This is the Business English Podcast Episode 67.
Between jobs, different ways to express your career status in English.
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I'm good. I'm good. So this is kind of, you know, this episode that we're going to do is about kind of a kind of a difficult topic.
I mean, have you ever felt like you were stuck in a rough place professionally?
Or have you ever not had a job or felt your career wasn't moving forward?
I mean, this is kind of a personal question.
Oh, it's a good question. Yes, I will say there was a time when I was living in New York in 2008.
And that was actually this was right around the time of the when the recession broke, the Great Recession.
I found myself without a job and I was just thinking, what am I going to do next?
And I had a New York rent to pay. Luckily, I had roommates at the time.
But, you know, we all have these moments and they're real moments of, you know, they can be scary moments, right?
Because we just don't know how long that's going to go on.
Right? Right. Yeah, right. Exactly. And you're in a vulnerable, vulnerable position.
And yeah, it's hard. And today, we're going to be talking about that because a listener asked us a really great question about this topic.
And you know, with the Business English podcast, there are things that are exciting and great about business and things to learn.
And then there's also, you know, the hard parts, the hardships of your career.
So Lindsay, could you read the question for All right, here we go.
So this listener says, Hello, Lindsay and Michelle.
Greetings from Turkey. I find your videos to be abso-freaking-lutely awesome.
Okay, this is where we have to send our listeners over to listen to that episode on All Ears English podcast.
Do you remember when we did that episode together, Michelle?
Was that you and me or was that me and Aubrey that did that together?
I'm not sure. It might have been Aubrey.
But it sounds like something I would have done.
It does. It does. We taught you how to invent a word by inserting another word into the middle of a word.
Oh, yeah. That must have been Aubrey. Go over and hit follow on All Ears English podcast as well.
So this listener says, I am currently unemployed and I feel stuck and I cannot find anything to do.
I feel like I fell into a big space. I know how she feels.
I'm dying to know if there's any idiom or phrase to express someone unemployed and absolutely not busy.
Thanks for reading. Take care of yourselves.
Love you all. You can say my name out loud.
I am Sadiqa. Okay. What a great listener.
I love this. Fantastic, Michelle. Yes, I love it as well.
And Sadiqa, I'm sorry, you know, I'm sorry for your situation.
I'm sorry, you're going through a rough time.
I'm glad you're listening. This will, you know, this podcast will provide you with, you know, a lot of tools and a lot of things to, you know, grow your confidence with the English and the business world.
So but I do hope that, you know, you, you find yourself in a really exciting position soon.
And yeah, so that's what I that's what I think.
I just wanted to say that first. Yeah, 100%.
I mean, yeah. The good thing is, is that Sadiqa, while she's in this position of not having a job, she's working on herself getting better and better, working on her English, right?
Focusing on connection and working on her own skills, which is going to make it easier when that job comes along.
Mm-hmm. Right. Exactly. Right. It's a good way to use this time to be productive, to learn.
So, you know, this is a very human emotion.
A lot of people go through this, especially with the, you know, global health crisis.
There was a lot of people out of work. So, you know, and guys, we're going to do an episode soon in the future about, you know, looking for a job, talking about looking for a job.
But today we're focusing on the other side.
So, I mean... If if you are, you know, unemployed, what what are some tips, Lindsay?
OK, well, don't get discouraged, guys. You know, you know, if you feel discouraged, just take a couple of days off from searching.
Right. Or take a day off and just get away from it.
Go for a walk. Go for a hike. Go like go to a museum, distract yourself, but then come back to it.
Mm hmm. Right, right. It's okay to give yourself that space, you know, stay in the loop.
But I agree. I like that idea. Just, you know, our your whole life doesn't have to be around, you know, just, I mean, I think, obviously, the financial part is, is that his thought is the tough part.
But, you know, if you've saved up a little bit, you know, just give yourself a tiny little break, you know, that'll clear your head.
And then the other thing is to think about if this is the time for a change.
Right. So it could be maybe you want to go back to school.
Maybe you have want to completely change your career.
So try and get inspired now. Right. So stay in the loop.
Don't get discouraged. And then, you know, once you've taken that time, really try and get inspired.
And then the next thing is to talk to others.
Right. Make sure that you let people know that you're looking and just make those connections start happening.
And then the last thing is don't be so hard on yourself.
And there's this expression, I feel like I'm going to do an all ears English about this, give yourself some grace.
We say, don't be too hard on yourself and do things that make you feel good.
So yes, you're going to be looking for a job.
All this stuff is going to be happening, but also enjoy yourself and take a break, take a rest from time to time.
All right, Michelle, should we get into some vocab here?
Yes, definitely. So the first one is unemployed, right?
That's the basic one that this listener mentioned.
Lindsay, could you use that in a sentence?
Yes, here we go. So I'm unemployed at the moment, but I'm going back to school soon.
Yes, very common, very neutral, right? It doesn't have any added meaning to it.
It's just technical. Right, right, right.
I mean, you would hear this a lot. I mean, it's just, yeah, the technical term.
That's right. Now, this one, this next one, what is it?
So between jobs, and this is kind of a euphemism.
What is a euphemism, Michelle? So guys, go on over to All Ears English and look up euphemism because I know we did an episode on euphemisms.
So euphemism is like a nice way of saying something not so nice, right?
Like instead of saying die, say pass away, right?
Yes. So instead of saying, oh, I'm unemployed, you might say, oh, I'm between jobs.
It's like, I don't have a job right now.
And, you know, a lot of times people might say between jobs, maybe they're taking a break in between jobs, like maybe they have one lined up, but they are, you know, they gave it a month in between.
