Lesson Plan: Employees Are Suing Their Employers for Their Work From Home Expenses
II. While Reading Activities
Word Inference
- pandemic |panˈdemik| adjective (of a disease) prevalent over a whole country or the world.
- white-collar |ˈ(h)wīt ˈˌkälər| adjective relating to the work done or those who work in an office or other professional environment.
- consequence |ˈkänsikwəns| noun 1 a result or effect of an action or condition: many have been laid off from work as a consequence of the administration’s policies.
- lawsuit |ˈlôˌso͞ot| noun a claim or dispute brought to a court of law for adjudication: his lawyer filed a lawsuit against Los Angeles city.
- incur |inˈkər| verb (incurs, incurring, incurred) [with object] become subject to (something unwelcome or unpleasant) as a result of one’s own behavior or actions: I will pay any expenses incurred.
- perk |pərk| noun (usually perks) informal money, goods, or other benefit to which one is entitled as an employee or as a shareholder of a company: many agencies are helping to keep personnel at their jobs by providing perks.
- target |ˈtärɡət| verb (targets, targeting, targeted) [with object] (usually be targeted) select as an object of attention or attack: two men were targeted by the attackers.
- reimburse |ˌrēimˈbərs| verb [with object] repay (a person who has spent or lost money): the investors should be reimbursed for their losses.
- dramatic |drəˈmadik| adjective (of an event or circumstance) sudden and striking: a dramatic increase in recorded crime.
- telework |ˈteləˌwərk| verb another term for telecommute. the practice of working from home, making use of the Internet, email, and the telephone.
Source: New Oxford American Dictionary
Grammar Focus:Structure and Usage
I -2 –consequence
This was another consequence of the mass relocation of office workers.
II – 2 – not
Better Mortgage did not respond to emails seeking comment on the case.
III – 3 – to
Visa declined to comment on the lawsuit.
Reading Comprehension: Identify The Speakers
- Jacob Whitehead, an attorney who has filed about 20 class-action lawsuits. “We have tons of these in the pipeline.”
- Craig Ackermann, a Los Angeles attorney who has filed about 25 lawsuits. “This is one of those pandemic-related issues that rose very suddenly.”
- Troy Seppala, a former refinance sales trainer. “As soon as we started working from home, I realized how much day-to-day money I really had because of how much went toward paying for that stuff.”
- Tiffany Calderon, a treasury service associate at Wells Fargo Bank, filed a lawsuit in August. Her bosses have failed to reimburse her and other employees for a variety of business expenses since sending them to work from home in March 2020.
- Joshua Haffner, Tiffany Calderon’s attorney. “The cost shouldn’t be shifted to the employees,” he said. “This benefits the business.”
- Nicholas Bloom, Stanford economics professor. “For equipment like laptops, webcams, microphones and a work desk, it is reasonable for an employer to pay for this…For more general costs like refurbishing a home office, improved broadband or lunch, that is less common and would depend on a case-by-case basis.”
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