This is the Business English Podcast episode 293.
Everything okay? What to say when a coworker is distracted at work?
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Thanks for listening. Hello, Aubrey.
What's shaken? What's going on today?
How are you, Lindsay? Excellent.
Feeling pretty good summertime.
So no complaints. Yeah, I've been distracted lately.
Oh, actually, I literally have been quite to a lot of things going on, family stuff going on during the work day.
Does that happen to you, Aubrey?
It does happen to me. It's even while we're recording.
I will get distracted. I'll see the school call.
I have my phone silenced.
But if my kids are in school and I see that it's the school call, I'll see you distracting.
I'll be distracting. I will.
I'll call them back in a moment.
That I'm stressed. There's someone sick.
Did someone get hurt? What happened?
I know I'm distracted. Oh, my gosh.
Yeah. And the question is, well, many questions come up.
But what does the other person do?
Like if you're having a meeting with that person, or what do you do when you're distracted and they've noticed?
That's what we're digging into today.
Yeah. Right. Because when this happens at work, it can create awkwardness if you just say nothing.
And now they're clicking their phone and you're just sitting there staring at them.
Oh, my gosh. Very awkward.
There are things you can say to make sure that they feel like, it's OK if they need to check a text if there's some kind of emergency and you're eliminating that awkwardness.
I'm really excited to get into this because the idea came from episode 284 of this podcast, guys.
Go back and check that out.
The episode was called, should you say ain't in business English, and while you're there, hit follow.
But it came up organically.
And I think those moments, I'll very create the best episode ideas.
Or organic ideas. Yeah.
This is an upper like, what do you say when the conversation veers if someone, we were talking about if someone wants to check the score of a game.
Like there's a sportsman.
They check their phone quickly.
What can you say? Because if you make some snide snarky sarcastic remark, that could hurt the conversation or the relationship.
Or if you say nothing, it could create awkwardness.
Yeah. So I think definitely it's on the other person to say something to and maybe we'll get into that.
But is today more just focusing on the person who is being delayed by the person being distracted?
Or talk about the rules, right?
Let's get into it because we're mostly sharing phrases for what you can say if your co-workers distracted.
But let's give a little info because I agree.
You also, like if you need to look at text, you should say something as well.
Yes. But first, we have some results.
We want to make sure to share.
Oh, fun. This was a fun poll.
This was from episode 278, Business English.
It was, which is your favorite way to say you agree?
We had taught all of these fun ways to agree.
50% of you said 100%, which I think that's my favorite as well.
I use that a lot lately. Yeah, I think this tracks with trends right now in English.
I think this is very trendy and common to say this.
100%. Do you agree? 100%.
100%. But then we also taught my thoughts exactly.
12% said that's their favorite way.
This is very elevated. This is impressive at work.
Yes. My thoughts exactly.
That's a great way to agree.
Right. And this one is just enthusiastic.
Right. I couldn't agree more.
And that was 38.3% of you guys.
So, I'm all three of those.
It's nice to have lots of different options, right?
Yes. Awesome. Good to know.
But it's good to know where language is trending.
What are people using the most?
And we have lots of choices.
Absolutely. So, let's dive in first to what you were saying, Lindsay.
I love this. That if you do have to check a text or if you want to check the results of a game, anything.
If you're having a conversation with someone or you're in a meeting, you do owe them a little bit of an explanation, right?
Say, so sorry, the school is calling.
I need to take this quickly.
Or sorry, I need to check this text quickly.
I always opt for a quick apology.
And I'll let them know. You don't have to share all the information.
But let them know why you're checking your phone.
Because it is rude. And it's taking their time.
So, you want to let them know that it is important.
It's an emergency. Yeah.
And we could actually do a follow-up episode another time, going deeper into that side of things.
Let's do that. You like that idea.
That'll be our part too.
Because it will be, you will say something different.
If it's like checking a game, you're going to be a little more like sheepish.
Like, sorry, can I just check this really quick?
Because you recognize it's not an emergency.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. We could go into that later.
And maybe don't schedule meet.
Like, I know, for example, the presidential elections coming up in November.
I'm probably not going to schedule any meetings for that day because I'll be very distracted, right?
Yes, right. You know, they're going to be alerts on your phone.
You're really interested.
So, yeah, that's a good point.
