Poziom: B2 · Rozmówcy: Sofia (works at a teal company), Mark (works for a large corporation)
📄 To nagranie pochodzi z lekcji Let’s Talk: Teal Organizations (Lesson 2, Exercise 2) – pełny scenariusz z ćwiczeniami znajdziesz w naszym sklepie.
Transkrypcja nagrania
Sofia: Mark! It’s been ages. You look… tired.
Mark: Thanks, Sofia. I am tired. I worked twelve hours yesterday. I left the office at nine.
Sofia: Twelve hours? But weren’t you promoted last year?
Mark: That’s the problem. I thought being a manager would make life easier. Instead I got more targets, more pressure and twice as many meetings. Last week we had three meetings to choose a font for one presentation.
Sofia: Three meetings for a font?
Mark: And then my boss changed it anyway. Honestly, I feel like a cog in a very big machine. What about you? You look annoyingly happy.
Sofia: I am, actually. My company works in a different way. It’s what people call a teal organization.
Mark: Teal? Like the colour?
Sofia: Exactly. Basically, we don’t have bosses. We work in small teams of about ten people, and we organise our own work.
Mark: No bosses? So who tells you what to do?
Sofia: Nobody. We don’t have job titles either, just roles. When I joined, I was in customer support. After a year I realised I loved design, so I learned the skills and moved into product design.
Mark: Just like that? Without asking anyone?
Sofia: Well, I talked to my team, of course. For big decisions we use something called the advice process. Anyone can decide, but first you have to ask for advice from experts and from the people the decision affects.
Mark: Give me an example.
Sofia: Last month our laptops were really slow, so I decided to buy new ones for the team. It cost about four thousand euros. I asked our finance expert and the team for advice, made the decision — and that was it.
Mark: Four thousand euros? Without approval? In my company you need two signatures to buy a stapler.
Sofia: That’s why you have three meetings about a font.
Mark: Fair point. But it sounds like a hippie commune. What happens if someone is lazy? Who fires them?
Sofia: It’s not a commune. We have clear rules and a lot of responsibility. If a colleague doesn’t do their job, we talk to them directly. We call it respectful confrontation. It’s harder than complaining to a boss, believe me.
Mark: So it’s not perfect.
Sofia: Of course not. Some decisions take longer, and some new people miss clear instructions. For me, the hardest thing at the beginning was to stop waiting for permission. It took me three months.
Mark: And you’re really not stressed?
Sofia: I’m busy, but not stressed. We even have a quiet room, and on Fridays I can bring my dog. I feel like a person at work, not a number.
Mark: A person, not a number… Okay. Are you hiring?
Sofia: Send me your CV. But be warned: you’ll have to write your own job description.
Mark: Right now, that sounds like the best job description I’ve ever heard.