流利说L5U2P2-3、4:Verbs for Business

To promote, to move someone up an organization usually because she has done a good job.

We are going to promote her to manager.

If we don't promote him, he'll probably be upset.

The opposite of promote is demote.

(It looks like we promoted him too soon, because he can’t do the job. )

(I don't think she deserves a promotion yet,but her boss is insisting that we give it to her.)

(We shouldn't promote anyone unless they really deserve it, which means they have to prove themselves.)

To transfer, to move someone or something from one place to another.

The company is going to transfer him to Shanghai next month.

She doesn't want to be transferred, because her husband is against moving to another city.

(He wants to be transferred back to engineering because he hates paperwork.)

(He likes working for us, but he wants to be transferred to a different place within the company.)

(She won't agree to be transferred unless we give her a promotion and a salary increase.)

(Transferring him out of sales was a mistake,so we need to find another position for him.)

To motivate, to get someone interested and excited about doing something.

She is really good at motivating her employees.

One way to motivate someone is to encourage them by giving constructive feedback.

(We need to motivate people more and not demotivate them by reducing benefits.)

(To motivate someone means to get them to care about their work.)

(He’s no fool, so giving him an award without an increase in salary won’t motivate him.)

(They aren't working hard enough because they aren't being motivated.)

To postpone, to delay or put it off something into a later date.

We had to postpone the presentation, because she wasn't ready to give it.

We can't continue to postpone the meeting, or they will cancel it completely.

(We have no choice but to postpone the test, because the weather conditions aren't right.)

(We can't postpone launching the product, so everyone will have to work harder to meet the deadline.)

(They are asking to postpone making their first payment,so we may decide to cancel the contract.)

To evade, to escape or avoid something.

They are trying to evade taking responsibility for their failure.

He was arrested for tax evasion.

(They can't evade paying the import tax or they will lose their license to do business in that country.)

(They designed the airplane to evade detection by radar.)

(When he didn't get his bonus he was really demotivated,so the quality of his work went down.)

(The hackers broke into the computer and evaded detection until it was too late to catch them.)

To promote someone means to give them a higher level job.

Giving someone constructive feedback is one way to motivate them.

One way to motivate someone is to encourage them by giving constructive feedback.

(They are trying to evade taking responsibility for their failure.)

(We had to postpone the presentation because she wasn't ready to give it.)

(We need to motivate people more and demotivate them by reducing benefits.)

To assign, to give someone a task to do.

His boss assigned him to increase sales by 50%.

Her company assigned her to find out more about the competition.

(His department was the one which was assigned to complete the project, so our department wasn’t involved.)

(It's very dangerous, so I won't assign the project to you unless you are willing to take a risk.)

To penalize, to fine or punish someone for doing something wrong.

They were penalized for breaking the rules.

You will be penalized if you are late.

(They were all penalized, so they had to work even harder to complete the project on time.)

(She was penalized for not submitting her application on time, so she had to pay an extra fee.)

(We knew we would be penalized,but the penalty was unfair,so we dropped out of the competition.)

To lay off, to fire or sack a worker because business is bad.

The company was failing, so he was laid off.

Our company had to lay off 50% of our employees.

A company may have to lay off workers when business is bad.

(He was doing a good job, but the company had to lay him off because they were losing money.)

(She was laid off, not fired, so it should be easier for her to find a new job.)

To recruit, to look for new employees to hire.

They are expanding their business, and recruiting new employees.

She joined the company after she was recruited at a job fair.

(It isn't easy for a small company to recruit experienced managers.)

(She was recruited to work for a recruiting company, but now she's being laid off.)

(He left his job because he was recruited by another company and offered a much higher salary.)

To resign, to voluntarily quit one's job.

His boss didn't like him, so he was asked to resign.

She resigned from her job because of health reasons.

(He didn't want to be transferred, so he decide to resign and work for a competitor.)

(She has decided to resign because she wants to spend more time with her family.)