How to Talk About Problems at Work in English [584]

🚨 If you use English at work, these phrases matter.  These are the only English phrases I allow my private students to use at work, and the ones I tell them to stop using.  👉 Download the PDF (€9): https://www.englishlessonviaskype.com/workphrases-podcast

In this episode, you’ll learn practical English to describe common workplace situations clearly and professionally. This includes how to talk about delays, misunderstandings, pressure, and situations where something is not going as planned.

The focus is on real communication. You’ll see how to explain issues, give context, and speak in a way that sounds natural and appropriate in a work environment.

After listening to this episode, you will be able to:

• describe problems at work more clearly
 • explain situations without sounding too direct or too vague
 • communicate more confidently in professional settings
 • handle difficult conversations with better language

If you want to feel more confident using English at work and deal with situations more effectively, this episode will help.

If you often hesitate, make mistakes, or feel unsure when speaking English, book a trial lesson. We assess your level, correct you clearly, and give you a focused plan so you know exactly what to improve. 

Book a free trial here: https://www.englishlessonviaskype.com/trial

If you prefer to study on your own, explore our online courses. They give you structured lessons to build stronger grammar, clearer pronunciation, and more confident speaking step by step

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Transcript

Speaker: 0:09

Hi there. This is Harry. Welcome back to Advanced English to help you to get a better language, to help you with your business, English skills, goals are, we're here to help. And for those of you and your to one lessons, well, you know Just get in touch www.englishlessonviaskype.com and you can apply for a free trial lesson. And we'll be very happy to hear from you and very happy to help you. So what have I got for you today Well, in this lesson, I'm going relating to problems in the So I'm going to go through the There are twelve particular points I want to make, and I'll give you some examples of each of them. Okay, so let's get started. To neglect a pet. Hate to be absent from A jam pile up, hectic, snowed something, fail to do something. Hum, slurp. And I'll mention those later. You may sound. Or they may sound a little bit reason why and then hand over. Okay, so as I was going to go through them one by one, and here they're a mix of words and vocabulary and also some expressions of phrasal verbs, but they're all to do with problems that you might face in the office. Okay. To neglect. Well, to neglect is either to forget by accident or deliberately. Okay, so you neglect to tell your boss that you're taking holidays next week, and when he comes looking for you on the Monday or Tuesday, you're not there. Okay. And he's wondering, where's Oh, he's on holidays, but he clear holidays before you go. Okay. So to neglect to tell your boss that you're going on holidays, to neglect to inform your customer that you couldn't make the meeting. So when it comes to eleven the client sends a WhatsApp or does something to find out for the meeting. Oh, did he not tell you he's out Or you neglect it to get or you forgot to contact the neglect to do something. So when we neglect, we forget. And either it can be just deliberate and you're determined not to do it or you've done it by accident. Because if you're sick, then perhaps you're not feeling so well. So you forget that you've got a meeting the next day and therefore you neglect to inform the person. Okay, so it can be generally neglect neglectful in your duties. Okay, so this means you just don't do what you're supposed to do, or what you do is not so diligent. And perhaps your boss has to have a word with you when he comes. When it comes to your official review, neglectful in your duties. Pet hate. Well, we all have pets like dogs or whatever you might have. So pets are generally things Okay. And then it might look like a confusion of terminology, a pet hate. But pet hate means something you Top of your list. You really, really hate about So what might your pet hate be It might be that you have to be morning, and probably you have therefore they know exactly You log in on your computer and at two minutes before eight or So that could be your pet hate. Your pet hate could be somebody that's constantly drumming their fingers on the table next to you. That could be a real pet hate, got a very loud laugh when Oh ho ho ho ho ho ho ho. Yeah. So that could be a pet hate or Sniffing or picking their nose Yeah. Okay. My pet hate used to be people who used to fall asleep in the meeting. Perhaps because I might have been a little bit boring, but, you know, you might be sitting there with one of your colleagues and you had customers or clients on the other side of the table. And when you look at your That would be my pet. So pet eight something you hate Okay. Or some that could be at home, But here we're talking about the around the office. Number three. Absent from something? Well, you could be absent from felt it wasn't important. So you just didn't bother And somebody asks you, where to be at the meeting are. That meeting's so boring. We never do anything. We never say anything. It never achieved anything. Nobody knows whether you're They say, oh, well, I noticed And I think the boss did as Okay, so to be absent from from the Christmas party. Some people like Christmas Somebody don't. Some people don't know why they Sometimes it looks bad. If you don't that you have to sort of socialize with your colleagues. So