This is the Business English Podcast, Episode 573 Foul Play at Work.
Talking about unethical business practices.
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Hello, Lindsay.
How are you?
Good, Aubrey.
Everything's going great on my end.
What about you?
Nice.
I'm excited to talk about foul play today because I just experienced something yesterday a company that was a little bit unethical.
Yeah, i mean what what?
So what happened?
I mean, so it was interesting.
I went to renew my passport my us passport is expiring and i know that you can do it online now.
So i went online and i filled everything out.
I went to do it and then realized that the company i did it through Looked like it was the government website, but it was not.
It was like a third party website.
Luckily, it wasn't actually a scam.
It was a company that will take your money and then do the paperwork, send it to you.
And I didn't even realize there are third party companies.
So my fault for not looking more closely at all of the details and the...
Does it have .gov?
If it's not, it's not a government website, right?
Oh, my God.
I resonate with what you're saying.
That's happened to me a few times lately when I've bought tickets for things these third-party resellers.
Like we bought tickets for the Uheasy Gallery in – in Italy.
And I ended up on a third-party website, some company that was charging more.
And I just felt so silly.
And it's just like, oh, so frustrating.
And what feels unethical is there...
As you look at, it definitely seems like they're intentionally trying to trick us into thinking that we are buying directly from the correct website or from a government website.
And that feels like foul play.
It does feel like it.
I feel like it should be illegal.
It's not.
It's not illegal, but it should be.
Yeah.
We as consumers have to be so much more careful these days.
And I'm not always.
I'm like, this looks right.
I know.
Especially when you're under pressure, you're trying to get something done quickly.
Planning a trip, for example, like you were for your passport.
All right.
So we have a good question about this concept of foul play today.
I'll go ahead and read it.
Okay.
Yes.
Yeah, and this is from Mateus, who said he started listening to it And then he said could you please tell me if this is only for a crime or if I could use it maybe meaning cheating, and if it's informal to use at work?
Such a great question.
So good.
I love it when someone hears a word and they're wondering, hmm, does it apply to this context?
Does it mean this?
We're looking at deep nuances here.
Yes, I immediately thought this is perfect for the Business English podcast because yes, we do use that at work not to even talk about something that's illegal but maybe a little bit unethical.
Or just a little bit sneaky, we use this.
Yes.
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Okay?
Absolutely.
Absolutely good.
All right, yeah.
So what does it foul play?
Right yeah yeah, it means something has happened that is unethical.
It could be very unethical or much more minor right, it could be dishonest or flat out illegal.
It does include cheating.
All cheating would also be considered unethical.
Yeah, for sure.
For sure.
Let's see.
What else?
Well, we do use it to talk about crimes, right?
Things that are actually illegal.
In a news report you might hear after watching the security footage the police found no evidence of foul play.
And that's another way of saying they found no evidence of actual crimes that would be illegal.
Yeah.
And this is what you hear a lot on crime shows, right?
Yes.
We found no evidence of foul play.
That's it right there.
But in the workplace, Aubrey, which is what Mateos' question is, it's a more interesting question.
Exactly.
Because we do use it more generally to talk about any wrongdoings, some very serious, some more minor.
And Mateus asked if it's informal.
It's actually the opposite.
It is quite formal.
And it's strong and pretty accusational, right?
So you do want to be careful.
You wouldn't use it for something that's very minor that could cause offense.
Right.
Because, again, it comes from the world of crime.
So you should assume that it's pretty serious if you're going to translate it over into the business world.
Right.
So money's gone missing, right?
There's no proof of foul play yet, but they're investigating the missing money.
That's a very serious thing.
Right.
Yeah.
If someone's embezzling money for some reason, they're missing funds, this would definitely likely be foul play.
Or maybe several employees think there was some foul play in the promotion decision.
So this is interesting if there's nepotism, right?
If it seems like someone was promoted not based on their merits, right?
People could call that foul play.
It's not illegal, but it feels unethical.
Or the numbers didn't add up, so they suspect foul play in the financial reporting.
So this is pretty nefarious stuff.
This is stuff that people are doing on purpose.
This is not like oh, someone missed a meeting and they forgot to do something, or they missed a deadline.
That's not foul play.
But it is interesting that we do use this sometimes playfully.
I know that I have said like, oh, I suspect foul play.
When really, what I mean is like I don't know if someone's being totally honest, maybe even during, like a game.
There are times where we'll use it playfully, to be fun, and we aren't really intending it to be so serious.
So it depends a lot on the context.
But you would not want to accuse someone at work of foul play.
Right, it really would depend on the context and usually it's quite serious.
That's a good point.
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So then there are other things that might mean the same thing, Aubrey, like questionable practices.
This is a little softer.
It's a way to say that something just doesn't seem quite right.
Right.
It could be about poor decision making or unfair policies.
It's not accusing someone in particular, but more company policies as a whole.
So that really softens the accusatory nature of this.
As you might say, the audit pointed out a few questionable practices, but nothing illegal.
So it's more like about judgment.
Judgment or decisions or the way the company handles certain things is questionable.
Maybe ethically questionable on the borderline gray area.
Right.
Exactly.
Right.
You wouldn't say questionable if something is actually illegal.
This is a lot softer.
It's more like we're not sure how unethical it was.
We'll just call it questionable.
Exactly.
Or people are asking questions about some questionable practices in the hiring process.
So similar to what we talked about before.
Yeah, we don't know.
People have noticed questionable practices.
This is just a way to soften.
If you think something is unethical, you're raising your eyebrow about something you're noticing.
