Welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast, number 548, Working for an Impossible Boss.
This is English as a Second Language Podcast, episode 548.
I'm your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you, and our ESL podcast blog, where you can pick up additional vocabulary, cultural information and some hints on improving your English.
This episode is called Working for an Impossible Boss.
The word impossible, not possible Here means a boss who is very difficult to work for.
Somebody who is so difficult we may say that it is almost impossible to work for this person.
It's a dialogue between Mr Mann and Laura and uses some vocabulary that you might find when you are having an argument with your boss.
Let's get started.
Why are all these people milling around doing no work?
Laura, you're in charge when I'm out of the office and you're incompetent.
Mr. Mann, we need to talk in private.
Let's go into your office.
What is this about?
Mr. Mann, I've tried to do my job the best I can, but I won't tolerate your verbal abuse any longer.
Verbal abuse?
I'm just telling it like it is.
It's my management style.
This is business.
If you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen.
What inappropriate behavior?
You're questioning my behavior?
Yes, I've held my tongue long enough.
Every day you come back to the office tipsy from a three-martini lunch and you go off on me in front of the other employees.
That undermines my authority and puts me in an impossible position.
I'm your boss and you have no right to question the way I run this house.
I mean department.
With all due respect, this is no way to run a department.
And how dare you suggest that I'm drunk?
You don't know who you're dealing with.
Oh, yes, I do.
You're my ex-boss.
I've had enough.
I quit.
Our dialogue begins with Mr Mann asking Laura Why are all these people milling around doing no work?
To mill M-I-L-L around, meaning to be in an area without doing anything productive or without having a purpose.
We would also say to hang around.
A more technical term would be to loiter, L-O-I-T-E-R.
Sometimes you'll see signs outside of stores that say, no loitering.
That means you can't just stand there and look around.
You have to have some purpose while you're there.
Usually it means you just can't stand there.
You can't be there.
In an office, if people are loitering, if people are milling around well, they're not really doing anything.
They should be working in this case.
So Mr. Mann says, Laura, you're in charge when I'm out of the office and you're incompetent.
To be in charge means to have the responsibility for something, to have power over a project or other people.
Usually it's the power to tell them what to do, have the authority to tell them what to do.
So when Mr. Man is not in the office, Laura becomes the boss.
By the way, the word charge has several different meanings in English.
You can find those meanings in the learning guide for today on our website.
Mr. Mann says that Laura is incompetent.
To be competent means to be capable, to be able to do something.
To be incompetent means to be not competent incapable, unable to do something, often because you don't have enough experience, or perhaps because you're not very smart.
At least that's what Mr. Mann seems to think.
Lara says, Mr. Mann, we need to talk in private, meaning with nobody else around.
Laura then replies, But I won't tolerate your verbal abuse any longer.
Verbal refers to something that is spoken, something that someone says.
Abuse is when someone is hurting another person, either physically or psychologically.
So verbal abuse would be someone who is yelling at you, calling you names, perhaps swearing, saying bad things about you that are offensive way more than what they should be saying to you.
This is what is happening to Laura.
So she says she won't tolerate, she won't put up with his verbal abuse.
Mr. Mann says verbal abuse, he's surprised and shocked, maybe a little angry.
I'm just telling it like it is, meaning I am just describing the truth, the real situation here.
It's my management style, he says.
Management has to do with the way that you work with other people, usually as a boss.
You manage them.
You control them. style is the way that you do something.
So your management style is the way that you work with other people, especially when you're the boss.
So Mr. Man is a little angry here.
He says, this is business.
If you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen.
This is an old expression.
If you can't take meaning, if you can't tolerate, if you can't put up with the heat, you should get out, of you should leave the kitchen.
A kitchen, of course, is where you prepare food and it's often hot in a kitchen.
So if you can't put up with the heat, if you can't tolerate the heat, then you shouldn't be in the kitchen.
The idea is that you should not be in a place or a situation unless you can handle the pressure and stress.
If you are in a difficult situation and you cannot handle it, well then you should leave it.
It's often said to people who complain about their situation because it is stressful or it is difficult.
The popular belief in the United States is that this expression was coined, that is, this expression was invented by a US president, President Harry Truman, who was president after Franklin Roosevelt up until January of 1953.
So Mr. Mann is saying that Laura has to listen to him even if he yells at her.
Laura says if I thought this was about my performance, I would certainly take any constructive criticism.
She's saying that this is not about her performance, what she does.
If it were about that, she would take any constructive criticism.
She would accept any advice about how she can improve, right?
That's what constructive criticism is.
Criticism is when you tell someone they're doing something wrong.
Constructive criticism is when you are telling them things they are doing wrong in order that they can improve, so that they can get better.
That's the idea.
