This is the Business English Podcast, Episode 32, Why Americans Are in a Competition to Be the Busiest. welcome to the business english podcast from all ears english get the english skills you need to achieve your dreams in global business for a presentation a meeting or your office party this is real business english with your favorite american hosts lindsay and michelle coming to you from new york city and colorado usa Still translating in your head when you speak English?
It's time to change that. The Connected Communicator course from All Ears English helps you train your ear, speak naturally, and finally connect with real people.
In our tailored study plan, you'll hear unscripted interviews from tattoo artists to entrepreneurs from all across America. and you'll use new AI tools to practice speaking anytime you want.
No more stiff, scripted English. Build confidence, fluency, and cultural insight all in one course.
Plus, get real-life speaking experience at our Open Conversation Club every single week and build community with Allers English teachers and students.
Go to allersenglish.com slash connection to save $50 this week only.
Offer ends August 10th. allearsenglish.com slash connection Hey, Michelle, are you busy these days?
Yeah. Well, actually, now I have a little break from school, but I'm getting ready for my trip.
But once the new semester starts up, I'm going to be real busy.
How about you? Well, so you're saying you're not busy right now?
I'm not busy right this second. I'm kind of relaxing.
I needed a break because I was so busy. And how does it feel to say that?
Do you feel okay saying that, that you're not busy?
Hmm. Interesting. I feel a little funny, like, oh, shouldn't I be doing something?
Or does that make me sound lazy? What do you think?
Well, yeah, I mean, that's a good question.
Usually, I think that my go-to response most of the time when someone says, how are you doing, is usually that I say I'm either busy, I'm busy, and then I also hear people say I'm tired.
Oh, yeah. That's so common. Like yesterday I was sitting in Starbucks down by Harvard and one of the customers went up to the cash register and asked the barista, how are you?
The guy says, I'm tired. Busy, tired, busy, tired, busy, tired.
Okay. That's our go-to response nowadays more and more.
Okay. Yeah. What about you? Do you tend to say I'm busy when someone asks you how you are?
Yeah. I mean, because, yeah, I've had really since like the summer, I've been really busy.
So this is kind of the first this is kind of the first time I haven't been that busy.
But it does feel funny to be like, no, I'm not that busy because I'm really on a break and I was busy.
So that's what we're talking about today, guys.
I mean, this is going to be a really interesting episode.
So I found an article in the Harvard Business Review, and we're going to talk about it today.
The title of the article is Why Americans Are So Impressed With Busyness by Sylvia Beleza, Neeru Paharia, and Anat Kainan.
Okay, that's important to know who wrote the article.
We want to reference them. And I will put a link to the article in the blog post, guys.
But basically, the idea is... In the United States, the theory is that we feel a little guilty or a little weird if we don't say we're busy or if we're not busy, okay?
So, I mean, we can definitely agree that most of the time, what we've talked about in the beginning is that most of the time, how we respond when someone says, how are you, is we say we're busy or we're tired.
I mean, if you say, oh, not much is going on, I'm not so busy, how does that feel, Michelle, if someone says that or if you say that? makes it feel like i i don't know that you're just not doing anything or that you know i don't know that your life may be not very interesting or maybe you i i don't know i think busy and this article talked about it and it makes you say you sound like better like you have so much going on and that maybe you are of a certain economic class or you know um Yeah, you're hinting at what the article also found, right?
But, I mean, has it always been this way, Michelle?
Like, have we always responded? Like, even in the 80s, the 90s, did we used to respond that way too?
What do you think? I don't think so. And one of the things from the article I thought was funny, they talked about, I think it was from Downton Abbey or something.
Like, oh, what is a weekend? Because in the past it was that, you know, you had, if you were wealthy, you had so much leisure time.
That you didn't really distinguish between the week and the weekend.
And so that showed that you were like, oh, like, you know, wealthy or of a certain status.
Yeah, that's so interesting. But I guess before we make any conclusions, let's jump into some of the examples of the studies, guys, that they did, okay?
Because they did actual scientific studies.
And the studies were done on 35-year-old males and females, just kind of middle-aged people.
I don't want to say 35 is middle-aged. That's not middle-aged.
Because that means I'm middle-aged. That's not middle-aged.
Oh, no. Oh, come on. Okay, okay. Young professionals?
Yes, yes. Is that better? Okay. Okay. All right.
Young professionals. So the first study, it was about your choice of a grocery store.
Okay. So we have three choices. We have Peapod, which is the grocery delivery service.
And generally it's for busy people. Okay.
They compared that with Whole Foods, which is a very expensive kind of elevated, fancy, organic food grocery store.
Basically it's for people who have money.
Okay. Okay. Whole Foods and Trader Joe's is very expensive.
