Welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast number 1160, Being Reprimanded at Work.
This is English as a Second Language Podcast, episode 1160.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
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This episode is a dialogue between Tanya and James about making mistakes at work and getting in trouble.
Let's get started.
What time is your meeting with Ted?
It's at three o'clock.
Why?
You don't seem worried.
If I were being accused of misconduct and up for disciplinary action, I'd be on edge.
It was a minor offense.
I heard about it, and it didn't sound that minor.
I'll be up for dismissal or anything.
I hope not, but you might get a written reprimand placed in your personnel file.
That could affect your chances for raise or promotion.
I don't have much of a chance of getting either one, quite frankly, so why sweat it?
I'm glad that's your attitude.
What I say is, don't do the crime if you can't do the time.
Tanya begins by asking James a question.
What time is your meeting with Ted?
James says, it's at 3 o'clock.
Why?
Tanya says, you don't seem worried.
You don't seem concerned.
If I were being accused of misconduct... and up for disciplinary action, I'd be on edge.
Tanya says that if she were accused of misconduct, she'd be on edge.
To be accused.
A-C-C-U-S-E-D means that someone has said that you have done something wrong or perhaps even something illegal.
If someone accuses you of stealing something, that person is saying that you stole something.
You did something, in this case, wrong and possibly illegal.
James is being accused of misconduct.
Misconduct, M-I-S-C-O-N-D-U-C-T is is breaking the rules, doing something wrong.
Misconduct is a more formal term for doing something wrong or behaving in such a way that your company or organization thinks that you need some sort of punishment.
Usually that's what it means.
The word conduct simply means behavior.
It could be good behavior or bad behavior.
Misconduct is always bad behavior or poor behavior or breaking the rules and regulations.
Tanya says that James is up for disciplinary action.
To be up for something is means to be considered for something.
It could be a good thing or it could be a bad thing.
If someone says I'm up for a promotion P-R-O-M-O-T-I-O-N meaning getting a better job in your company, that's a good thing.
To be up for disciplinary action, however, is certainly a bad thing.
Disciplinary, D-I-S-C-I-P-L-I-N-A-R-Y, comes from the word discipline.
To discipline someone is to punish someone, to do something bad to someone who has done something wrong.
A parent may discipline his child for doing something wrong by oh I don't know sending the child to his room or telling the child he has to sit in the corner and not play with the other kids for ten minutes or five minutes.
If your child does something wrong, you may say to the child you're not going to get any dessert tonight or any sweets tonight.
That's my way of disciplining you.
Disciplinary then refers to some sort of punishment.
Disciplinary action would be something the in this case, company will do to you for breaking the rules.
Tanya says that James is up for disciplinary action.
If she were in that condition or that situation, she would be on edge.
To be on edge, E-D-G-E, means to be worried about something, to be nervous about something.
You could also be on edge if you were perhaps uneasy.
You're not sure what's going to happen.
I'm waiting to get the results of my exam.
I'm on edge.
I'm uneasy.
James, however, doesn't seem to be worried.
He says it was a minor, M-I-N-O-R, offense.
O-F-F-E-N-S-E.
Something that is minor is...
Not important, not significant.
Small, we might say.
The opposite of minor is major, M-A-J-O-R.
Of course, minor and major are also musical terms, but here they refer to the importance or significance of something.
An offense is a violation when someone breaks a rule or breaks a law.
James says that whatever he did was a minor offense.
He says, I'm sure I'll just get a slap on the wrist.
A slap, S-L-A-P, on the wrist, W-R-I-S-T, is a very mild, almost insignificant punishment.
It's when you don't get disciplined very much.
It's when the punishment you get doesn't seem very significant or very serious.
If you kill someone, if you murder someone, and then the police tell you well, you're only going to have to pay a 10 fine for that.
That would be a slap on the wrist.
That's not normally going to happen in most places.
Your wrist, W-R-I-S-T, is part of your body.
It's where your hand meets the rest of your arm.
A slap, S-L-A-P, is a hit.
To slap usually means to take your hand and hit someone on his or her face.
But slap could also mean a very light or not very painful hit with your hand.
A slap on the wrist then would not be a very painful experience and therefore not a very significant punishment.
I'm not saying that you should slap anyone hard in order to discipline them.
It's an old expression that means a very what we might describe as mild or even minor punishment.
Tanya says I heard about it, meaning I heard about what you did James, and it didn't sound that minor.
Notice the use of the word that here to mean very.
It didn't sound very minor, meaning it didn't seem to her that whatever James did was a minor offense.