it's, after all, just a You have a bit of fun, let your from the party. You can be absent from the Or perhaps your company has been within the area. Some social responsible volunteers and volunteers in everybody to do something. And you're absent from the list. You just don't see why you should spend your free time on a Saturday or Sunday, or an evening doing something for a region. An area where you don't even Okay, you might live many So to be absent from something a jam, well, a jam can be a couple of things. If you're travelling to work, it So the traffic is blocked. Bumper to bumper, as they say, and it takes you forever to get in. But when we're talking about in the office, jam is typically like a jam in the photocopying machine. So ah, this photocopier, it's Every time I try to get more than two or three pages printed, it jams. I have to switch it off. I I have to take out the damaged Open the tray. Put some more paper in. And it does that repeatedly. I wish we could replace it for something a little bit more modern. I'm sick of asking the boss to So a paper jam. A jam inside the photocopier to your colleagues. Now, you could also be in a jam. And when you're in a jam, it a sticky situation with either perhaps one of your customers. Perhaps you've over promised the delivery didn't happen on And he's sending messages or calls wanting to know where the delivery is. So you're in a bit of a jam. So a bit of a jam could be something sticky, like jam is sticky. You know, if you get jam on your fingers. MM. It's very sweet, but it's So when you're in a jam, you're in a slightly difficult situation. Or perhaps you're in a bit of a where you promised to cover for lunch or a late lunch. But you realize that you can't because you've got to go to the dentist. So what are you going to do? How are you going to cover that So you have to tell them, look, for you on Wednesday or Thursday to the dentist. Okay. So in a bit of a jam. Next one pile up. Well, this is when work can pile Either we've been on holidays, back from your annual leave, things sitting in your inbox, have to be dealt with. And perhaps nobody has looked So when you come back, you've emails waiting to be answered so Okay, so to pile up means one Lots of work that you have to A lot of the time when you start looking at the emails, a lot of them are out of date, so you can probably delete them, or you can just click on click off because there's no action because it's two weeks. And so perhaps they don't need Or somebody else has taken some And then you can categorize the those that are urgent, and then So that's a better way to deal has been piling up while you've Okay. Or you might be out sick for a And of course, people are not sure when you're going to come back. So of course, messages might pile up, emails might pile up, responses that you need to deal with. Okay, so when work piles up, it gets higher and higher, either literally on your desk or metaphorically in the inbox on your emails. So when you log on in the morning and you see twenty or thirty or forty unanswered emails got. Oh no, my God, the work has really piled up since I've been away. Why did I go on holidays? Why did I take that extra day? Hectic? Well, hectic is an adjective to little bit chaotic. Okay, so. Oh, it's really hectic around I don't have a minute to myself. Every time I put down the mobile Every time I answer one email, something else pops into my inbox. It's been hectic for such a long It's of course, our busy time. This is when people are making But you know it's good for keeps you busy. But really, really, it's so hectic, so hectic describes when you're running around a little bit. You're coming in at eight in and you hang up your coat and working flat out and the next or the next thing you know, it's five or six and time to clock So a real hectic day. So when you get home to your Oh, hectic. You know, one of those days evening, morning till night. Nonstop. A real hectic time. Okay, so hectic doesn't It just very, very busy. Yeah. And everybody asking for this, Attending meetings, jumping into Jump out of that meeting, get on You know, the type of work that hectic, snowed under. Well, this is a great It's talking about sort of is piling up outside. If you're if you get snow every So if you can imagine the snow piling up, that's how you feel when you have so much work that you really have difficulty dealing with it on a day to day basis. So you tell your friend or your colleagues, oh, I'm snowed under. I mean, the work is up to here. I'm snowed under, meaning I'm up up to my head in paperwork, in orders, in reports that have to be contacted, whatever it might I really wish the boss could take some of this work and pass it on to somebody else, because there's no way I'm going to get through this. I want to get away for holidays At this rate, I'll be working under, so you can feel that way because you want to get before you go. You can definitely feel snowed under when you return from holidays. When you open the the inbox and that you have to do, or just Some people working in accountancy practices or consultancy practices. There are times of the year when And in those times, yeah, they here in work, snowed under to Well, when we poke a nose into something, it means we are very curious. Okay. We are very nosy. We want to find out and understand exactly what's going on. So you hear whispers around the office that something's happening. Perhaps there's going to be some Perhaps there's going to be a Perhaps somebody's retiring. Something is happening. You know that. But you're not quite sure what So you start asking questions. What was that meeting about? Or did you hear anything that would be of interest to all of us? So you start asking