Unit 4 On the Job

Unit 4 On the Job

Do for a living to be someone’s job

             GRAMMAR NOTE/USAGE NOTES: This idiom usually occurs in a direct or indirect question. It is used to ask someone you have met recently about his or her employment.

             ▪ If you don’t mind my asking, what do you do for a living?

             ▪ I didn’t ask him what he did for a living because I knew he was unemployed.

Make a living to be employed, to earn enough money to servive

             Also: earn a living

             USAGE NOTE: Adjectives such as decent and good can be used.

             ▪ My new next-door neighbor makes a living as a car mechanic.

             ▪ It’s difficult for single parents to earn a decent living.

White-collar having to do with an office environment

             Related idiom: blue-collar (having to do with a nonoffice work environment)

             USAGE NOTE: These adjective forms are used before nouns such as worker and job.

             ▪ White-collar workers generally earn more money than blue-collar workers.

             ▪ Blue-collar jobs such as police work and postal delivery are usually well paying.

Put in to spend time at work

             ▪ Some workers choose to put in ten hours a day in order to work only four days a week.

             ▪ Frieda had to put in a busy day at the office after she was sick at home for three days.

Clock in to begin work

             Opposite meaning: clock out

             USAGE NOTE: These idioms were first used for jobs where workers’ hours were checked with time cards and time clocks. They are still used to refer to the time when someone starts and stops work, even when there is no time clock.

             ▪ Factory workers are among those who still clock in at the beginning of a shift and clock out at the end.

             ▪ Even though I’m expected to clock in at 9:00 A.M, I generally get to work around 9:15.

Get off (work) to leave work at the end of the workday

             ▪ Deborah got off work early because she didn’t feel well.

             ▪ I’ll stop by the bank after I get off today.

Call it a day to stop working

             Also: call it a night, call it quits

             USAGE NOTE: These idioms can also be used for schoolwork or physical labor.

             ▪ Look, it’s already 4:30. Time to call it a day.

             ▪ After four hours of studying this evening, I called it a night.

             ▪ We’ve been working in the garden for six hours. It’s time to call it quits.

Close up (shop) to close a business at the end of a workday

             ▪ I rushed to the bank but I got there just as they were closing up.

             ▪ There weren’t many customers on the holiday evening, so Mr. Merkur closed up shop early.

Graveyard shift an eight-hour work period through the early morning hours

             ▪ Some factory workers work the graveyard shift, generally from midnight to 8:00 A.M.

             ▪ Patrica works the graveyard shift at the service station so that she can go to school during the day.