Reading 2 — a staff handbook
Section 2 of the General Training paper is about work, and this is the document it is most often built from: six sections of a staff handbook — probation and notice, flexitime, annual leave, reporting sickness, expenses, funded training — with twelve questions and the vocabulary of employment on flashcards.
A handbook is written the way a contract is written, and it rewards a particular kind of attention. Almost every rule here comes in two parts: a figure and the condition attached to it. Five days may be carried over and must be used by 31 March. Seven calendar days may be self-certified and a doctor's note starts on the eighth. Mileage is 45p for the first 10,000 miles. The company pays a course fee where the course is relevant to your role, or to one you have agreed with your manager. Read only the first half of any of those and you have the wrong answer.
Several questions are built on exactly that split, and two more on the type of judgement the paper always tests. One asks what the handbook never says — and the statement concerns public holidays, which the text mentions once, in passing, and never in the connection the statement claims. One asks what is contradicted, where the near-miss option is the very next clause of the same sentence, phrased as a permission rather than a limit.
The company, its terms and every figure in it are invented. Nothing here is employment advice — your own contract is the only document that governs your own job — but the language is exactly the language such documents use, and knowing it is worth marks in the General Training Task 1 letter as well.
Written by Zestly. No IELTS material is reproduced.
- Read a rule to the end, where the condition attached to the figure lives
- Tell a rate from a threshold and an entitlement from its cap
- Recognise a plausible statement the document never actually addresses
- Work out a workplace term from the sentence that replaces it
- Build the vocabulary of contracts: notice, continuous service, reimburse, repayable
Absences of up to seven calendar days may be self-certified on the form available from reception. From the eighth day a doctor's note is required, and should be sent to the office as soon as it is issued.
Sample question
Reading Section 2 — from the staff handbook of Halloway Joinery Ltd A YOUR FIRST SIX MONTHS All appointments are subject to a probationary period of six months, with a formal review at three months. During probation either you or the company may end the employment by giving one week's notice in writing; after probation the notice period is one month on either side. Probation may be extended once, by up to three months, if the three-month review has raised concerns that have not been resolved. B HOURS OF WORK The standard week is 37.5 hours. Core hours, when you are expected to be at work or reachable, are 10.00am to 3.00pm. Outside core hours you may start and finish when you choose, provided the week's total is worked. Up to 7.5 hours may be carried from one month into the next; anything beyond that is lost, so speak to your manager before it accumulates. C ANNUAL LEAVE The annual entitlement is 25 days, in addition to public holidays, rising to 28 days after five years' continuous service. The leave year runs from 1 April. No more than five days may be carried into the following year, and days carried over must be taken by 31 March. Requests should be made at least two weeks in advance, and no more than two members of any team may be on leave at the same time. D ABSENCE THROUGH SICKNESS If you are unable to work you must telephone your line manager before 10.00am on the first day of absence. A text message or an email is not sufficient, and asking a colleague to pass on the message does not meet this requirement. Absences of up to seven calendar days may be self-certified on the form available from reception. From the eighth day a doctor's note is required, and should be sent to the office as soon as it is issued. E EXPENSES Claims must be submitted within one month of the expense being incurred, with receipts attached; claims made later than that cannot normally be paid. Rail travel is reimbursed at standard class. Where you use your own car for company business, mileage is paid at 45p a mile for the first 10,000 miles in a tax year and 25p a mile thereafter. Travel between your home and your usual place of work is not a business expense and cannot be claimed. F TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT The company will pay the fees for one approved course a year and allow one paid day of study leave for it, where the course is relevant to your present role or to a role you have agreed with your manager that you are working towards. In return you are asked to remain with the company for six months after the course ends; if you leave sooner, a proportion of the fees becomes repayable. — How much notice must be given during the probationary period?
- Three months
- None is required during probation
- One week, in writing
- One month, in writing
See the answer
One week, in writing
Paragraph A distinguishes the two periods in one sentence: "During probation either you or the company may end the employment by giving one week's notice in writing; after probation the notice period is one month on either side." One month is what applies afterwards, and three months is the maximum extension of probation itself.