That's just possible. We're going to scheduling things during these really important events.
But for today, we are in that meeting.
And the person you're talking with, maybe it's a team member, they have gotten distracted.
So, what can we say, Aubrey?
What's the first thing we could say?
And this is sort of assuming that they haven't said why.
They haven't told you, oh, sorry, I have to check it text really quick, right?
They just check their phone.
And you are trying to find out sort of like, do we need to wait?
Is, you know, there's just silence while they're checking.
Because sometimes you do get distracted.
And like, like, this could happen to me if the school's calling.
I might not think to be like, sorry, give me just a second.
I might just pick up my phone.
And the other person could say something.
Right, exactly. Exactly.
So, should we do a little role play?
A mini role play here? Yeah.
Our first option is just everything okay.
I often say this. And we're going to do a mini role place.
You can see how this would look in this role play.
I check a text during a meeting.
So, you kind of, we're talking, we're face to face on Zoom.
And then you kind of look at your phone.
And I say, hey, everything okay?
Yes, just got a text from my daughter.
And then you don't have to say everything about what it's all about, right?
You can't definitely let them know if it's something that you're willing to share.
Who tech, right? If you just, you can also be more general.
Just say, yes, sorry, I got a text from a family member.
Yes, sorry, I got a text making sure it's not an emergency.
You can't stay more general.
Sure. If you want to depend, I mean, maybe with a client, you might stay more general.
You might say family member.
And then coworker, you might drop it down to a little more familiarity, right?
And say my daughter, they might know you have kids.
Right, just depend on how well you know these people, right?
Good. Exactly. Yes. And then this next one works whether they have said something or not.
So maybe they say, sorry, I just need to check my text for a second.
Our number two option is to say, should we take a quick break to give you a minute?
And this is very, you will want to watch your tone because you don't want to be like sarcastic.
Like, okay, should we take a quick break to give you a minute?
A lot of the nonsense. Yeah.
A lot of these, yeah, especially this one could come off quite snarky, right?
Let your trying to say something that you're not.
So be careful there. 100%.
And now that he's like, as I say, it might work better instead of it being a question to make a statement and say, how about we take a quick break to give you a minute?
That when it's a question, it's almost harder to not let that sarcasm in.
Yeah. It's also a long question.
There's a lot to say in the question form.
Right. So I prefer that.
I think I would opt instead for, let's take a quick break so that you can check it for like, let's take a quick break.
And in terms of questions, we have that one coming in number three.
We have a good question in number three.
So we're going to, yeah.
Let's do a little bit for this one.
So in this one, you get a call, Lindsay.
Mm-hmm. All right. So let's take a quick break to give you a minute.
Oh, yeah. If you don't mind, I'll be right back.
Right. So I'm kind of looking at my phone and I'm trying to answer it.
I'm not quite answering.
It's a lock word. Say something.
Really, and that gives us a way to fill the awkwardness to give you the respect of giving you a minute.
Most meetings, we can spare a couple of minutes if someone gets a call or a text that might be emergent.
Of course. Of course. And there is an inherent trust in here that you have with your coworkers and colleagues that if it's not important, they're obviously not even going to answer it.
They're just going to ignore it.
They're going to let it go to voicemail, right?
But so we trust people that that's what's happening.
You know, and so this is really for moments when you would assume that it's important if they have gone ahead and decided they might need to answer.
Or do absolutely. And you want to build up that trust, right?
By like rarely taking a personal call unless it is pretty, you know, an emergency.
So then your coworkers know, oh, if they're taking a call, this must be really important.
We can take a break. Yes.
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All right, we are coming into number three, which I really like this one because it's professional, but it's also easy and quick and familiar too.
So totally. I agree. It's just need a minute.
And we're not giving the full sentence of like, do you need a minute, right?
It's like you said, quick, it's informal.
We're chopping off that subject to just quickly say need a minute.
Mm-hmm. I love it. So in this case, in this role play, you're going to check your phone.
We're talking. You check your phone.
Talking. Yeah. And then I think it might find me say need a minute.
Oh, no, I was just checking the score of the Padre.
Is game, sorry. I'm a huge fan and there's a big game happening right now.
Oh, fun. I love baseball.
Why? I don't think I would say that.
I love it. It's really funny because I don't think that I would.
