a Talking to Co-Workers
¨ I missed the meeting. Can you fill me in?
¨ I had a doctor’s appointment so I missed the meeting. What happened?
¨ I couldn’t make it to the meeting today. Anything interesting I should know about?
¨ I missed the meeting. Was there anything new?
¨ Matt looks pretty upset right now. Do you know what’s going on?
¨ Did something happen recently? Matt looks pissed off.
¨ I think Matt is mad about something. Do you know what it could be?
¨ Matt talks to me like he is mad all the time. Does he do that to you?
¨ Does Matt talk to you like he is upset? Or is it just me?
¨ It’s not you at all. He talks to me that way too.
¨ Matt is way too moody.
¨ If he knew what he was doing, we wouldn’t be in this mess.
¨ What is wrong with Matt these days?
¨ He is having one of those days again. I think his manager just gave him a hard time.
¨ What do you think about our manager?
¨ He gets too mad easily and he doesn’t really help us out that much. What do you think?
b Asking for help or offering help
¨ I finished my project already so I have extra bandwidth. Let me know if you need help with anything.
¨ You’re doing the analysis on ABC Company? I did that last year. If you need any help, just let me know.
¨ I’m pretty familiar with your project so if you have any questions, feel free to ask me.
¨ I’m having trouble implementing Plan A on ABC Company. Can you look at my work and see if I am missing a step?
¨ Can you help me analyze the finance data? This is my first time and I don’t want to screw it up.
¨ Do you have a few minutes to help me with the data migration tool? I can’t figure it out.
c Complaining about another co-worker to a co-worker
¨ Have you worked with Jake yet? He can’t do anything right.
¨ The problem with Jake is that he doesn’t know that he is an idiot.
¨ I remember helping Jake out so much, and then he stabs my back.
¨ I don’t think he does his own work. He goes around asking everyone to do a portion of his work and says he did it all.
¨ If you have to work with Jake, remember the things I told you.
¨ Is management blind or am I being too sensitive about this?
¨ I think the manager likes him because he kisses her ass all day long.
¨ The manager is blind because he is a total brown-noser.
¨ I can’t believe this company is paying $75,000 a year for this fool.
d Complaining about the company
¨ This is a dead end job. I don’t see much of a future here.
¨ I hate the redundancy. It’s so boring.
¨ Work isn’t exciting for me anymore. I am doing the same thing over and over again.
¨ This company doesn’t care about employees that much. I haven’t received a fair raise in 3 years.
¨ I don’t know if it is my manager or this company, but I’m really getting sick of my job.
¨ How do you tolerate all the political bull shit in this company?
¨ What do you think about all the politics in this company?
¨ The politics suck here. But it is the same for any large corporation. The best way to deal with it is to take advantage of the rules.
¨ I don’t know how much longer I can take this job. I’ve been thinking about applying to a different company.
¨ Have you ever thought about leaving this company?
¨ What company do you want to switch to?
¨ I started applying for other jobs. There are a lot of positions open.
¨ I’ve been looking for jobs on monster.com. They have a lot of positions available.
e Talking about work experience
¨ What did you do before working here?
¨ I worked at ABC Company. I was a market analyst researching what the user wants in portable devices.
¨ I was over in the sales department on the second floor. I was in charge of overseeing the sales made by all the sales associates each month.
¨ I was a software engineer at Sun Microsystems. I created internal tools using Java to help automate the recruiting process.
f Talking to Coworkers – Interactive Practice
¨ A: “Hey Jack. How is your day going?”
B: “Just finishing the project. Other than that, not much. How about you?”
A: “I’m just about finished for the day. I have one more task to do, but I wanted to take a break first.”
B: “Did you have to work with Jake on that project?”
A: “Unfortunately, yes.”
B: “Oh my gosh. I feel so sorry for you.”
A: “Don’t remind me. I’m just glad it’s over.”
B: “Yeah. I remember when I worked on the data conversion tool with him. Everything he did, I had to re-do. It would have been faster if I did it alone.”
A: “That’s exactly what happened to me. It took me longer because I had to re-do everything he did. That really pissed me off.”
B: “Next time the manager wants me to do a project with him, I’m going to tell him that I will do it myself.”
A: “That’s a good idea. Hopefully, the manager will realize how useless he is.”
B: “Exactly. If you’re not busy, you can do my work.”
A: “Ha ha. I got enough to do.”
B: “Yeah. I’m just kidding.”
A: “Aright dude. I better finish my work. I’ll talk to you later.”
¨ A: “Hey
B: “Yeah. The manager presented a new project to us that we’ll have to do.”
A: “Damn it. I shouldn’t have missed that meeting, but I was stuck in another meeting. What else did you guys talk about?”
B: “Everything else was the same. We talked about progress of current assignments, due dates, about hiring another worker, that’s all.”
A: “What’s the new project about?”
B: “It’s hard to explain. She sent out mail to all of us. You can just review the document she sent out.”
A: “Ok. I’ll do that.”
¨ A: “Hey Bob, do you have a few minutes?”
B: “Sure. What’s up?”
A: “I’m having problems with my computer. I don’t know what’s wrong with it.”
B: “Let’s go take a look at it. Oh. Here is the problem. You have a boot sector virus. Install the anti-virus software. That should take care of the problem.”
A: “Great thanks.
¨ A: “How is your day going?”
B: “The same as usual. How about you?”
A: “Me too. I’m getting sick of work man.”
B: “I’m already past that stage. I was sick of this shit a year ago.”
A: “What are you still doing here then?”
B: “It pays the bills.”
A: “Why don’t you find another job?”
B: “Well, I thought about it, but if I put in two more years, then I get a good pension. I can’t give that up. Anyway, this job is boring, but at least it’s easy.”
A: “Well, you’ve been here for eight years. You have some things to stay for. I’ve only been here for two years. I can’t see myself doing this for another two years. I want to gain more experience in other areas.”
B: “Have you brought this up to the boss? Maybe you can go into management.”
A: “They usually want a person with an MBA degree or a person willing to put in 80 hours a week.”
B: “That’s what it takes man. Either this or that.”
A: “Yeah. I better think about what I want. Why didn’t you go into management?”
B: “It would have taken too much time. I have a family that I want to spend time with, so it wasn’t worth it for me. But you’re single. You can put in a few good years and put yourself in a good position before thinking about settling down.”
A: “You have a point. I’ll see what my options are. Hopefully the manager will help me out with my career.”
B: “She’s pretty cool about that. Just be honest with her and she’ll show you some doors.”
A: “That sounds good. Thanks for the advice.”
B: “No problem. Good luck.”B: “The same as usual. How about you?”
B: “I’m already past that stage. I was sick of this shit a year ago.”
B: “It pays the bills.”
B: “Well, I thought about it, but if I put in two more years, then I get a good pension. I can’t give that up. Anyway, this job is boring, but at least it’s easy.”
B: “Have you brought this up to the boss? Maybe you can go into management.”
B: “That’s what it takes man. Either this or that.”
B: “It would have taken too much time. I have a family that I want to spend time with, so it wasn’t worth it for me. But you’re single. You can put in a few good years and put yourself in a good position before thinking about settling down.”
B: “She’s pretty cool about that. Just be honest with her and she’ll show you some doors.”
B: “No problem. Good luck.”
