This is the Business English Podcast.
What should you do if a coworker is bigoted?
Welcome to the Business English podcast from All Ears English.
Get the English skills you need to achieve your dreams in global business.
For a presentation, a meeting or your office party.
This is Real Business English, with your favorite American hosts, Lindsay and Aubrey, coming to you from Arizona and Colorado, USA.
Have you ever been in an English conversation where you understood everything, but when it was your turn to speak, the words disappeared?
You've learned more sophisticated phrases, but in the moment you fall back on simple, safe words.
That's exactly why we created our brand new online course, Active Vocabulary.
This course helps you move your vocabulary from passive recognition to active use.
So the words are there when you need them in those important moments of your life.
Plus, when you become a student, you get invited to the weekly open conversation club to practice your speaking live.
Save up to $100, but the offer ends on Sunday.
Go now to allearsenglish.com slash vocabulary to get the special deal.
That's allearsenglish.com slash V-O-C-A-B-U-L-A-R-Y.
Hello, Lindsay.
How are you?
Hey, Aubrey.
Feeling good today.
I have a question for you.
All right.
Let's hear it.
Have you ever had a conversation at work that got kind of uncomfortable and maybe you had to steer it elsewhere?
You had to move the conversation to a different topic?
Definitely.
Yes, yes.
I have had often at work especially, but even maybe like happy hour, when it's a little more casual environment.
If people start talking about politics or religion or dating life and the relationship isn't there or it's a little uncomfortable.
Yeah, I've had to do that.
You just have to steer it elsewhere.
Yes, steer it elsewhere.
But to do that, we do need the vocabulary, don't we, Aubrey?
I mean, that's the key piece actually comes from Module 7, Lesson 2 of our newest course, Active Vocabulary.
In this lesson, we share four steps to steer sensitive conversations at work to save the connection.
Today we're sharing one of those steps what to do when you need to end the conversation and step back.
We're so excited to share this course with you.
We know a lot of you, all of you have so much vocabulary, but can you use it when you need it?
That's the key question, right?
When we do Open Conversation Club, I talk to students all the time and this is one of the biggest things they share, as the big challenge is they feel they know vocabulary but they can't use it or they don't have enough nuance in the vocabulary that they have right.
So what we're trying to do with this course, the goal of this course, what this course does for you, is it moves your vocabulary from the passive category to the active category.
So when you're in these higher pressure moments maybe you're giving a presentation at work or you are at a business lunch you actually can pull that vocabulary forward and use it at the right moment.
Exactly.
I've been really impressed as I've helped with this course and worked on it.
So many great phrases that are the perfect thing that you need, depending on the situation, on the context, the register, how formal, how informal.
So very excited for you to check out this course.
It's available right now at allearsenglish.com slash vocabulary.
Yeah, but just this week, guys, you're able to save up to $100 off the normal price.
That ends on Sunday at midnight.
So you're going to want to go on over there to the link that Aubrey just gave you allearsenglishcom slash vocabulary to jump in.
All right.
All right, let's dive in here.
I'm excited to share this a bit of learning from the course, because any of us could be in that situation where a co worker or a client makes an inappropriate, insensitive or bigoted remark.
What does that mean bigoted, Lindsay?
Yeah, this is an interesting word.
This is someone who's basically intolerant sorry intolerant, utterly intolerant of any creed, belief or opinion that might differ from their own.
So they put people in the out group and they're just explicitly either racist or homophobic, right?
It's kind of an umbrella word, right?
Exactly.
This umbrella term for anyone who's not interested in anyone else's opinion.
They're using language like anyone's crazy who thinks otherwise, or.
I can't stand people who disagree.
And when that type of thing happens, someone is sort of Labeling themselves as a bigot, right?
They're not interested in other opinions.
And often the best answer is a phrase that makes it clear that you disagree and step back.
Yes.
So we're going to give you a couple of tools here to use in this situation.
But Aubrey, I mean, what can we do here?
This is where vocabulary matters so much.
I mean, if we're too polite, we might end up like kind of endorsing their viewpoint or just having to be stuck in that conversation.
You might accidentally imply that you agree if you silently stay there and do nothing.
But if you're too blunt you could cause offense, hurt the connection and this is likely someone you still have to work with.
So you want to be clear, but maintain professionalism.
Mm-hmm.
That's exactly it, right?
And it can be difficult if you feel that you're getting angry or emotional.
This is when all of our vocabulary can go out the window.
So again, what we're trying to help you do in the course is to move from passive to active with this vocab.
So it's ready for you.
It's right there, ready for you to deploy.
Right.
Exactly.
Right.
You need some great phrases that can do just this without getting angry or emotional, especially if you start to feel that, deploy one of these phrases.
And then when we say step back, we don't mean physically.
We mean you're removing yourself from that conversation clearly.
And then our pro tip here is to pivot back to work, right?
So if you say one of the phrases we're going to share today and then immediately ask them a question about work, a project they're working on, something like that, then that ends the conversation and moves you back to safe territory.
Yeah, this makes me think of the saying, there's a time and a place.
Maybe if this conversation were to happen at a friend's dinner party, maybe it is for you in that moment the right time to push back.
But you'll have a different set of vocabulary for that to push back and argue and get into it with this person.
But at work, you need to maintain your professional connection.
Right.
So today you've got these two phrases that are going to be valuable like gold for you in the workplace.
Exactly.
Or maybe you just don't have time to go there.
Like I don't have time for a political debate.
I have work to do.
Right.
It's just not the time.
Yes.
All right, let's dive in with our first phrase here, right?
Which is, I don't want to go down that rabbit hole or let's not go down that rabbit hole.