There aren't any sports or games that I care about that much that I would check the score during the middle of a meeting, but this does happen.
There are people who are like super fans who might check us the score.
Maybe they're trying to sneakily secretly check the score, right?
Oh, yes. And I think this is fair.
If you see they're distracted, you're about to give important information.
I think that's fair just to say like, yeah, oh, need a minute.
Yeah. You should be able to break so you can take a minute, right?
Because you don't want to just let them be distracted and have to repeat what you're going to say.
Well, I think that's part of being a good speaker.
Michelle and I spoke yesterday on all our English about things you can do to be a better speaker.
And part of being a good speaker is knowing you have the floor.
Whether it's one person, you have their full attention, and then you deliver the piece of information at that moment.
And you're patient. You wait your calm.
You're willing to be silent for a moment.
Yeah. Absolutely. It's a really good skill, right?
It's a skill that teachers learn because sometimes students will be distracted and you have to wait to get everyone's attention.
Or you're just wasting your time if half the people aren't hearing what you're saying.
You're going to end up seeing it again later.
That makes me think about school days and teachers always had their own little strategies.
A lot of them would say, all wait.
Right? They would get...
I was up here. I was just trying to tease right.
Class one, since you can hear me.
Right? There's some of them more, more dry.
They would say, you're on my time, not your own or something like that, right?
Right. This was the 80s, over.
This is the 80s. I heard that a couple times now.
Yes. So good stuff. Let's see it all together in a role play.
So here we are meeting at work, and you're getting a call.
All right? Yes. Sorry. I need to take this really quickly.
No problem. Everything okay?
Hopefully. It's my daughter's school.
Should we take a quick break to give you a minute?
That would be great. Thank you.
I'll be right back. Yeah.
I think this did happen once or twice, actually.
When we were recording or you're having a meeting, right?
So this is absolutely has happened.
Yeah. Because it's actually probably this role play word for word, right?
And it's usually the school is calling.
And I don't know how much of an emergency it is.
So it's as soon as I can. I'm just giving you one second.
Sorry. I'll be right back.
For sure. And so what did we say?
So I used is everything okay or just everything okay.
So again, we're taking that verb off, which makes it feel more native and natural, closer, informal.
Yeah. Absolutely. It's amazing how just dropping the subject, the verb, it really makes it more informal, more friendly.
Really is powerful. But now that we're doing that more in English at work and out of work, I wonder if that's going to become irrelevant.
You know what I mean? How things can start to just lose their meaning?
Yeah. It's true, right?
If we just all become more informal all the time, then that'll be the new standard.
Yeah. How do we get more informal and friendly from there?
I don't know. I don't know.
And then so you said, I said, oh, I hope so.
It's my daughter's school.
And then you said this phrase, should we take a quick break to give you a minute?
You can also make that a statement.
Let's take a quick break to give you a minute.
I like that better. We decided that as better as a statement than as a question, it is quite long to say that as a question.
It is quite long. And it's interesting how there's almost some implied sarcasm with something like that just by the virtue of it being a question.
Whereas if it's a statement, we're not making you say, yes, please take a break.
We're just saying, like, let's take a quick break.
No big deal. Yeah. I totally agree.
Any takeaway that comes to mind today?
I mean, it's all about silence.
Right? Silence is a good silence that can really hurt a connection.
And if someone is distracted, checks their phone quickly, you have the power really to either let that awkward silence linger or to say something that supports them and builds the connection by helping them feel supported that if they do get an emergency call, they can let you know.
And it's okay to take a couple of minutes.
Yeah. And I think a big, as you guys know, our goal here at Allers English is connection.
And a big part of connection comes with giving people the benefit of the doubt.
I'm so good. And now you have these phrases to use, but you also have to believe that.
You're giving them the benefit of the doubt and then they can hear that in your voice as you deliver these phrases.
Absolutely. And you want your co-workers and colleagues to give you the benefit of the doubt.
So don't abuse that trust, right?
Make sure that it is emergency and emergency when you're checking your phone so that they will always give you the benefit of the doubt.
Yeah, it's amazing how silence can be so powerful.
Right? So much can happen in a moment of silence.
Right? Yeah. Very cool.
Love this. All right, Abri.
We'll see you on the next episode.
Have a good one. See you next time.
All right. Bye. Thank you for listening to Business English.
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