questions here, asking questions there, keeping your ears open in case you hear something over lunch, perhaps, or over the coffee break. So you poke your nose into You poke your nose into this bottom of it. So you go home to your partner and you say, yeah, there's something happening. I'm not quite sure what it is, There are lots of rumors and And your partner asks you, well, what are you what have you found out? I'm not so sure yet. I think I'll just poke my nose I'll ask some questions. You know, Mary in the accounts, So I'll I'll I'll have lunch with her and see what's happening. She's bound to give me some So off you go the next couple of days to try and find out exactly what's happening. Poke your nose into something to Okay? Now somebody might tell you, don't poke your nose into something that doesn't concern you. So if you're you overhear a conversation in the coffee break, you're over here, a couple of people talking in the canteen, and you just ask them, oh, anything I should know about? Don't poke your nose into something that doesn't concern you. So they perhaps are a little upset or a bit rude that you have been eavesdropping, trying to listen into their conversation. So to poke your nose into something or somebody's telling you, don't poke your nose into somewhere where it doesn't belong. Next, fail to do something well. Fail to do something is like the Okay, so when you fail to do just don't bother or it goes Okay, so you're up to your eyes are snowed under, as we said, and you've forgotten to call that customer to tell them that the order is going to be delayed. Oh, God. When you go home. Oh, no. I should have called I'll have to. I'll have to call them first So you put a note for yourself So to remind you that your phone you've got to ring Joe Bloggs. Okay, so you fail to do your expenses sheet and the screaming for it. Do you know every month you're the last person to send in their expense account? If you want to get the money to send it in by the twenty can get it processed before the Otherwise, we won't be able to So you fail to do something. You forget to complete the You forget to send in your put the receipts or the invoices get the money refunded. So to forget or to fail to do one of the customers is leaving. You're supposed to tell the customer is going to leave, see if there are any outstanding failed on this occasion to tell work that you had to deal with Now, the next two are mentioned explain these sounds. The hum and slurp. Yeah, so a hum hum hum hum hum or a slurp is a somebody who eats very noisily slurp, slurps their coffee or slurps their soup. Okay. To slurp slurp. Slurp. Yeah, let's hear the sound. But the pronunciation. Slurp slurp the coffee. So burp the soup. But it's one of those pet hates If we have to sit beside constantly slurps their coffee Or drinks the coffee. Slurp. Yeah, so this is a pet hate. And the other one is the somebody's humming a tune, and it might be a tune that's very annoying. It might be a tune that is good, but it's they're doing it all day. Mhm. And they're typing away on the the laptop, and all you can hear is some little chirpy person sitting beside you humming a merry tune. But by the end of the day, that merry tune is a little bit annoying. And the the enjoyment of it certainly wears off very, very quickly. So. Noises that people make, repeated noises that you find very annoying. And they would definitely, heading of pet hates. Finally. Then hand over. Now here we can use it as a more often it's used as a noun together hand over. So we usually have a a hand over or the hand over before you go on holiday. So you hand over whatever files completed to your colleague substitute for you when you're So you give them a handover note telling them the state of play, the position on each of your particular customers or the files. So there's a handover note. And also really important, if somebody is leaving the office for good and they're going to get another job somewhere, that they also have a handover procedure handover note where they let whoever's going to pick up the pieces when you leave that they understand where you were with that particular client. So a handover note, a handover procedure, or if we want to use it as a verb, as I said, to hand over physically or by sending by email to hand over the documents. Okay, so these are all, as I said, advanced vocabulary related to particular office problems or problems at the office. Okay, let me go down to them one more time to neglect, meaning to fail or to forget to do something. A pet hates something you doing at home or in the office. To be absent from something like a paper jam in the photocopying machine. Pile up phrasal verb meaning the You find it difficult, difficult Hectic. The day is hectic. Like my weeks are always hectic doing this, doing that you have to try and get everything finished, hectic, snowed under so the work piles up and you end up being snowed under in work to poke your nose into something, to poke your nose into somebody else's business. Try and find out what's To fail to do something a bit like to neglect, to fail to do something. And then these noises that on the list of pet hates. Humming a tune? Mhm. Or slurp, slurp, slurping the tea, and then finally hand over, hand over or use it as a phrasal Okay. All right. Good. So and advanced vocabulary So try them out. Practice a few of them. And if you like them and Try and introduce them into your If you don't understand some of them, look them up, check them out in grammar books or come back to me and I'll be certainly very happy to help you with some further explanations. So for that, you need my address dot skype dot com. Okay? Well, as always, I really And as always, join me again