Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 808.
Asking for Time Off This is English as a Second Language podcast number 808.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
This episode, like all of our episodes, has a learning guide, and that learning guide can be found on our website, eslpodcom.
Go there, become a member, and download the learning guide.
This episode is a dialogue between Johnny and Francesca about asking for time off, time where you don't have to work.
Let's get started.
I just found out that the manager is letting Neil take Friday off.
I asked him two days ago for Friday off, and he turned me down.
Neil's wife is pregnant, so maybe he needs time off to go with her to a doctor's visit or something.
That's so messed up.
I asked first, so I should have been given permission instead of Neil.
I think the manager has it in for me.
I don't think that's the case.
Maybe next time, if you ask a couple of weeks in advance, he'll say yes.
Neil does have seniority, you know.
Neil is always going to have seniority over me and I'm always going to get screwed.
Don't get a chip on your shoulder about this.
Neil put in his years and earned his seniority fair and square.
When you've worked here 18 years, you'll get priority over newer hires.
If I'm still in this job in 17 years, shoot me.
Johnny begins by saying to Francesca I just found out, I just learned, that the manager is letting or allowing Neil to take Friday off, to take a day off, or to take a week off or a month off.
Here is a phrasal verb meaning not to go to work on that day or for that week or for that month.
I'm going to take the afternoon off.
That means I'm not going to work after lunch.
And maybe I won't work before lunch either.
I don't know.
That's what we mean by to take something off.
That same phrasal verb, to take off, can also mean to remove your clothing.
I'm going to take off my shirt.
Not really, not in front of the microphone here.
So to take off means to remove something you are wearing.
To take off can also be used for a plane that leaves the ground.
What time does the plane take off?
What time does it leave?
In this dialogue, though, to take off means simply to not go to work.
Johnny says I asked him, the manager, two days ago, for Friday off and he turned me down.
To turn down someone, or to turn someone down is another phrasal verb.
That means to say no to something someone has asked you to do or that someone has asked you for.
I'm going to turn down his request for a vacation next week.
I'm going to say no.
To turn down is usually a verb we use when someone has authority over you, when they're higher up, have a higher position than you, and usually in a somewhat more formal situation.
But you could have a parent turn down their son's request for the car on Friday night.
It's possible to say that as well.
Francesca says Neil's wife, Neil is the one who is getting Friday off, is pregnant.
So maybe he needs time off to go with her to a doctor's visit or something.
Time off is a period of time when you are not working, when you do not have to go to work.
So you could say to your boss, I need some time off this afternoon.
And your boss might say, okay, take this afternoon off.
Time off is a noun, and to take off, of course, is a verb.
Johnny says that's so messed up.
The expression to be messed M-E-S-S-E-D up is sort of an informal expression to mean it's not fair or it's not right.
Sometimes perhaps it's just simply confusing.
Here Johnny means it's not fair, it's not right.
He says, I asked first.
So I should have been given permission instead of kneel.
I should have been given permission.
When we say you should have been something, that means that it didn't actually happen.
But you think that in a perfect world, it should have happened.
Permission is authorization.
It's when someone in authority, your boss, a parent, a teacher, says, OK, you can do that.
It is saying it's all right for you to do something.
Johnny says, I think the manager has it in for me.
To have it in for someone means you want to do something to someone that will make their life miserable or difficult, because you dislike this person.
Students often think their teachers are mean, are not nice that they have it in for them that they're trying to purposely make their life difficult.
Francesca says, I don't think that's the case.
The case, C-A-S-E, here means the situation or the circumstances.
I don't think that's the case.
It means I don't think that's what is actually going on here.
I don't think that is really the situation.
Francesca says maybe next time, if you ask a couple of weeks in advance, he'll say yes.
To do something in advance means before something else happens, ahead of time, before perhaps other people do it or before something else is supposed to happen.
For example, nowadays in the United States, you can buy your movie tickets in advance.
So let's say, I want to go see a movie this Friday night with my wife and I decide it might be very busy.
Sometimes it's so busy you go to the movie theater and there are no more tickets left.
