Welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast, number 161, A Bad Boss.
You're listening to English as a Second Language Podcast, episode 161.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in the beautiful city of Los Angeles, in the state of California.
Today's podcast is called A Bad Boss.
Let's get started.
I wonder how much longer we'll have to put up with Dennis.
He is the most incompetent boss I've ever worked for.
Are you kidding?
He's always sleeping on the job.
The other day, he was supposed to keep an eye on the supervisors visiting from Salt Lake City.
Instead, I heard that he went to a baseball game and the supervisors ended up stranded at the downtown office.
It's hard to believe that he'd fall down on the job like that.
It's not only that.
He's always passing the buck.
Every time something goes wrong at the factory, he blames everyone but himself.
If he's as bad as you say he is, he must be on his way out.
But you know what they say.
Better the devil you know than the devil you don't.
Yeah, I know.
But I'm willing to take my chances.
The title of today's podcast is A Bad Boss.
Your boss, of course, is the person who you work for.
It's a dialogue between Tom and Katie.
Tom says, How much longer means how much more time.
I wonder how much longer this television show will last.
I wonder how much longer I will have to wait for my doctor.
I wonder how much more time.
To put up with means to tolerate.
When we say, for example, I have to put up with the noise means I have to live with it, even though it is bothering me.
And to put up with is always referring to something negative that is happening, in that you have to live with.
You can't do anything about it.
You have to tolerate it.
I have to put up with screaming children out in the street.
I have to put up with dogs that are barking next door to me.
Both of those things are true, by the way.
Well, in the dialogue, Tom says, I have to put up with Dennis.
Meaning, or Tom says we will have to put up with Dennis, means we have to have him as our boss, even though we don't like it.
He says he Dennis, is the most incompetent boss I've ever worked for.
Incompetent i-n-c-o-m-p-e-t-e-n-t means that you are not competent.
In i-n as a prefix here means not, and to be competent means you are able to do something, that you have the talent, you have the ability.
So to be incompetent means that you do not have the talent, you do not have the ability or capacity to do something.
And it's, of course, a negative word.
If you say to someone you're incompetent, that's a very negative insult, a very negative way of expressing your opinion, even if it's true.
Well, Katie says, he's not that bad, is he?
I don't have much contact with him.
To have contact C-O-N-T-A-C-T with someone means that you talk to them or you see them, that you have some relationship with them, that you have to communicate with them.
So contact with here means the same as much communication with him.
I don't have to talk to him or see him and so forth.
Tom says, are you kidding?
Means, are you joking?
He's always sleeping on the job.
Well, to sleep, of course, is what we do at night.
And to sleep on the job means that you are sleeping or not doing what you are supposed to do.
It doesn't mean that he's actually sleeping at his desk, for example.
The expression to be sleeping on the job means you are not doing your job.
You are not doing what you're supposed to do.
If you are supposed to be working on your computer typing a report and you are instead looking at different websites or listening to ESL podcasts, you are sleeping on the job.
You are not doing what you are supposed to be doing.
Tom says that the other day, Dennis was supposed to keep an eye on the supervisors.
To keep an eye, E-Y-E, on someone means that you are supposed to watch them, you are supposed to take care of them.
This expression can be used in lots of different ways.
For example, if you are sitting at a cafe and you have your computer, your laptop computer, And you need to go to the bathroom.
You need to go to the restroom.
You may say to your friend, could you keep an eye on my computer?
Means, could you make sure no one steals it in this case?
Make sure that nothing happens to it.
So to keep an eye on is to watch, to supervise, to look after something.
Well, Dennis was supposed to keep an eye on the supervisors.
And, of course, supervisors are bosses, in this case, people who are in the top management of a company.
Tom says, instead of doing what he was supposed to do, in place of that, Dennis went to a baseball game and the supervisors ended up stranded at the downtown office.
Ended up, E-N-D-E-D, up, U-P, two words.
To end up means to result in.
After a series of things happened, the last thing that happens is how something ends up.
For example, I wanted to go to the movies last night, but it was raining, so I ended up watching television instead.
Usually we use that expression when one thing is supposed to happen but it doesn't, so you do something different.
Well, here, Dennis was supposed to keep an eye on the supervisors, but he didn't do that.
He did something else, and the result was that the supervisors ended up stranded at the downtown office.
To be stranded, S-T-R-A-N-D-E-D, to be stranded means to be left somewhere with no transportation.
If you are driving your car down the street and you run out of gas, you have no more gasoline.
You are stranded on the street.
You are stranded at that place means you don't have any transportation.
In this case, the supervisors were stranded at the downtown office.
They were visiting from Salt Lake City.
Salt Lake City is a city in Utah, the state of Utah.
