This is the Business English Podcast Episode 318, how to delegate work tasks before your vacation.
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Hey there, Michelle, I have a question for you.
Oh, what is it? All right, so what happens?
Oh, I can't ask you this question.
Oh, well, you can't ask me.
I'm going to ask it to you.
OK, Lindsay. What happens when you, as a business owner, what happens when you go on vacation?
Who holds down the fort?
I mean, our amazing team holds down the fort, Michelle.
You guys do. You guys say, oh, so I yell keys to the kingdom.
So Jessica sometimes logs into my email and she will check on things and forward things.
But we have a great supportive team and we all kind of, I usually feel very confident going on vacation.
Oh, that's good. That things are not going to drop through.
Everyone has a really great work ethic.
So things are usually pretty well taken care of, which is great.
Yeah, I have a question.
When you're on vacation, do you ever check in or are you able to totally let go?
Lately, the last few vacations, no, we were WhatsApp -ing.
There was one issue with resetting a password that Jessica and I had to text when I was in the airport.
But once that was taken care of, I was totally just not checking email for a week and a half.
And I wasn't worried.
I mean, worse. Like I said, we're not doing brain surgery here.
No one is going to die if an email doesn't get responded to immediately.
So that's also good.
That's why I didn't choose to go into the medical field.
I could not work in the ER.
Oh, yeah. So but we are going to talk about this expression.
This episode that is very useful in the business world.
But before we do that, we want to remind you guys to hit follow wherever you are listening to the Business English Podcast, because we don't want you to miss anything.
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Good stuff. So we're getting into this fun expression.
You asked me who holds down the fort.
And I like that you asked that.
It's just more creative than saying who makes sure nothing goes wrong.
Yeah, exactly. Exactly.
Yeah. So this is a fun expression.
It's very common in business and in everyday English, in my opinion.
So but very useful for business.
So hold down the fort basically means to be responsible for something, to make sure everything is OK when the primary person is unable to do so.
Yes. And is it a is it does it still work even though we don't physically work in the same fort, quote unquote, like we don't work in the same building.
Right. Oh, it does.
It definitely works.
And I think especially with so many people working online now, it's a metaphorical fort.
Yeah. I mean, I'm guessing, honestly, like if I if I try to think about the etymology, it probably goes back to a world war, some kind of a war, I'm guessing.
I haven't researched this.
You have to you have to check it out.
But most idioms come from somewhere.
Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
So this is really common for going away at work, whether for a long or a short time.
So let's let's do some examples.
What's the first one?
All right. So Vicky is out for two weeks.
So I'm going to hold down the fort that will be tiring.
So, yeah, you're you're going to be taking care of things.
So here you go. Here's another one.
I need to step out to take a call.
Can you hold down the fort for a few minutes?
So it can be for any amount of time.
Just when you just when you leaving will cause some sort of change.
Right. Where somebody needs to go over.
Right. So if you're kind of in a leadership position, it would be more commonly used in that way or if you're in charge of things and then you're assigning it to someone else, essentially is what we're doing here.
Thank you so much for holding the fort.
Well, I was on maternity leave.
Right. This is another good example.
People go on maternity leave sometimes and needing to assign certain tasks to have someone cover for you.
Right. Right. Exactly.
So, Lindsay, we were already talking about your situation when you're going away.
How long do you think it took you to feel that confidence that comfort when you went when you were going away that the fort would be held down?
I think repeated vacations just kind of and also just building out our team.
Yeah. Making sure everyone is trained on what they're doing.
I think it takes time and confidence and also just to realize the world is big.
There's so much going on.
It's okay. Like I said, we don't need to take things quite so seriously.
Nothing's on fire. So it's okay.
It's okay. Yep. All right, Michelle.
So I mentioned one earlier.
I'm going to just throw this one in before we get into this to cover for me.
To cover for me. Cover for very good.
Very common one. Yeah.
So another way to express this idea.
Okay. Who's going to cover for me on this task?
Yeah. And, you know, this one has I guess does it have a slightly different meaning because I think hold down the fort means this person was in charge of the fort and now they're assigning it to someone versus will you cover for me?
It could be employee to employee.
Would you take my work?
It doesn't necessarily mean you're in charge of the whole fort.
Right. Yeah, that's true.
A metaphor metaphor.
That's hard to say.
A metaphorical fort or to to be in charge.
That's another thing.
So you could say Oliver will be in charge while I'm away.
Yeah. Or to be responsible for very straightforward language here.
Terry is responsible for answering the phones until we get back from lunch.
Okay. Someone is covering the phones or responsible for the phones in charge of the phones.
