The Office Conflict
Andy Boon

CREATIVE EDUCATIONThe Office Conflict

PLEby Andy Boon

Book 8SAM

Pocket Reader Series

C R E AT I V E E D U C AT I O N

1The Office Conflict

Pocket Readers Overview

SAM

PLE

The 10-book business reader series tells
the story of your first year working in
the product marketing department ofABC Convenience Stores. The series
looks at skills and strategies for being
successful in interviews, the first week
on the job, giving presentations, taking
part in meetings, writing emails,
entertaining business clients, goingoverseas on business, dealing with officeconflict, launching new products, andmentoring new staff.

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The Office Conflict...... 4

PLE

1. The Beginning...... 8

3. Successful:- The Office Conflict Workshop..... 39

4. Language Focus & Tasks..... 56

SAM

2. Unsuccessful:- Conflict with Mr. Ogawa

3

The Office Conflict

1. The Beginning

SAM

PL
E

The story begins with you. In April,
you started work in the productmarketing department of ABC Convenience Stores. You had a good firstweek on the job (See Book 2). You dida successful business presentation(See Book 3). You chaired a successfulbusiness meeting (See Book 4). You
attended a training workshop. You
learned how to write better business emails (See Book 5). You looked
after and entertained two important overseas speakers from the U.S.
(See Book 6). You also went on yourfirst business trip overseas, attended an important conference, andmet Mary Benson from the ABC
U.K. team (See Book 7).

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1. The BeginningMPLE

It is Monday morning. You are sitting at your desk working. You arevery busy. You have a lot of work todo. Suddenly, Mr. Ogawa’s telephone
starts ringing next to you. You getup and answer it. “Good morning,ABC Convenience Stores. Productmarketing department. How can I
help you?”SA“Hi. Can I speak to Mr. Ogawa?”
the voice on the other end of thetelephone asks.
“Mr. Ogawa?” you say. “Just hold ona moment!” You look around. You
see Mr. Ogawa is in a meeting withMs. Tanaka, the supervisor.
“I’m sorry,” you say. “He’s busy right5

The Office Conflict

now. Can I take a message?”“No, that’s okay,” the voice replies.
“I’ll call back later. Bye.”SAMPLEBefore you can ask the person’s
name, they put the phone down.
You continue with your work. Anhour later, Mr. Ogawa returns tohis desk. He looks sad. He sits therewith his head down looking at thedesk.
“Excuse me! Mr. Ogawa. You had aphone call about an hour ago,” yousay.
He looks up. “Huh?”“You had a phone call. The person
didn’t leave a message. She said she’d6

1. The Beginningcall you back,” you explain.

PLE

Suddenly, Mr. Ogawa shouts, “Don’tanswer my phone. Do you hear me?
Don’t answer my phone!”

M

Everybody stops working and looks
at him. He looks very angry. After asecond or two, everybody goes backto their work.

SA“I’m sorry,” you say.
Mr. Ogawa does not answer. Heignores you. He gets up and walks
out of the office.

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The Office Conflict

2. Conflict with Mr. Ogawa
2.1 Giving his Work to YouSAM

PL
E

It is now Monday afternoon. Mr.
Ogawa returns to his desk. He still
looks angry. You ignore him. You
continue with your work. You haveto send Ms. Igarashi a long reportby the end of the day. She is incharge of partner marketing. Shewants a report of the third quarter
sales of Underground Sandwiches ineach of the 8,000 ABC convenience
stores around the country. You arevery, very busy. It gets to 6:30 p.m.
You finish the report. You email it toMs. Igarashi as she has already gonehome. You are so happy. You start
to think about what you will eat fordinner. You shut down your com-8

2. Unsuccessful

PLEputer. You put some things in yourbag. Then, you look around the office. Most people have gone home.
There are only a few people still attheir desks. You get your coat andput it on. “See you tomorrow!” Yousay to the ABC staff still in the office. You start to walk to the door…

SAM

Suddenly, Mr. Ogawa appears fromthe smoking room. “Where are yougoing?” he asks.
“Err… Home!” you reply.
“But, you haven’t finished,” Mr. Ogawa says. He brings you back to his
desk and passes you lots of paperwork. There are thousands of reports
from stores around the country. “All9The Office Conflictof this information needs to be puton the computer.”“Tonight?” you ask.

PLE

“Yes, tonight,” Mr. Ogawa says. “Doit!”

SAM

Mr. Ogawa returns to the smoking
room. You take your coat off. You
switch your computer on. You startwork. But, then you look at the paperwork. Each report is about thesales and marketing of coffee products in ABC stores.

