Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 128, Hiring Contractors.
You're listening to English as a Second Language podcast number 128.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
The script for today's podcast and production is, as always, by Dr Lucy Say, and we thank her for her help.
Today's podcast is going to be about hiring a contractor.
Someone who comes and works on your house or your office to change it or to fix it.
Let's get started.
My company decided that it was time to remodel our offices and I was put in charge of getting bids from contractors.
The trouble was I had heard horror stories from friends who did remodeling and I was worried about finding a company that would get the job done on time and under budget.
No doubt there are many honest contractors, but some of the people I talked to had experiences with shady companies.
Some of them weren't on the level about being able to meet deadlines, and some tried to get away with murder when they billed for a job.
It was important that I found a company that was on the up and up.
I got bids from six companies and checked all of their references.
In the end, I picked a company that had done work for one of the biggest companies in the city.
They seemed to be the best and our company hired them.
I have my fingers crossed that everything will go smoothly.
Today we are talking about hiring a contractor, and the word contractor c-o-n-t-r-a-c-t-o-r-s comes from rather, the word contract, which is an agreement, of course, between two people.
We would say an agreement between two parties, P-A-R-T-I-E-S.
It's the same word as parties when you celebrate parties.
But when we say there's a contract between two parties, we mean either between two individuals or between two companies or groups of individuals.
Well, a contractor, with an OR at the end, is the name of the person who does the contract.
And usually, when we talk about a contractor, we're usually talking about someone who works independently.
In fact, we use the term independent contractor.
This is a person who works for him or herself, not for another company, and you can hire this person just to do a specific job.
And when they're done with that job, you pay them, and that's it.
They go on to another job.
Well, in this story for this podcast, the person in the story says that it was time to remodel our offices.
To remodel, R-E-M-O-D-E-L, means to fix, to change, to improve, to make better.
And usually we use this verb when we are talking about a house or a building where we are going to, for example, remodel our bathrooms.
That means we're going to fix it, put in some new cabinets, put in a new bathtub.
That would be remodeling.
Well, in the story, this person is remodeling their office and he was put in charge of getting bids from contractors.
To be put in charge of...
That expression means that they were responsible for.
So if I say I'm putting you in charge of finding a new gardener for our garden a gardener, someone who works in a garden that means that you are responsible for that.
It's your job to do it.
You must be the leader there. the boss for that particular task, that particular job.
A bid, B-I-D, is when a company or an independent contractor says, we can do that job for $1,000.
In other words, a bid is an offer to do a particular job.
And you get many different bids, and then you find the bid that you like best.
Well, he was supposed to get bids from contractors.
The trouble was he had heard horror stories from friends who did remodeling.
Horror stories, H-O-R-R-O-R, two words, horror stories.
A horror story is normally a scary story like, for example, Count Dracula the vampire is a horror story.
In this case however, when someone says I heard a horror story, they mean I heard a horrible experience, a person who had a very bad, it's a very bad story of something that went wrong.
And usually this is for example, you are talking about a vacation you took and it was a really bad hotel.
And you tell your friends that it's a horrible hotel.
They might say, oh, I heard horror stories about that hotel.
I heard bad stories about it.
Well, the person in our story here, which is not a horror story, was worried about finding a company that would get the job done on time.
The job, J-O-B here, just means the specific task.
A task, T-A-S-K, is the same as a small job.
Well, to get the job done on time means to get it done when it is scheduled to be done.
So if you promise to finish it by Friday, you must complete it by Friday to be on time.
The other thing that he wanted is that the company would come in under budget.
Under budget, budget, B-U-D-G-E-T, is how much money you are going to spend.
So when someone says they're under budget, we often use the expression to come in.
Under budget means that it will cost less than they had planned.
So if the contract bid is for $1,000, but it only costs $750, that contract came in under budget.
The story continues, no doubt there are many honest contractors.
When someone uses the expression, no doubt, They mean, of course.
Of course there are many honest contractors.
Or, I believe that there are many honest contractors.
But some of the people he talked to had experiences with shady companies.
Shady, S-H-A-D-Y, would be a company that isn't honest.
A dishonest company would be shady.
They try to steal your money or they don't finish what they say they are going to finish doing.
That would be a shady company.
In Britain, they would probably use a term like dodgy, D-O-D-G-Y.
Dodgy, as someone from Britain might say it, is the same as shady in American English.
Well, some of these contractors, according to our story, weren't on the level about being able to meet deadlines.
To be on the level, L-E-V-E-L, that means, again, to be honest.
So if someone says, I'm on the level with you, they mean I am telling you the truth.
I am being honest with you.
Some of the companies try to get away with murder when they bill for a job.
The expression to get away with murder, M-U-R-D-E-R.
Literally, murder means when someone kills someone else.
But the expression to get away with murder means that you did a terrible thing, a very bad thing, but you get away, meaning you are able to do it without being punished, or perhaps without anyone knowing.
So to get away with murder is to do a very bad thing, but you do not have to.
You are not punished for it.
Well, to bill for a job, B-I-L-L, means that you ask for money.
So I'm going to bill you for something means I'm going to send you a bill and tell you how much money you have to pay me.
The company that the person in our story is looking for, he wants it to be on the up and up.
The expression on the up and up and up, U-P just like up and down.
To be on the up and up means, once again, the same as to be on the level.
It means it's an honest company, a company that tells the truth.
Well, the person here gets bids from six companies and checks all of their references.
To check is the same as to investigate.
And references R-E-F-E-R-E-N-C-E-S.
References are when the names of people or companies that you have done work with, or so if I am a contractor and I worked for mister Jones and missus Smith, I would say well, here are my references, and I would give them the name and the telephone number of these people and you can call them and say well, did this person do a good job?
You have references for contract bids.
You also have references for job, of course, people that you have worked for.
Well, in the end, he decided to pick a company that had done work for one of the biggest companies in the city or had worked for.
The person in our story says that he has his fingers crossed that everything will go smoothly.
To have your fingers crossed C-R-O-S-S-E-D means that you are hoping, you are praying?
You're not sure.
And we use that expression when you don't have any more control over what will happen.
So I have my fingers crossed that it won't rain today.
I can't control that.
But I am hoping I am lucky and to cross your fingers, you take the first two fingers, of course, and you put the middle finger, the second finger not counting your thumb the second finger behind the first finger and that is crossing your fingers.
Well, for things to go smoothly means that they will go without problems, that the contractor won't give the company any problem.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, or the story rather, this time at a native rate of speech.
My company decided that it was time to remodel our offices and I was put in charge of getting bids from contractors.
The trouble was, I heard horror stories from friends who did remodeling and I was worried about finding a company that would get the job done on time and under budget.
No doubt there are many honest contractors, but some of the people I talked to had experiences with shady companies.
Some of them weren't on the level about being able to meet deadlines, and some tried to get away with murder when they billed for a job.
It was important that I found a company that was on the up and up.
I got bids from six companies and checked all of their references.
In the end, I picked a company that had done work for one of the biggest companies in the city.
They seemed to be the best, and our company hired them.
I have my fingers crossed that everything will go smoothly.
Today's script was written by Dr. Lucy Say of the Center for Educational Development.
Remember to visit our website to see a copy of the script.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thanks for listening.
We'll see you next time on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
This podcast is copyright 2006.
