Pre-Intermediate Listening Practice

Janice: Hi Chris, you look tired.

Chris: Hi Janice, I had a terrible day at work. Just awful!

Janice: Oh, I'm sorry. Are you still having problems with your new office?

Chris: When I got to the office this morning, it was like a battlefield. I hate working there! Maybe I should just start looking for a new job.

Janice: What happened this morning?

Chris: Well for a start, Karen was crying. She was saying nobody appreciated her.

Janice: Oh, poor thing! Who's Karen?

Chris: She's a secretary, but she does a lot of other things, she always helps everyone. She was sitting at her desk looking very sad and crying a little bit. She said the boss said mean things to her. And the boss was so angry too.

Janice: With Karen?

Chris: No, he was in his office and the door was closed, but everyone could hear him. He was screaming at a customer on the phone.

Janice: That's not very professional.

Chris: He's not very professional. So this was all happening when I arrived at nine thirty. A lot of noise too because there are workmen on the next floor up so they were hammering and banging and drilling.

Janice: Wow, that sounds a crazy office.

Chris: I didn't tell you the worst thing!

Janice: There's something worse than all the crying, shouting and hammering?

Chris: Yes, there was a dog in the office and it was barking.

Janice: A barking dog? Now I know you're joking with me.

Chris: I'm not. Andrew from the sales department took his dog to work today -- it's a little black poodle called Betsy. He put her in his bag and didn't tell anyone, he told us later that the dog is depressed and that he didn't want to leave her at home alone. So he took her to work. That's completely normal, isn't it?

Janice: A depressed dog hidden in a bag in an office with crying secretaries, screaming bosses and the whole room full of drilling and hammering? Do you work for a circus?

Chris: I wish!