Episode 0035
Summary
Jeff expresses concerns to Lauren about a new customer support representative, Jason Hundley, citing unreliability and poor work ethic. Lauren defends Jason, reminds Jeff of their investment in him, and tells Jeff to coach him. Jeff, frustrated, reveals Jason is Lauren's cousin, implying nepotism, and expresses his true, angry feelings about Jason and Lauren.
Transcript (Click timestamp to jump)
So, Lauren, I just wanted to talk to you quickly about our new customer support representative, Jason Hundley.
Sure, what's up?
Basically, I've got a few concerns about him, and the bottom line is, I don't think he's a good fit for our company.
Okay. What makes you say that? I thought you were pleased with his overall performance. Didn't you just tell me last week how impressed you were with his attitude?
Yeah, his attitude is great, but he's really unreliable.
Sometimes he's really productive, but then other times, take last Tuesday for instance, he was 45 minutes late for a morning meeting.
Well, I'm sure he had a perfectly good reason.
But that's not the only thing. You know, he really doesn't have the best work ethic. I'm constantly catching him on MSN and Facebook when he should be talking to clients.
Yeah, but come on, Jeff. As if you don't check Facebook at work. Look, you hired this guy. We've invested a lot of time and money in his training. So now it's up to you to coach him. Make it work, Jeff.
Make it work, Jeff? You would say that, wouldn't you? He is your cousin, you jerk. Let me hire a stupid, useless cousin.
Summary
This EnglishPod lesson, hosted by Marco and Erica, focuses on vocabulary related to employee performance and workplace issues. The core of the lesson is a dialogue between two managers, Jeff and Lauren, discussing their new customer support representative, Jason Huntley. Jeff expresses concerns about Jason's unreliability and poor work ethic, believing he is not a good fit for the company. Lauren defends Jason, eventually revealing he is her cousin and instructing Jeff to coach him, which frustrates Jeff. The lesson then breaks down key phrases and vocabulary used in the dialogue, such as 'a good fit,' 'performance,' 'unreliable,' 'productive,' 'work ethic,' 'coach,' 'bottom line,' 'overall,' and 'perfectly good,' with examples and explanations.
Transcript (Click timestamp to jump)
Hello, English learners, welcome to EnglishPod. I'm joined here today with...
Erica.
And my name is Marco, and we're going to be looking at an office lesson today.
That's right. We've got a lesson about describing somebody who's not such a good employee.
Right. So we're going to be talking about how to describe this type of situation.
Mhm.
And language for making your point.
Yes.
So let's look at some vocabulary from the dialogue in vocabulary preview.
Vocabulary preview.
So two words today. The first one is a good fit.
A good fit.
A good fit.
A good fit.
So when we're talking about an employee and he's a good fit, it means he's suitable for the job.
Yes, he's suitable for the job or for the company.
Or for the company, right?
So the opposite would be not a good fit.
Exactly. The title of today's lesson.
Right.
And our last word for vocabulary preview, performance.
Performance.
Performance.
Performance.
Your performance is how good or bad you do your job.
Right. So you can have good performance or bad performance.
Mhm. Just how well you do your job.
Perfect.
So now we're ready to listen to our dialogue for the first time and as always, it's going to be at a normal speed, but you don't have to worry about it.
Because we'll come back and explain all the key language.
Now, we're going to listen as two managers discuss the performance of one employee.
So, Lauren, I just wanted to talk to you quickly about our new customer support representative, Jason Huntley.
Sure, what's up?
Basically, I've got a few concerns about him, and the bottom line is, I don't think he's a good fit for our company.
Okay. What makes you say that? I thought you were pleased with his overall performance. Didn't you just tell me last week how impressed you were with his attitude?
Yeah, his attitude is great, but he's really unreliable.
Sometimes he's really productive, but then other times, take last Tuesday, for instance, he was 45 minutes late for our morning meeting.
Well, I'm sure he had a perfectly good reason.
But that's not the only thing. You know, he really doesn't have the best work ethic. I'm constantly catching him on MSN and Facebook when he should be talking to clients.
Yeah, but come on, Jeff. As if you don't check Facebook at work. Look, you hired this guy. We've invested a lot of time and money in his training. So now it's up to you to coach him. Make it work, Jeff.
Make it work, Jeff. You would say that, wouldn't you? He is your cousin. What a jerk. Make me hire your stupid, useless cousin.