So maybe they actually are between jobs, but maybe you don't have your next job yet.
But maybe it might just feel a little bit better for you to say between jobs.
Yeah. I think they're trying to kind of avoid the stigma of saying unemployed.
Right. Yeah. Because, yes, it is a technical definition.
It means you don't have employment. But, you know, some people would argue that there might be some kind of stigma there.
Right. When you say that. And so, you know, it kind of adds an element of I've it almost adds choice to it.
Like I'm between jobs and it could be my choice.
Mm hmm. Does that make sense? Yeah, right.
It's keeping it's keeping like your cards close to your chest.
Like, you know, you're not you're not revealing the whole story.
Maybe this is all you feel comfortable sharing.
And that's fine. Like maybe you're at a at a cocktail party or something and you're meeting someone who's like, oh, I'm kind of between jobs right now.
Like, you know, you don't have to share all the details.
And this is kind of a good way to do it, I think.
Yeah. So smart. So smart. What else, Michelle? um so the next one is career on hold or career on pause so you could say i decided to put my career on pause for a bit while i focus on my family so maybe this was like your decision or maybe you know so so you're unemployed but unemployed doesn't always mean that you were like fired or something necessarily Right.
I love it. And then the next one is out of work or out of a job.
This one is like a bit more conversational, right?
So he's been out of work for a while or he's been out of a job for a while.
So not having a job or not having work. Right, right, right.
So, yeah, guys, those are a bunch of different ways to talk about not being in the workplace at this moment for whatever reason it is.
So some, you know, we have unemployed being a little bit more technical.
We have between jobs being a little bit more, you know, not not sharing the whole story necessarily.
And that's OK. And so we have a lot of different varieties of words that you can use.
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Exclusions apply. See details online. All right, Michelle, I know that our listeners love role plays and to see these words come into life and how we can use them to build that connection and connect with people.
So let's show our listeners how to do it.
All right. So we are friends and I am out of a job.
Oh, boy. OK, here we go. Hey, Michelle, how's it going?
Still in the job hunt? Yeah, I'm still out of a job.
Oh, I'm sorry. You're not out of work, but you're you're just between jobs.
Yeah, sure. It's all right. I mean, I think it's good to put my career on hold right now while I decide on my next steps.
I mean, it's still hard being unemployed, though.
You're going to get something great. I know it.
You won't be out of work for much longer.
Thanks, Lindsay. I'm trying to encourage you there.
Yes. Come on, Michelle. Keep your chin up.
Keep your chin up. You're okay, right? Exactly.
Yeah. Yeah, it's tough. I mean, I imagine if people go through long periods in which they're looking for a job, I think it could be really hard, right?
Because especially if you're looking all day and you're working on this, it would be easy to become kind of like just take it to heart too much, right?
So we have to kind of fill our day with other things as well to stay healthy.
Right, right. Exactly, exactly. Yeah, exercise, clear your head, go, you know, go get a coffee, you know, yeah, enjoy some hobbies, learn something new.
Community. Lots of different ways. So, Sadiqa, I'm sorry you're going through this.
I mean, hopefully, whatever you're looking for, you find it soon.
Yeah. So, should we go through the role play?
Yeah, let's do it, Michelle. Here we go.
So, first, you said, yeah, I'm still out of a job. okay so casual that's very conversational to say that isn't it michelle out of a job absolutely it's kind of it's almost it's kind of slangy like it's kind of a slang isn't it yeah right and it's interesting because you would never say i'm in a job i mean like you would you would say like oh in a job that i'm in a job yeah or whatever but it's like yeah out of a job is very specific um and then you said you're not out of work you're just between jobs so what are you doing there Well, I'm reframing it for you.
Yeah, I'm just totally reframing it. You're just between jobs.
You're not out of work. You're just between jobs.
Yeah, that's all. Because you're going to get something new, basically.
Yeah, exactly. And then I kind of laughed at your, you know, I kind of I know what you're doing.
Right. So I kind of laughed. It's all right.
I said, I think it's good to put my career on hold right now while I decide on my next step.
So maybe maybe I wasn't happy in the job.
And I've been thinking about doing something different.
I've been thinking about going back to school.
I've been thinking about, you know, looking in a different field and making connections there.
So I'm saying maybe it's a good thing. But I said, but it's still hard being unemployed, which is the technical thing.
Being unemployed. Yeah, perfect. And then I said, you're going to get something great.
I know it. You won't be out of work much longer.
Right. So again, another way of saying you won't be unemployed much longer.
Good. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. Nice. What's the takeaway for our listeners for today's episode?
Guys, I mean, we're here on this podcast to talk about, you know, good things in business, hard things in business, exciting things.
So, you know, we wanted to address this topic.
This is things that people go through, especially around the world when things can be a little bit tough sometimes.
You need to be able to talk about this. Like this is business English as well, even though you're technically out of business at that time, right?
This is business English because you need to be able to express this.
Yeah. And I love what you said, Michelle.
I mean, when if you do happen to lose a job, or if you quit a job, you know, it is an opportunity to reinvent yourself, right?
It is an opportunity to find a new side of yourself and your skills, new things you could do, a breath of fresh air.
So, you know, think of it that way, right?
And that will guide you to the right opportunities, right?
Attitude is important in a moment like that, I think.
I totally agree. So, Lindsay, this has been good.
And guys, use those vocabulary words. I hope in a way that is, you know, you can also be using them to talk about someone else's situation.
So wishing everybody happy careers. All right.
Good stuff, Michelle. Talk to you very soon.
You have a good day. You too. Bye. Bye. Thank you for listening to Business English, a podcast just for you, the high achieving global professional.
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