English, baby!

Changes - verbs

Date: Oct 04 2007

Lesson

'to promote' = to move someone up to a higher position in the organization.

He handed his notice in last month when he didn't get promoted to senior manager.
She wants to be promoted to supervisor but doesn't have the interpersonal skills for that job yet.

'to renew' = to make new, to extend the life or replace something.

I originally had a two-year contract but it has been renewed twice.
We need to renew the work permits for the foreign workers who have been here a year.

'to lay off' = to make redundant, to stop employing someone

When we closed the warehouse, we laid off more than fifty people.
Technological advances means that we have had to lay off more and more unskilled workers.

'to demote' = to move someone to a lower level in the hierarchy

She was demoted after the terrible changeover to the new accounting system.
Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to demote anyone who does not live up to expectations.

'to sideline' = to not promote someone, to move them to a position with less effective power

When the new CEO was nominated, he was sidelined to another department.
After a period as a very ineffectual head of department, he was sidelined until he retired.

'to replace' = to exchange one thing for another, to put a person in the job of someone else.

'to retire' = to stop working due to ill health or age.

Jack suffers from ill health and has had to retire early.
The statutory age for retirement is 60 although people often retire early if they can.

'to increase' = to get bigger in amount or size.

Contributions that employees pay increased faster than salaries so cutting their net incomes.
Even though profits have increased, we are not in a position to increase salaries above the rate of inflation.

'to expand' = to increase in size, number or importance.

We have expanded our retail operations very quickly over the last three years.
The company expanded very quickly in the 1990s but has since stopped growing so fast.

'to restructure' = to organize a business or system in a new way to make it more efficient.

Currently we are restructuring our organization and dividing it into five cost centres.
He lost his job when the company restructured the department.

'to streamline' = to improve the effectiveness of parts of an organization, often by simplifying procedures.

We are streamlining the procedure to cut the time it takes to deliver to the customer.
Streamlining administration and giving more responsibility to individuals will reduce costs considerably.

'to relocate' = to move to a new place

Production is being relocated to Bulgaria next year creating lots of redundancies here.
My company paid all the costs when I was relocated to my previous job in Scotland.

'to relax' = to make a rule less strict or severe.

Unfortunately we can't relax the no-smoking ban. The law won't permit it.
We have relaxed the dress code considerably and now people often wear jeans to the office.

'to enforce' = to impose a rule more strictly or to make people follow a rule.

For health and safety reasons, we have to enforce the no-smoking rules.
It is extremely difficult to enforce time-keeping rules without some form of electronic system.

'to adjust' = to change something a little to make it correct or suitable.

We are adjusting the salary scales so that they reflect present responsibilities better.
Salaries are adjusted annually according to the rate of inflation and the financial results.

'to reduce' = to make smaller in size, quantity or importance.

We have reduced the number of workers with the introduction of more modern technology.
In order to reduce expenditure in the department, we have introduced several cost-cutting measures.

'to deteriorate' = to become worse