So I'm going to buy them in advance.
I'm going to go on the Internet and I'm going to buy the tickets today for a movie we're going to see on Friday.
That's just an example.
I'm not actually taking my wife to a movie on Friday.
I really don't like going to see movies in movie theaters.
I don't know if I've ever told you that.
But all the people and they're talking on their cell phones.
I would rather just watch a movie on my television, honestly.
So that's me.
Anyway, Francesca says, Neil...
Seniority, S-E-N-I-O-R-I-T-Y, means that you usually have been at the company for a longer time.
I've been working for the company for 10 years.
You've been working for the company for one year.
I have seniority over you, we might say.
I have been with the company longer.
And usually at a company or an organization.
That means that you have perhaps more power or more influence than people who are younger than you or not younger in age, but have been at the company fewer years than you have.
Johnny says, Neil is always going to have seniority over me and I'm always going to get screwed.
S-C-R-E-W-E-D means that someone treats you unfairly, that you get a bad result, that someone does something bad to you.
Screwed is a very strong word.
It's an informal term.
Many people would probably consider it still a little vulgar, a little dirty.
So you definitely don't want to use this with anyone other than your family.
I usually don't use this word.
It's a pretty strong word.
It's definitely not something to use with your children, or with your boss, or with anyone that you're not very close friends with.
Francesca says don't get a chip on your shoulder about this.
To get or have a chip C-H-I-P on your shoulder.
S H O U L D E R means to continue to think about something bad or unfair that has happened to you in the past and And it still affects you in a negative way.
Someone was not nice to you two months ago.
And so every time you see that person, you're sort of angry with them.
You're not very nice with them.
Some people might say you have a chip on your shoulder because that person wasn't nice to you.
Francesca says, Neil put in his years and earned his seniority fair and square.
To put in your years means to do something for a long period of time in order to get some sort of benefit, some sort of advantage.
Fair and square means in an honest, fair way, in a truthful way, not trying to trick anyone, not trying to do anything that would be considered cheating or untruthful.
Francesca says, when you've worked here 18 years, you'll get priority over new hires.
Priority means that something is more important than other things or than something else.
If you say this has priority over that, you mean that this is more important than that.
So when Francesca says that Johnny will have priority over someone, she means that, just like Neil, he will have seniority over them and therefore get things before they do.
Francesca says Johnny will have priority over new hires, H-I-R-E-S.
A hire is a person who is given a job.
So a new hire is someone who has recently been given a job in your company or organization.
Johnny says, if I'm still in this job in 17 years, shoot me.
If I'm still in this job means if I'm still working here at this same job in 17 years.
Johnny says shoot me.
Shoot me literally means you're asking someone to kill you, to take a gun and point it at you and shoot you.
But we use this expression jokingly, sarcastically perhaps, when there's some very unpleasant situation, that you are in something very undesirable.
So Let's say I lose my job and my cat died.
Well, that's not a bad thing.
But let's say, my cat died and I'm sad and I lost my job and I don't have any money.
And I'm telling all this to a friend of mine and I say to my friend oh well, just shoot me, meaning just kill me, because my life is so difficult.
But we don't mean it seriously.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
I just found out that the manager is letting Neil take Friday off.
I asked him two days ago for Friday off, and he turned me down.
Neil's wife is pregnant, so maybe he needs time off to go with her to a doctor's visit or something.
That's so messed up.
I asked first, so I should have been given permission instead of Neil.
I think the manager has it in for me.
I don't think that's the case.
Maybe next time, if you ask a couple of weeks in advance, he'll say yes.
Neil does have seniority, you know.
Neil is always going to have seniority over me, and I'm always going to get screwed.
Don't get a chip on your shoulder about this.
Neil put in his years and earned his seniority fair and square.
When you've worked here 18 years, you'll get priority over newer hires.
If I'm still in this job in 17 years, shoot me.
I don't invent or make up these scripts as I'm recording.
They're all written in advance by our wonderful script writer, Dr. Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us again here on ESL Podcast.
ESL Podcast English as a Second Language podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2012 by the Center for Educational Development.
