Chapter 2: Personal Management
Introduction
Objectives
In this chapter, you will
- identify important personal management habits for Canadian workplace environments
- identify implied meanings in conversations
- distinguish between fact and opinion
- write descriptions of events in an organized structure
- create oral summaries of information.
Video
Watch this chapter’s video. An incident has occurred at CDN Malls. Observe how the different employees react to the situation. Listen to the language that they use, and notice how they show that they are listening to the other person.
While watching the video, think about the questions below. Write down information that you think is important.
- Who are the people in the video?
- What is the video about?
Focus questions
Hi! I am Sandy, your Workplace Mentor. Throughout this book, I will give you important pointers to help you understand the general environment in many workplaces in Canada.
In the video, you watched Raja and Paul’s reactions to an email sent out by their manager.
Discussion 
Discuss the following:
- What do you notice about the way Paul and Raja talk to each other? Are they being formal or informal with each other? How do you know?
- Is the email that Susan sent out formal or informal? How do you know?
- Do both Paul and Raja maintain eye contact all the time? Who makes the longer eye contact, the listener or the speaker? Why?
- Do you think Paul is a good listener? Why?
- How comfortable are you with making and maintaining eye contact when you are in a conversation with someone? What is appropriate eye contact to you?
- What is Raja concerned about? Why is Paul not concerned about this?
- According to Paul, what is quite normal in many Canadian workplaces?
- What happened to prompt Susan’s email?
- What are the pros and cons of the way Susan handled the situation?