And this one is to look after so CC will look after the mail while I'm out.
So that's like some of these are a little bit more casual.
I think holding down the fort is more intense than looking after it.
Yeah. Right. Don't you think like you don't say CC will hold down the fort by looking after the mail?
It's not as far as it applies.
Yeah. Yes. Holding down the fort.
It doesn't seem it's it's not really just one task.
Right. It's more all encompassing.
It's the whole thing that person is then going to become kind of the leader and take care and make sure everything works out.
I also like the term look after for will you look after my dog while I'm away?
Right. Yeah. Look after my kid while I go and buy something.
Right. So that sort of thing is used in more broad ways outside of just the workplace.
Absolutely. Yes. Exactly.
Lindsey, do you have a favorite one?
A favorite one? I like it.
I like look after because it feels kind of casual and I don't know kind of.
Yeah. Just everyday life.
Everyday life. Look after.
Yeah. I think I like, I think I like hold down the fort.
Right. We're going with that one.
That's our favorite.
Yeah. I like it. So, all right.
So let's do a role play to give some context here.
So here I am going on vacation and you work with me.
All right. So who will be responsible for the newsletters?
Oh, Ronald will be in charge of that.
Okay. That makes sense.
And Tara will look after the reports.
Got it. Good. But yeah, overall you will be holding down the fort.
Sounds good. Yeah. I think just for some advice for our listeners, that's the key is communicating, making sure the person who is in charge knows they're in charge, you know, because then if you don't do that, um, there could be some confusion and then no one kind of steps up.
So we need to be really explicit and clear, which we could talk about another day, Michelle, how to be explicit about that.
Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's yeah, definitely before your boss or whomever it is, it goes away.
You want to make sure to, to make sure you know, what's going on.
And I think we have talked about this a little bit in terms of, you know, how to talk with a coworker about doing certain tasks.
Yeah, we have. Um, so, but yeah, I think that's why I like this hold down the fort because it is so all encompassing and, um, I mean, you could also just, just briefly, you know, you couldn't use it in your regular life.
Um, even I'm thinking about with, with kids, I mean, I'm thinking about, oh, if I like, let's say I need to go to the store, I might say to Dan, okay, can you hold down the fort while I'm away?
Uh, you know, yeah, right.
Because yeah, totally.
Cause you're in charge of the fort and now you're signing or we're in charge of the fort together.
And I'm just like, okay, you're on your own.
Yeah. So, so something, something like that.
Oh, thanks for holding down the fort.
So that's something you can also say.
You can thank someone for holding down the fort.
But, um, yeah, uh, so lots, lots of ways to use this here in business and in everyday life.
Should we go over the role play?
Let's do it Michelle.
So here you said, yo, you realize that I realize that you're going on vacation.
So I said, who will be responsible for the newsletters.
Right. And I said, Ronald, Ronald will be in charge of that.
Good old Ronald. Ronald's going to take over.
He's going to cover for you, right?
Thanks, Ronald. Yeah.
Uh, and then you said and Tara will look after the reports.
Yes. Um, and then I said, but yeah, overall you will be holding down the fort.
Nice. I like that. Very explicit, very clear what each person's doing.
And then who's the umbrella who has that umbrella responsibility?
There should be someone that's kind of like, if there's a problem, people can go to that person.
So Ronald and Tara, they're all going to come to you.
Lindsey. Got it. That will be fun.
All right. Michelle, is there another episode or listeners might want to check out?
Yes. Check out episode two 81.
That was how to impress your boss by sharing your backup plans in English.
Always very impressive to have backup plans, not impressive, but required.
Got to have a backup plan most of the time.
Yep, exactly. Any takeaways for today, Lindsay, before we head out.
I like, I just like how explicit this language is and how direct, you know, it's all about communicating.
The thing you don't want to do is end up on vacation.
It's Wednesday of your vacation week and something goes wrong.
And this person thinks that person was in charge, but that person didn't know.
And then you're getting a call.
You're in another country.
Maybe you're hiking or something.
You don't want that.
So make sure you take those extra steps to be clear.
Okay. Yes. Yeah. Take that time.
Take that time. It'll be worth it in the end to avoid any confusion or missing anything.
Yeah. And just the feeling of getting onto a plane when you realize like, you don't have to worry about anything.
It's worth it. 100%.
Yes. Definitely. All right.
Well, Lindsay, this was fun and guys, we'll talk to you on the next one.
All right, Michelle, you take care.
Talk soon. Bye. Thank you for listening to Business English, a podcast just for you, the high -achieving global professional.
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