Yeah, very expensive. And Trader Joe's was the budget option, okay?
It's the store that you walk into, you spend your time.
Time is a key factor in these studies, okay?
That's really what it comes down to, obviously.
You spend your time picking out the cheapest groceries at Trader Joe's, okay?
So, Michelle, what did they find? Who was perceived as having the highest social status?
The peapod shoppers and Whole Foods were seen the same.
Okay, so that's interesting. So that means that the people who are kind of upwardly mobile and had no time, okay, so therefore they had to go ahead and order their groceries online, were seen as the same social status as the really rich people who basically like went to Whole Foods, had the time to go to Whole Foods and went to Whole Foods and spent like...
I don't know, three times the price that you should spend for a week of groceries.
Right. Right. Exactly. And it's funny because Peapod, because actually, well, apparently now I'm very high status because I do use Peapod.
Oh, and that's it, right? There's some kind of pride in that.
But I think there's a sense. Yeah, go ahead.
Oh, sorry. Sorry. No, but the thing is, like, it's not any more expensive and it's definitely cheaper than Whole Foods.
Is it really? Yeah. I mean, there's a little... You can definitely... I mean, it's the same as if I went to, like, my local grocery store.
Whole Foods is much more expensive, but we just do this.
But, yeah, because of time and sometimes I just... Sometimes I like going around the grocery store and sometimes I hate it.
So... Do you think that you get the same quality of foods at Peapod?
That's interesting that you say that because, yes, I mean, for your basic stuff, but we've decided to stop getting things like fruits and vegetables there.
Because what would happen is we'd see a great deal on avocados like, oh, like four, you know, five for five or something.
And then they're teeny tiny avocados and like they're really not very good.
And so things like that, I decided, OK, this time I'm not doing that.
I'm going to get it at my local. There's like a local kind of farmer's market place.
And I'm going to do that instead because those kinds of things I wouldn't say are up to snuff.
Excludes clearance. Price reflects discount.
Code valid in US and Canada through August 11th, 2025.
Exclusions apply. See details online. Yeah.
No, that's interesting. But, but it's true.
I mean, it comes back to like, I remember around Thanksgiving, I was at my brother's place having Thanksgiving and he said, Oh, I'm doing all my Christmas shopping this year on Amazon.
And there's a bit of a, and I know how he felt when, and he said, cause I just don't have time.
We just don't have time. I mean, everything's just going to be delivered to our door.
And I, I think in the U S his feeling there is I'm cool because I don't have time.
That means I'm working hard. I'm upwardly mobile.
I don't have time to go to the grocery store.
I'm too busy with my career. That was kind of the feeling.
And that's kind of what this article is talking about essentially here.
So let's talk about the second study, Michelle.
Do you remember what it was about? Yeah, it was about hands-free Bluetooth.
I thought this was really interesting. The Bluetooth versus listening to music on headphones.
Oh, so what did they find? So like Bluetooth.
Yeah. So Bluetooth, you could use to talk on the phone, have meetings and listening or headphones to listen to music.
So the person who was perceived as having a higher social status was with the Bluetooth.
Why? Because it shows that they're busy.
Shows that they're busy. It shows that they're actually, like, they're out in the world, but at the same time, they have business engagements.
They have responsibilities. Therefore, they're busy.
Therefore, they're moving up the social ladder in terms of their career, right?
They have stuff to do. It's funny because in our new course, The Secrets of the Connected Communicator, Lesson 2 of the Americana, the Beautiful Module, guys, you meet Karina, who... who actually has a Bluetooth.
She's wearing yoga clothes. She's at a Sunday farmer's market, but she has a Bluetooth in.
And it's really interesting. Jessica makes a note about that in the lesson.
The fact that she has a Bluetooth really, I agree with this.
It elevates her status. It makes you think, well, this woman, maybe she has a business on the side, right?
She's conducting a business meeting while she's at the farmer's market.
Wow. Okay. Right. That's the feeling. I mean, do you agree with this or do you disagree?
Yeah, well, it's funny. I don't know. I always think Bluetooths look kind of funny.
So it doesn't really, I'm not, I'm not like, oh, wow, a Bluetooth.
I like couldn't imagine walking around with one.
But what, okay, so you're not impressed with it.
But what do you think about that person?
Yeah, probably that they're busy. I don't know.
I maybe I found this one to be I wouldn't necessarily feel that way.
But I couldn't see why someone would feel that.
Oh, this means that they're busy. And I understand completely what you're saying.
Yeah. But yeah, I mean, sometimes I just feel like it's a contest to show who's the busiest.
Do you ever feel like that? Like the wearing Bluetooth?