You can just call it questionable practices. which is a lot less accusatory.
Right.
Or conflicts of interest.
This is more specific.
This is when someone's personal interests are affecting their decision making.
So we see this a lot in government, especially nowadays.
Definitely.
Right.
We see this a lot.
People might have to sign non-disclosures or They might have to sign certain paperwork to avoid conflicts of interest in the future if they move to another company.
And I'm not sure if in the medical world too, if maybe not.
I know they have some laws against, like not operating on people they know or something, but that's a little bit different.
That's not exactly conflict of interest.
There's probably something else.
So yeah, anytime that your decision making would be compromised by...
Exactly.
The legal field, for example, right?
You could say the lawyer can't represent that client because he already represents the opposition.
So there's an obvious conflict of interest.
You hear this as well with representation for real estate.
A realtor really shouldn't represent the buyer and the seller.
That's a conflict of interest.
Although that does happen.
I've had engagements where we've had that.
And it's frustrating when you realize that this lawyer wants the realtor, wants to represent both sides and you're like oh, I don't like it.
But then they offer you a deal on the commission, right?
And then you go for it.
Okay, I guess we'll do it.
Yeah, but it feels weird.
It feels icky.
Yeah, you can feel that conflict of interest.
Are they going to fight for me or for the other party?
Exactly.
Exactly.
Yeah.
So that's a good example.
What else?
Anything else?
Yeah.
You can't work for two competing companies because there's a conflict of interest.
Or it could be a conflict of interest if she's approving contracts for a family member.
So yeah, this you mentioned nepotism.
If there's any favoritism being shown to friends or family, then that could be a conflict of interest.
Or you know you think about in politics you have.
You know we want to avoid politics like people in the House or the Senate being invested in certain stocks.
Right,
Because they may have insider knowledge on what's happening.
And insider trading is another one.
I mean, we're wading into this area here.
Yeah, there shouldn't be anything where someone is going to receive a financial gain from a decision that they would make like politically right.
We want to try to avoid that happening.
Totally.
And then if we want to be a little more neutral, ethical issues or concerns this is kind of the lightest one, right.
Yeah, this is just about behavior that's not aligned with good values, not necessarily illegal.
So yeah, for example, people are refusing to buy fast fashion because of ethical issues.
So this could be about furs, right?
Animal abuse.
There could be all kinds of ethical issues in the fashion industry.
All kinds of things.
Or even some people are not flying now because of environmental concerns, right?
Using customer data without permission raises some ethical concerns, right?
Yes, right.
Or asking employees to work unpaid overtime is an ethical issue.
So this is sort of a blanket term for anything that is unfair or, you know, just not right in general.
Exactly.
All right, Aubrey, let's do a role play.
So here we are talking about work, I think.
Yeah, I'll start us out.
Ready?
Okay.
We've been reviewing the hiring process and some ethical concerns came up.
Do you think there was foul play?
There's no proof of anything illegal, but it looks like there may have been a conflict of interest.
The man hired is related to the hiring manager.
He's her cousin.
I see.
That definitely raises some concerns.
Exactly.
Even if the decision was fair, the relationship should have been disclosed.
Agreed.
Let's review the situation and decide how to handle this.
Yeah.
So maybe we're actually lawyers here.
Yeah, maybe, right?
This verb disclosed is really good and this is where we hear it the most, right?
Because normally you would just say like, oh, they should have told us.
But when it comes to information that is, you know, unethical like this, or a conflict of interest, we'll often use that verb, say this should have been disclosed.
We get a fancier term when we're kind of speaking in a bit of legalese here, right?
We are talking about work, so we have to up-level the terms that we're using.
Yeah.
So you said we've been reviewing the hiring process.
There are some ethical concerns that have come up.
Yeah.
And then you're wondering how serious it is.
So you said, do you think there was foul play?
And this is definitely asking how serious was it?
Because if it's foul play, that's like worst case scenario, much more serious.
Yes, exactly.
And so you said there's no proof of anything illegal, but it does look like there may have been a conflict of interest.
Yes.
And then I give some details, right?
The person hired is related to the hiring manager, the person who made the decision, their family.
So that's definitely a conflict of interest.
It could have affected their decision.
Okay, good.
Yeah, typical conversation probably for the legal team, like internal legal team at a company, right?
If they're tipping, like maybe...
Think there might be a problem in the way this person was hired.
Maybe someone would ask legal to review it and they would review it.
That kind of scenario.
Exactly.
So this comes up a lot at work, more so at work than in daily life, because these types of things like oh, maybe someone's cheating at a game, but that really wouldn't go to this level of work.
Foul play, ethical concerns.
These are things that come up more often in the business world.
Exactly.
Guys, go and check out 530, how not to step on toes at work.
And these are kind of even more dicey situations, right?
Right.
You want to avoid some of those issues at work.
Yes.
And that word dicey is great, by the way.
Guys, hit the follow button.
We'll probably cover that maybe over on All Ears English.
I don't think we've ever taught that on All Ears English, Aubrey.
That's a good word.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Go and find that show.
All right.
Good.
Any final takeaway?
I think this vocabulary is really interesting.
And anytime that you want to talk about things that just don't seem quite right at work or in your daily life.
These phrases are all going to be perfect.
Some of them are a lot more accusatory.
Some are softer.
So it's really good to know the context and which one to use to avoid offending.
Absolutely.
All right.
Thanks for covering this topic together, Aubrey, and I'll see you back here soon.
All right.
Awesome.
See you next time.
Bye.
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