So apparently, Lauren hired her cousin.
Yes.
That's always a complicated situation working with family members.
Yeah, it makes it really difficult for Jeff, doesn't it?
Yeah, and apparently, Jeff isn't very happy.
Well, let's look at the language he used to tell us that he's unhappy about this.
Language takeaway.
Okay, the first word on language takeaway today, unreliable.
Unreliable.
Unreliable.
Unreliable.
So let's listen to some examples of unreliable, so then you can understand what it means.
Example one.
The trains here are so unreliable. They never arrive on time.
Example two.
Thomas is pretty unreliable. He never finishes his projects on time.
Example three.
You promised you would pick me up from work today. You're so unreliable.
We can understand that if someone is unreliable, we can't trust them to do their job, right?
Right.
So you don't want to be unreliable. The opposite would be...
Reliable.
Reliable. You can trust them.
Okay.
Our second word today, productive.
Productive.
Productive.
Productive.
When you're productive, it means that you accomplish your job, right?
You do a lot of work in a short amount of time.
Productive.
Mhm. You want to be a productive employee.
Yes.
Our third word, work ethic.
Work ethic.
Work ethic.
Work ethic.
So a person's work ethic is that person's attitude towards work.
Yes, if someone has a good work ethic, then they are always hardworking and they come to work early and they finish their jobs on time and they stay and do lots of overtime, so that's a good work ethic.
Mhm.
Okay, great. And our last word, coach.
Coach.
Coach.
Coach. When you coach an employee, you train them, right?
Yeah, you help that employee out by showing him or her how to do certain tasks.
Or how to do their job better.
Right. So we've got some great language to describe work performance.
Let's listen to our dialogue a second time.
This time it'll be a little bit slower so you can understand these words and phrases a little bit more clearly.
So, Lauren, I just wanted to talk to you quickly about our new customer support representative, Jason Huntley.
Sure, what's up?
Basically, I've got a few concerns about him, and the bottom line is, I don't think he's a good fit for our company.
Okay. What makes you say that? I thought you were pleased with his overall performance. Didn't you just tell me last week how impressed you were with his attitude?
Yeah, his attitude is great, but he's really unreliable.
Sometimes he's really productive, but then other times, take last Tuesday, for instance, he was 45 minutes late for our morning meeting.
Well, I'm sure he had a perfectly good reason.
But that's not the only thing. You know, he really doesn't have the best work ethic. I'm constantly catching him on MSN and Facebook when he should be talking to clients.
Yeah, but come on, Jeff. As if you don't check Facebook at work. Look, you hired this guy. We've invested a lot of time and money in his training. So now it's up to you to coach him. Make it work, Jeff.
You would say that, wouldn't you? He is your cousin. What a jerk. Make me hire your stupid, useless cousin.
All right, so if you noticed, a lot of useful phrases have come up. So let's take a look at fluency builder.
Fluency builder.
Fluency builder today, we have three phrases. That's right, three phrases that will help us make our point better.
The first one is bottom line.
The bottom line.
The bottom line.
Let's listen to how this was used in the dialogue.
And the bottom line is, I don't think he's a good fit for our company.
And the bottom line is, I don't think he's a good fit for our company.
So basically, it means...
Like the most important point.
The most important point.
Perfect. The bottom line.
Our second word, overall.
Overall.
Overall.
Overall.
So this is the same as saying, on the whole.
Right. The big picture, how you would say.
Yeah, in general.
In general. So his overall performance is good.
It means in general, his performance is good.
Perfect.
And our last phrase is very interesting because we can mix it up a little bit.
Yep.
Perfectly good.
Perfectly good.
Perfectly good.
Perfectly good.
So this is an interesting phrase because you can describe different objects in this way.
Yeah, a perfectly good reason.
A perfectly good car.
A perfectly good computer.
So by the sounds of it, it's kind of like justifying.
Yeah, it's saying there's no problem with it.
There's no problem with it.
Why would you throw it away if it's a perfectly good computer?
Exactly.
Perfectly good.
Okay, so now we can listen to our dialogue a third time at a normal speed, and now we're ready to understand everything.
So, Lauren, I just wanted to talk to you quickly about our new customer support representative, Jason Huntley.
Sure, what's up?
Basically, I've got a few concerns about him, and the bottom line is, I don't think he's a good fit for our company.