And they ended up stranded.
They had no transportation.
They couldn't go anywhere.
And they were left at the downtown office.
Usually we are stranded at some location.
You could be stranded at the airport means your flight was canceled or the airplane had a problem and you couldn't go to where you wanted to go.
You were stranded at that place.
Kitty says that it's hard to believe that Dennis would fall down on the job like that.
To fall, F-A-L-L, down, D-O-W-N, two words.
To fall down on the job.
That expression means similar to be sleeping on the job, not to do your job.
Usually it means when you do something wrong.
So not only are you not doing it, but you are often doing it wrong.
But in general, to fall down on the job means to not be doing the work you are supposed to be doing.
Like some of you right now listening to this podcast.
Tom says it's not only that.
Means that is not the only reason.
It's not only that.
He says Dennis is always passing the buck.
To pass P-A-S-S the buck B-U-C-K means to give the responsibility for something that went wrong to someone else.
So, for example, your boss tells you to email one of your clients, one of your customers, and you forget to email them.
And your boss talks to you and says, why didn't you email this person?
And you say, oh, I thought John was going to email him.
You are passing the buck.
You are putting the blame or the responsibility for something that went wrong onto someone else.
There's a famous expression from an American president, Harry S Truman, who was president of the United States in the 1940s and early 1950s.
He had a sign.
The president had a sign on his desk that said the buck stops here, meaning that he was ultimately responsible.
If something was went wrong, he was the one to blame, because of course he's the president.
He's at the top of the government.
So to pass the buck means to give the responsibility for something that went wrong to someone else, to blame someone else.
Tom says that every time something goes wrong at the factory, Dennis blames everyone but himself.
A factory, F-A-C-T-O-R-Y, is a place where you make something.
So you could have a computer factory where they make computers or a toy factory where they make toys.
In this case, he says that Dennis blames everyone but himself.
Means he blames everyone except himself.
He doesn't take the responsibility himself.
Katie says if he's as bad as you say he is, he must be on his way out.
To be on your way out means that you are going to be leaving this job or this position soon.
Usually, it means that you are probably going to be fired, that you are going to lose your job.
You have not lost it yet, but you are going to.
If you say oh, he's on his way out, means he's going to be leaving his job and perhaps being fired from his job soon.
Well, Katie says that if Dennis is as bad as Tom says Dennis is, he must be on his way out.
He'll probably be leaving.
Katie then says, but you know what they say.
Better the devil you know than the devil you don't.
You know what they say, that expression we use before a proverb.
And a proverb, P-R-O-V-E-R-B, is a famous saying or expression.
The famous saying or expression that Katie uses here is A devil.
D-E-V-I-L is, of course, an evil person.
In the Christian religion, the devil is the person that tries to make you do something wrong.
Do evil.
Well, the devil here.
When we say the better, the devil, you know, means it's better to have someone bad that you are familiar with than to bring someone else in new who may be even worse than the person you have now.
So when we say, better the devil, that's short, for it is better that we have the devil, the bad person, the bad boss in this story that we are familiar with, than to lose him, and maybe we'll get an even worse boss.
Better the devil you know than the devil you don't.
Tom says, yeah, I know, but I'm willing to take my chances.
To take your chances means I'm willing to risk something worse.
It means I'm open to the possibility that something may go wrong.
We usually use this expression when someone warns us or tells us that something bad could happen if we do what we plan on doing.
And you say, oh, I'll take my chances.
So, for example, you want to go to the beach in the summertime and your friend says well, it's going to be very crowded, lots of people there.
It may be difficult to find a place to park.
And you say, I'll take my chances, means I'm going to try it anyway.
It's something usually that you say when you are rejecting someone's advice, when you are saying I'm not going to follow what you tell me to do.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a native rate of speech.
I wonder how much longer we'll have to put up with Dennis.
He is the most incompetent boss I've ever worked for.
He's not that bad, is he?
I don't have much contact with him.
Are you kidding?
He's always sleeping on the job.
The other day, he was supposed to keep an eye on the supervisors visiting from Salt Lake City.
Instead, I heard that he went to a baseball game and the supervisors ended up stranded at the downtown office.
It's hard to believe that he'd fall down on the job like that.
It's not only that.
He's always passing the buck.
Every time something goes wrong at the factory, he blames everyone but himself.
If he's as bad as you say he is, he must be on his way out.
But you know what they say.
Better the devil you know than the devil you don't.
Yeah, I know.
But I'm willing to take my chances.
The script for today's podcast was written by Dr. Lucy Sae.
Remember to visit our website at eslpodcom for a script of this podcast, as well as for more information about our podcasts.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thanks for listening.
We'll see you next time on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
This podcast is copyright 2006.