Not necessarily. I mean, just jumping into, you know, like the general busyness.
Sometimes I do feel like sometimes even with friends, like it's always like, oh, I'm so busy.
No, I'm the busiest. Yeah. No. And that's the point here.
I mean, regardless of how you show that you're busy, whether you're wearing a Bluetooth or you're shopping at Peapod or whatever.
Yeah. The basic point here is that, yeah, I mean, being busy signals social status in the U.S.
And now this is where it gets interesting, guys.
So hopefully you've hung in up until this point.
In the article, they go on to compare the U.S. with a place like Italy, okay?
And what they found was that while busyness and work life in the U.S. means higher status, in Italy, it's actually the reverse, right?
And what were some of the theories as to why in the article, Michelle?
Well... They said it's two possible reasons, right?
So one of them could be that Italians have a healthier attitude toward work-life balance.
Right. And that's I mean, I've had a lot of conversations with Europeans and I cannot wait until our listeners come back to our blog post here and comment on this.
I've had a lot of conversations with Europeans where that's the basic conclusion is just that there's more respect for life, like live to work, not work to live or work to live rather.
Just I mean, you've probably had tons of conversations with students on this, too, right?
Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So that's the first theory.
And I have a feeling it's a combination of both.
But what's the second theory? The second one is that there is not as much of an opportunity to be socially mobile.
Right. So that's the second idea. And so really, I want to know from you guys.
I mean, we want to know from you. Like, I've never lived in Italy.
I've never tried to work in Italy or other parts of Western Europe.
So I want to know. I mean, but what we can say is that in the U.S., we have a huge work ethic.
And a lot of it does come from this idea that you can change your status in society if you work hard.
I mean, there are some... asterisk there regarding, um, regard, there's always issues regarding race, gender, their, uh, sexual orientation.
There are certain barriers that definitely exist for people.
Right. But on a basic level, our society is somewhat mobile.
Like we can, Oh, we even have it in our language, right?
Pull yourself up by your bootstraps. That's a, that's a phrase.
What does that mean, Michelle? Uh, to pull yourself up by your bootstraps.
It's like, I don't know. I'm, Never heard that?
I have heard by your bootstraps, but I'm trying to think of how to articulate it.
What would you say, Linz? I think it just means to move yourself forward on the social ladder through hard work and with whatever you have.
Okay, yeah, that's good. I don't know, for some reason.
Yeah. Yeah. So this is interesting. I mean, that's the basic point.
Guys, again, it's an article. It's a few studies.
It's just one perspective. But I want you guys to come back to the blog.
What episode is this, Michelle? 677. All right.
Wow. Yeah. Come back to aldersenglish.com.
This could be one of our most engaging topics, guys.
I really want to know what you think. Tell us where you're from and answer these questions.
How How do people respond to how are you and your culture?
Do they say I'm busy? How do you feel if they say that?
Is that cool? Does that signal a higher status?
Or do they say, oh, not much is going on?
And does that signal a higher status? And so why do they respond in the way they do?
And what's the value below what they're saying?
I find this fascinating. Yeah. Oh, me too.
Me too. Because I definitely have noticed that, I mean, even among some friends of mine, it's like, oh, I'm busy.
I'm busy. And it sometimes sounds like, oh, you want to be the busiest person.
It's a competition to be busy. And I think it's important that we step back and we think about why are we competing to be the busiest person.
And I also think this is regional, right?
Because, you know, I think this is especially intense here on the East Coast.
Yeah. You know, New York, Boston. But if you go to a place like maybe Colorado, you know, I have some people close to me in my life who are from Colorado.
And those people are generally not having as much pressure to feel like they're as busy.
So it's not such a broad brush like everyone in the U.S.
It does depend on your location, your environment, right?
Yeah. Culture, urban, rural, countryside.
Okay. This is a huge topic. I want to hear from you guys.
Yes. So come back to 677allersenglish.com and tell us what you think.
Very cool. Awesome. Well, thank you, Lindsay, for this article.
It was really interesting. It was really interesting.
I want to keep talking about this with our listeners.
So Michelle, hope you're not too busy over the next couple of weeks.
I mean, it's very cool if you are, but. So cool, right?
All right, cool. All right. We're out of here.
Talk to you next time, Michelle. Bye, Lindsay.
Bye. Bye. Thank you for listening to Business English, a podcast just for you, the high achieving global professional.
Want more from All Ears English? Don't miss our biggest and best podcast with 8 million monthly downloads.
Just search for the All Ears English podcast and hit follow to get four new episodes per week on fluency, American culture, grammar, and so much more.
Or tap the link in the show notes. Remember, we believe in connection, not perfection when it comes to learning English.
Follow the All Ears English podcast now.