And then, like we said immediately, the goal is to change the topic, pivot back to talking about work.
Let's show how this might look in a role play.
Okay, here we go.
So that's why I think the moon landing was fake.
And I think it's crazy that anyone believes that happened.
Well, I don't want to go down that rabbit hole.
Hey, how's the Lancome project going?
Oh, this is perfect.
Right?
Imagine you have a coworker that has an idea you disagree with.
And like you said, Lindsay, maybe at a dinner party, you would have that debate, right?
You would maybe share why you think the moon landing was real, but at work...
You're busy.
You don't have time for that conversation.
Or maybe you don't want to go into it.
This is a great phrase to save you.
Exactly.
These will come in handy because you can't really argue.
I mean, the person can't really argue with that.
Hey, you just don't have the energy for this right now.
You don't have the time for this.
Okay?
You don't want to go down that rabbit hole.
Right?
Exactly.
This phrase is clear about you're not agreeing.
You're not implying any kind of agreement with what they're saying.
And here it's not like they're being necessarily offensive or inappropriate, but they're still sharing an idea that you might disagree with.
You don't want to imply that you do agree, but you want to remove yourself from that conversation.
Exactly.
All right, let's move on to the second phrase that we're going to give our listeners today.
The phrase is, I think we see this very differently.
And again, it's a very diplomatic phrase, right?
It allows you to just say we agree to disagree and you need to move on to something more important.
Exactly.
And then again, change the topic, pivot back to work.
Both of these phrases should be said calmly, without any heat or anger or emotion.
They don't validate, but they also don't argue right, and they don't require you to explain yourself when you don't have time or don't want to.
Let's do a mini role play here to show this as well.
I'm the one with the hot take.
Again, these are not my own opinions.
I'm just gonna say that, all right ready, all right.
The bottom line is that trans athletes shouldn't be allowed to participate in youth sports.
Oh, I think we see this very differently.
Hey, I've been meaning to ask you though, how are things going with the new clients?
Yeah, so you're literally just you're really pivoting hard away from that, which is really the thing to do at work, okay.
Nothing good will come out of trying to Debate this, push back and debate this, maybe at a work party, but even at a work party I would be careful.
And it's also interesting in the context of work at a party at a conference.
There are other people milling about.
If you start having a conversation like that, where people tend to get heated, tend to have very strong
Yeah.
You never know who's going to wander by and then also share opinions, and it could become quite uncomfortable.
So often, this is just the solution to step back.
Both of these phrases are great.
They're clear.
They're not inviting a discussion.
They're not accidentally implying that you agree.
Right, i love this.
I think we see this very differently, but this is really key to immediately pivot and ask them a question about work right, you don't want to give a chance for an awkward silence or for them to ask a follow-up question about that same topic.
And then this like i would be probably excited to talk about this oh, this new client.
I can't wait to tell you.
Right.
Exactly.
Come back to something you have in common.
Come back to the reason you're at work.
Yeah.
Maintain the relationship.
Even if you don't like the person, it doesn't mean you're going to hang out with this person after work and share their views, right?
That's the thing about business relationships.
You still have to work together.
Yeah.
Right.
So often, it's about saving the connection, saving the relationship, so that you can have a professional working relationship even if you really disagree on a lot of issues.
Exactly.
Do we have another role play today, Aubrey?
Yeah, we have another quick short one here.
I'll start us out again.
I think the best way to solve our country's immigration problem is to create a clear and easy path to citizenship.
Yeah, I don't wanna go down that rabbit hole.
We could probably debate immigration for the next two hours.
I've been meaning to ask you though, how's the Lansing case going?
Yes, total pivot, love it.
Yeah, and this is interesting because this sort of brings up the point that often what someone is sharing might even be something you agree with, but you still recognize that you don't have time for the conversation.
You could go into it for a long time.
And again, someone else could wander in who disagrees.
So often, even if it's something where you do see eye to eye work might just not be the place for the discussion.
Yes, 100%.
I love it.
I love it.
So guys, we've given you some really nice vocabulary tools.
We see here just how important vocabulary is.
It could save your reputation at work, right, Aubrey?
It's so key to...
Yeah, for sure.
Exactly.
But it's one thing to know the phrases.
It's another thing to be able to use them in the moment, right?
Exactly.
So that is what this course.
We are so excited to launch it here for you to check it out, because we want you to be able to take all of what you've been learning, all of the vocabulary, all of these phrases, and actually be able to use them when it matters.
Exactly.
Move it from passive to active.
That's why we call this course Active Vocabulary.
So guys, going over to allersenglishcom slash vocabulary you can save up to 100, but it's only this week that you can have that savings.
And then the price goes up to the normal price.
So go and get in early, allersenglish.com slash vocabulary.
Aubrey, do you just want to say one thing about Open Conversation Club and how awesome it is?
Yes, I would love to.
And one of the best perks of that community is weekly live practice.
These are bonus events where you can meet the other members of our community and also us.
We're in there too with live English speaking practice.
And that is the best way to take your vocabulary and practice using it.
Practice so that it becomes part of your active vocabulary.
So, with you in this course and invited to those speaking events, you'll be amazed how your fluency is going to improve.
Yep, it absolutely works.
So if you are getting ready for a busy fall for your job maybe, and you want to finally turn your vocabulary from passive to active, this is the course to join right now to get into it.
Midsummer, you have time to get ready for a busy fall season.
Go to allersenglish.com slash vocabulary.
All right.
Good.
Yes, but that ends Sunday at midnight.
So get in there right now.
Allersenglish.com slash vocabulary.
All right.
Aubrey, you have a good rest of your day.
All right.
Awesome.
Thanks, guys.
See you next time.
Bye.
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