Okay. What makes you say that? I thought you were pleased with his overall performance. Didn't you just tell me last week how impressed you were with his attitude?
Yeah, his attitude is great, but he's really unreliable.
Sometimes he's really productive, but then other times, take last Tuesday, for instance, he was 45 minutes late for our morning meeting.
Well, I'm sure he had a perfectly good reason.
But that's not the only thing. You know, he really doesn't have the best work ethic. I'm constantly catching him on MSN and Facebook when he should be talking to clients.
Yeah, but come on, Jeff. As if you don't check Facebook at work. Look, you hired this guy. We've invested a lot of time and money in his training. So now it's up to you to coach him. Make it work, Jeff.
Make it work, Jeff. You would say that, wouldn't you? He is your cousin. What a jerk. Make me hire your stupid, useless cousin.
Okay, I hope everyone enjoyed our lesson today.
Mhm.
We've found some really useful vocabulary for a business situation.
Yes.
So go to our website at englishpod.com where you can leave all your questions and comments and also find a lot of other resources.
That's right. Marco and I are always on the site and we're happy to answer your questions.
Right. So until then, it's goodbye.
Goodbye.
Summary
The audio is an English vocabulary review, where a speaker presents vocabulary words by first giving a definition, then prompting the listener to say the word, and finally stating the word. Later, the speaker provides example sentences for some of the vocabulary words. The speaker's tone is generally neutral and instructional, with occasional shifts to happy or angry when narrating example sentences.
Transcript (Click timestamp to jump)
The English Pod audio review.
Listen to the meaning, then say the vocabulary word.
Worry.
Concern.
Most important point.
General.
Overall.
How well someone does their job.
Performance.
Not able to be trusted.
Unreliable.
Doing a lot in a short amount of time.
Productive.
Having no problems, just fine.
Perfectly good.
Attitude to work.
Work ethic.
Teach and train someone new skills.
Coach.
Regularly makes bad decisions.
Poor judgment.
Bad attitude to work.
Poor work ethic.
Able to be trusted and relied upon.
Dependable.
A bad member of a group who makes things more difficult for others.
A bad apple.
Not productive, not doing a lot.
Unproductive.
Let's try that faster.
Able to be trusted and relied upon.
Dependable.
Doing a lot in a short amount of time.
Productive.
Attitude to work.
Work ethic.
Teach and train someone new skills.
Coach.
A bad member of a group who makes things more difficult for others.
A bad apple.
Regularly makes bad decisions.
Poor judgment.
Not productive, not doing a lot.
Unproductive.
Bad attitude to work.
Poor work ethic.
Most important point.
How well someone does their job.
Performance.
Not able to be trusted.
Unreliable.
General.
Overall.
Having no problems, just fine.
Perfectly good.
Worry.
Concern.
Now say the word and hear it in a sentence.
I interviewed someone today, but I don't think he'll be a good fit for our company.
You'll be a really good fit for this position. You have all the right skills and experience.
I don't know. Do you think she'll be a good fit?
Work ethic.
Francis has a really good work ethic. He always finishes his projects on time.
Work ethic.
The people in this company don't have a strong work ethic.
Work ethic.
If you want to be a lawyer, you have to have a really good work ethic.
Coach.
I need you to spend some time coaching the new sales associate.
Coach.
I'm not very good at running meetings. Can you coach me?
Coach.
Jim is coaching me on presentation skills.
We just won't be able to finish this project on time. That's the bottom line.
The bottom line is that your work is not good enough.
When you're late for meetings, you delay the whole team. That's the bottom line.
Overall.
There are a few problems, but overall, I think he is doing a good job.
Overall.
There are a few mistakes here, but overall, this is a good report.
Overall.
Overall, we've been very successful this year.
Perfectly good.
Why do you want to get a new computer? This one is perfectly good.
Perfectly good.
I can't believe you're going to throw out your iPod. It's perfectly good.
Perfectly good.
I'm sure you had a perfectly good reason for being late.
Productive.
I was so productive at work today. I managed to finish three important projects.
Productive.
I can't be productive with all this noise.
Productive.
We weren't very productive last week. We'll have to work a lot harder this week to finish everything.
Unreliable.
The trains here are so unreliable. They never arrive on time.
Unreliable.
Thomas is pretty unreliable. He never finishes his project on time.
Unreliable.
You promised you would pick me up from work today. You're so unreliable!