James continues, however, "...people blow things out of proportion."
The expression to blow B-L-O-W things out of proportion P-R-O-P-O-R-T-I-O-N means to treat a situation or to consider a situation as if it were much more important and serious than it actually is.
If you come home and your wife asks you if you brought the groceries home, the food home from the store, and you say, oh no, I forgot.
If then, your wife takes out a gun and shoots you, that would probably be blowing things out of proportion.
Your wife is getting more angry than she really should.
So, honey, I'm sorry I forgot the groceries today.
Don't shoot me.
That's blowing things out of proportion.
James says that his situation has been blown out of proportion, apparently.
He says it's not like I'd be up for dismissal or anything.
James is saying that he's not going to be dismissed.
To be up for dismissal, D-I-S-M-I-S-S-A-L, means that you are going to be fired.
You are going to lose your job.
That's the meaning of the verb, in this case, to dismiss.
Tanya says I hope not but you might get a written reprimand placed in your personnel file.
A reprimand R-E-P-R-I-M-A-N-D is a written notification that you did something wrong.
Usually a reprimand says something about what will happen if you do that same thing again.
So a written reprimand would be something that a company would put in your personnel file.
Personnel, P-E-R-S-O-N-N-E-L.
Notice there are two N's in personnel. refers to people who work for an organization.
Your personnel file F-I-L-E would be information about you that, at least in some companies, is still kept in a physical thing called a file or a folder, in which you put pieces of paper that are related to each other.
Nowadays, of course, the word file usually refers to an electronic file, a document.
Tanya reminds James that this written reprimand that would be put or placed in his personnel file could affect his chances for a raise or promotion.
A raise, R-A-I-S-E, is when you get more money for the work you do at your company.
A promotion, as we mentioned previously, is when you get a better job at your company.
James says, I don't have much of a chance of getting either one, quite frankly.
The expression quite Q-U-I-T-E, frankly F-R-A-N-K-L-Y means.
I'm telling you this in a very honest way.
I'm telling you in a very direct way.
When someone uses the phrase quite frankly...
He's saying, I'm being honest with you.
I'm being 100 honest with you, even though it might be embarrassing or even though it might perhaps anger you.
In this case though, James is saying that quite honestly.
Quite frankly, he doesn't think he's going to get a raise or a promotion.
So why sweat it?
To sweat, S-W-E-A-T, it means to be very nervous or worried about something.
If someone says, don't sweat it, he's saying, don't worry about it.
It's no big deal.
James says, I'll deal with whatever punishment I get.
A punishment is, of course, something done to you when you do something wrong.
It's a negative consequence of your actions, we might say.
Tanya says I'm glad that's your attitude, meaning I'm glad that that is your viewpoint, the way you think about things.
James ends the dialogue by saying, That's an old expression.
That is, don't break the law.
If you can't do the time.
To do the time here means to take the punishment, usually to be placed in a jail, to be put in a prison.
If someone says he's doing time, that person means he's in prison.
Or if a person said yeah, I did time back in the 1980s, She's telling you she was in prison back in the 1980s.
Don't do the crime if you can't do the time.
Do, do, do.
Don't do it.
Do, do, do.
That was a song.
Actually, it was from a television show called Beretta.
Don't do the crime if you can't do.
The time was part of the theme song, the song that they would play at the beginning of the show.
I believe it was written by the great Sammy Davis Jr.
Interestingly, the actor who played the character Beretta in the TV show himself was accused of murder.
He, however, was not found guilty.
Though many people said that he did do the crime, he just didn't do the time.
Who knows?
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
What time is your meeting with Ted?
It's three o'clock.
Why?
You don't seem worried.
If I were being accused of misconduct and up for disciplinary action, I'd be on edge.
It was a minor offense.
I'm sure I'll just get a slap on the wrist.
I heard about it, and it didn't sound that minor.
People blow things out of proportion.
It's not like I'll be up for dismissal or anything.
I hope not, but you might get a written reprimand placed in your personnel file.
That could affect your chances for a raise or promotion.
I don't have much a chance of getting either one, quite frankly, so why sweat it?
I'll deal with whatever punishment I get.
I'm glad that's your attitude.
What I say is, don't do the crime if you can't do the time.
If anyone deserves a raise and promotion here at the Center for Educational Development, it's our very own.
Dr Lucy Say.
Clap if you think that she deserves a raise and a promotion.
Come on, everybody.
Thank you.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening, as well as clapping.
Come back and listen to us again.
One more time, well, at least one more time, right here on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2015 by the Center for Educational Development.