But Laura thinks that Mr. Mann's behavior, the way he is talking to her, is inappropriate.
This is a common word now you hear.
People say that's inappropriate.
They mean it isn't something that you should be doing or saying, either because it's rude or because it doesn't belong in that particular situation or environment.
So if you work at a business office and you come in one day with your shorts on and a baseball cap, a baseball hat and a t-shirt and everyone else is wearing suits and ties and dresses, someone might say to you your dress today is inappropriate.
It's not right for this situation.
And that's what Laura is saying to Mr. Mann.
Well, Mr. Mann, he's not very interested in hearing Laura's opinion.
He says, what inappropriate behavior?
You're questioning my behavior, meaning you're asking questions.
You're doubting the way I do things.
You're criticizing me.
Laura says, yes.
Laura says that she has held her tongue long enough.
Every day you come back to the office tipsy from a three martini lunch.
To be tipsy, T-I-P-S-Y, means to be a little bit drunk, to have had an alcoholic drink.
It makes you a little silly or a little stupid.
It's not completely drunk. but it is a little bit drunk, if you will.
Martini is a type of drink.
There's an old expression, the three martini lunch, meaning instead of going to lunch and eating food, especially if you're a business executive or manager you spend your time drinking instead.
The three martini lunch represents someone wasting their time doing things because they are the boss that they shouldn't be doing.
The three martini lunch expression is not as common anymore.
In part that's because it used to be many years ago that businesses could include the cost of business lunches as a business expense.
However, In the recent years the government has changed the regulations so that now you can only count half of that lunch as being a business expense.
So the three martini lunch is not as popular.
Laura says to Mr. Mann, you go off on me in front of other employees.
To go off on someone means to lose your temper and patience.
To criticize someone else, to shout or yell at them, especially if you are really angry about something.
Notice the expression is to go off on someone.
You can say he went off, or don't go off without the on, or If you mean don't get angry, don't start yelling.
If you want to talk about who someone is yelling at, who someone is angry with, then you would say he's going off on Laura or whomever.
Laura says that when Mr Mann goes off on her in front of other employees that that undermines her authority.
To undermine someone's authority means to decrease the amount of power that someone has, to weaken their ability to be respected by other people.
So you undermine someone's authority by doing things that would make other people not respect them, not listen to them.
Mr Mann says I'm your boss and you have no right to question, to criticize the way I run this house.
Run here means to manage.
I mean, Mr. Mann says, department.
Of course, Mr. Mann suddenly thinks that he's at home, perhaps arguing with one of his children.
Laura says, So, Laura says, This is no way to run a department.
Mr. Mann is still angry.
He says, And how dare you suggest that I'm drunk?
How dare you is a phrase used when you are very angry and shocked by what someone has said, usually because they have criticized you.
How dare you come into my house and yell at me?
Get out of my house.
How dare you?
Mr. Mann then says, You don't know who you're dealing with.
This expression you don't know who you're dealing with is used when you're very angry and you want to emphasize to the other person that you are very powerful, very important, too powerful and important to be treated the way you are being treated.
Laura says, oh, yes, I do.
You're my ex-boss.
Ex here means former, used to.
I could say Angelina Jolie is my ex-girlfriend or Halle Berry is my ex-girlfriend.
I could say that.
It's not true, but I could say that.
That would be an example of ex, former, used to, not anymore.
Laura is really saying here that she's quitting.
She says, I've had enough, meaning I cannot stand or tolerate your behavior anymore.
I quit.
And she leaves the office and she goes back to school to study biology.
Or she gets another job.
You can invent the end of the story.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Why are all these people milling around doing no work?
Laura!
You're in charge when I'm out of the office, and you're incompetent.
Mr. Mann, we need to talk in private.
Let's go into your office.
What is this about?
Mr. Mann, I've tried to do my job the best I can, but I won't tolerate your verbal abuse any longer.
Verbal abuse?
I'm just telling it like it is.
It's my... it's my management style.
This is business.
If you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen.
If I thought this was about my performance, I would certainly take any constructive criticism, but this is really about your inappropriate behavior.
What inappropriate behavior?
You're questioning my behavior?
Yes, I've held my tongue long enough.
Every day you come back to the office tipsy from a three-martini lunch and you go off on me in front of the other employees.
That undermines my authority and puts me in an impossible position.
I'm your boss, and you have no right to question the way I run this house.
I mean, department.
With all due respect, this is no way to run a department.
And how dare you suggest that I'm drunk?
You don't know who you're dealing with.
Oh yes, I do.
You're my ex-boss.
I've had enough.
I quit.
Dr. Lucy Say is in charge of writing the scripts here at ESL Podcast, including this one.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us next time on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2010 by the Center for Educational Development.
