances
6. i. the amount of enthusiasm a group of people have for a task at a particular time
7. b. the speed at which employees leave a company and are replaced by new ones
8. d. enter somewhere where you do not belong

Which definition was not used? h. the principles around what is right or wrong behaviour in a particular situation

What is it the definition for?

1. b.

Part B
10 mins.
Ask students to discuss the questions to practise using the target vocabulary. Some of these questions touch on
issues raised in the Reading - Part 3 task later and so will provide them with background to the text.

3. Answering Reading - Part 3

15 mins.
Part A
This section is designed to inform the students about what they will encounter in Reading - Part 3 and look at
some of the skills required to answer it well. Part A looks at a paragraph from the text that they will deal with later
in Reading - Part 3. Students will often have to infer meaning of phrases and vocabulary in the articles they read
and this section is to help them to do that. Answering the questions will help them have a fuller understanding of

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REASONS FOR LEAVING

the text and help them to answer the multiple choice in the next section. You can ask them to infer the meaning,
but you may want to allow lower-level students to look up the targeted vocabulary.

1. That it is given a lot of respect or thought of highly. Here, it is saying that staying with a company for a long
time was what most people did because it was expected of them, though not necessarily because they wanted
to. Note the use of the passive which implies that it was an expectation of society generally.
2. It means it’s competitive in a way that is aggressive and not fair. It comes from the idea that someone is willing
to kill you (to cut your throat) if it helps them.
3. It means it can happen without warning. To give notice is to give a warning that something is going to happen
in the future. So if that notice is only a moment, then it’s no warning at all.
4. You’re not making one choice and sticking with it, you are making sure there are other possibilities to choose
from. In this context, it means that employees are not committing to one company, they are open to working for
others.

Part B
Students are given a paragraph and instead of being given a multiple-choice question, are asked to simply write
an answer that avoids using words from the paragraph itself. It is a good habit to get into for students to read
the questions in this section without reading the options. They can then decide for themselves what they think
the answer is, before matching their own ideas to the options provided. This task will help them to do that. A
suggested answer has been given here, but obviously give students the freedom to use their own words as long
as they express the same idea.
Suggested answer:
It can show if the company has been having issues and whether it’s a positive work environment or not.

4. Reading - Part 3

10 mins.
This is a chance for students to practise a Reading - Part 3 style task. You may want to ask them to cover the
options and read just the questions before reading the article to help them focus on their own ideas. Then get
them to match their thoughts to the options. Be sure to go through the answers with them afterwards.

Sources:
work.chron.com/effects-employee-resignations-productivity-11269.html
www.randstad.co.uk/market-insights/staff-retention/top-reasons-why-employees-leave-their-jobs-2022/
hbr.org/2016/09/why-people-quit-their-jobs
www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20210629-the-great-resignation-how-employers-drove-workers-to-quit

1. c. 2. b. 3. d. 4. a. 5. c. 6. d.

5. Speaking - Part 1

10 mins.
This gives students practise in the type of questions that they will encounter in Part 1 of the exam. While it will
last around three minutes in the exam, allow them to practise for as long as you feel is appropriate. Circulate and
help as needed.

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