10“This is Mr. Ogawa’s job,” youthink to yourself. “He is responsible for this area. I am responsible for sandwiches and other foodproducts, but not coffee!” You feel

2. UnsuccessfulSAMPLEangry. First, Mr. Ogawa shouts at
you in front of everyone in the office. Now, he is giving you his work
to do. You think about complaining to Mr. Ogawa. “But, he has
been at ABC Convenience Storesmuch longer than me,” you think
to yourself. “He is also senior tome. And, recently, he gets angry
very easily. I’ll just do it. It’s easier than complaining. And, I don’t
want him to shout at me again.”
You start the paperwork. You work
very hard. It gets to 11:30 p.m. You
have about 40 minutes of workto do before you finish. But, yourlast train home is at midnight. Youdecide to finish the rest of the paperwork in the morning. On your11

The Office Conflict

way out of the office, you ask thesecurity guard, “Have you seen Mr.
Ogawa?”

PLE“Oh! He left the office hours ago.”
The security guard says. “I think heleft about 7:00 p.m.”

SAM

You are angry. “Why did I staylate and do his work and he wenthome?” you think to yourself.
You get home. It is too late to eat
anything. You take a bath and go tobed. You are still very angry with
Mr. Ogawa.

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2. Unsuccessful

2.2 Stealing your Ideas

PLE

You get to work in the morning. Youstart Mr. Ogawa’s paperwork again.
He arrives late for work. He walks
over to your desk.

M“Did you finish the paperwork?” heasks you.

SA

“Yes, I did,” you reply. You hand thepaperwork back to him.
He does not even thank you. He
takes the paperwork and returns
back to his desk. You feel angry with
Mr. Ogawa again, but you continue
with your work.
Later that morning, Ms. Tanaka asks13The Office Conflict

PLE

to talk to you in the meeting room.
“Yesterday, I spoke to Mr. Ogawa
about many things,” Ms. Tanakasays. “He gave me this great idea for
the Underground Sandwiches partnership deal. I’d like you to follow
it up with Sally Harrison and JohnTurnbull.”M“What idea?” you ask.

SA

“Well, winter is coming soon, as youknow,” Ms. Tanaka explains. “Yesterday, Mr. Ogawa suggested we start
selling hot soup in our stores. Underground Sandwiches has a rangeof very popular soup. We could sellthem at our ABC stores. I think thiswould be very successful. I’ve spoken to Ms. Igarashi and she agrees.”

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The Office Conflict

4. Language Focus and Tasks
4.1 Vocabulary #1

PL
E

Read the following sentences. Whatdo you think the words in bold mean?

M

1. Mr. Ogawa does not answer. Heignores you.
____________________________________________________________________________________

SA

2. There are several ways you candeal with office conflict.
____________________________________________________________________________________

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The Office Conflict

4.2 Vocabulary #2

Ignore:Conflict:

PL
E

Read the definitions to the words in
Task 4.1. Did you guess the meaningsof the words correctly?

(Noun) A big disagreementwith somebody. A fight.
(Noun) A company divides its
business year into four quarters. The third quarter includes
the months of July, August,and September.

SAM

Third quarter:(Verb) To pay no attention,
to not answer, to not listen tosomebody.

60

Smoking room:(Noun) A room at a company
where employees can smoke
cigarettes.

Responsible for:(Adjective) At a company,
an employee is responsible
for something. It is their job
to deal with, look after, or dosomething.

The Office Conflict

4.3 Useful Language
1. Telephoning

PLE- Good morning, ABC Convenience
Stores. Product marketing department.
How can I help you?
- Can I speak to ……?

- Just hold on a moment.

M- I’m sorry. He’s busy right now. Can I
take a message?

SA

2. Asking somebody to reflect on theiractions- What did you do?
- Would you do that again?
- How do / did you feel about …..?
- What could you do differently?
- What would you do differently?

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4. Language Focus & Tasks

4.4 Reflection Questions
1. Why do you think the conflict start-

ed between Mr. Ogawa and the newemployee?

PLE

2. What did Mr. Ogawa do to make thenew employee and Ms. Tanaka angry?

M

3. Do you think the new employee dealt with the office conflict well?
Why or why not?

SA

4. What do you think the new employee learned by attending the officeconflict workshop with Julie Morris?
5. Talk to a friend. What mistakes
could you make when dealing with anoffice conflict with a colleague?
6. Talk to a friend. What other things
could you do to deal with office conflicts successfully?
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PLE

The Office Conflict

Pocket Readers - Business Series------------------------------------------------------2018年5月1日 初版発行

著者： アンディ・ブーン

M

発行者：ハリディ・ダーレン

SA

発行所：HALICO株式会社〒103-0027 東京都中央区日本橋3-4-15
八重洲通ビル5階
電話：03-6870-3512
ホームページ: https://www.halico.jp------------------------------------------------------Copyright © Andy Boon
ISBN 978-4-909730-07-7

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by anymeans, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise,
without the prior written permission of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places,events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s
imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual
persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

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