Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 588, Hiring Business Consultants.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 588.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in In beautiful Los Angeles, California.
This episode is a dialogue between Erika and Stefan.
It is about a business that wants to hire people from outside of the company to come and give the company some advice or some help.
Let's get started.
So your suggestion is to hire outside consultants to handle the extra work associated with the expansion.
I think there are a lot of benefits.
We get someone with the right expertise quickly.
We can use him or her as needed and we can save unemployment taxes and benefits.
What's not to like?
I'm just not sure that's the right move right now.
To me it's a no-brainer.
We call the shots.
If we don't like the consultant's work then we can terminate our relationship at any time.
Yes, but that also means that the consultant won't feel any company loyalty and could quit working with us whenever he or she wanted to, leaving us in a lurch.
That's true, but that's also true of any employee.
Company loyalty is a thing of the past.
Well, I think we should take it one step at a time.
Start with contracting consultants for smaller projects and see how they do before we have them work on this big one.
Okay, I can live with that.
As long as we don't drag our feet in getting people started on the big project.
Don't worry.
If I drag my feet, I know you'll tow me along.
Erica begins by saying to Stefan so your suggestion is to hire outside consultants to handle the extra work associated with the expansion.
To hire means to employ, to pay someone to work for you.
A consultant is a person whose job it is to give advice based on their knowledge and experience.
It could also be a person that a company hires for a temporary period, say a few months, to do specific work and afterwards the consultant goes away.
The consultant in those cases is often not technically an employee of the company, but someone who is working for another business a consulting firm or a and that company gets paid by the company that hires them, and then the consulting company pays their employee, the consultant.
Stefan suggests hiring consultants to do some extra work associated or related to the expansion.
Expansion means growth, increase in size.
It's often used to talk about a business that is getting bigger, that is perhaps opening new stores and so forth.
Stefan says, I think there are a lot of benefits, that is, a lot of benefits to hiring consultants.
We get someone with the right expertise quickly.
We can use him or her as needed, and we can save on employment taxes and benefits.
What's not to like?
Expertise is your special knowledge about one particular topic.
Stefan wants to get someone with the right expertise, meaning the expertise that we need.
They can use that person as needed, meaning when and how you need them, and only when you need them.
He's also saying that the company can save on employment taxes and benefits.
Benefits are things that a company gives an employee in addition to money.
Health insurance, for example.
Vacation time.
Money for retirement.
These are possible benefits.
Now in the US, if you are a company that has employees, the company has to pay special taxes to the government.
However, if you hire someone to work temporarily in your company and there are other rules you have to follow, you can consider this person not an employee of your company, but what we would call an independent contractor, someone who signs a contract with you for a specific job that they do.
And, as I say, there are other requirements, but that's one of the advantages of hiring outside consultants.
Stefan says, what's not to like?
This is a phrase we use when we think that our particular idea or decision will only have positive results.
There's nothing negative that could happen.
What's not to like?
For example, you may find that someone is going to go to Harvard and they receive a full scholarship, meaning Harvard will pay all of their expenses.
You might say, well, what's not to like?
You go to a great school and you don't have to pay anything.
Or a man may see a beautiful woman walking down the street and comment to his friend wow, that's a very attractive woman.
And the friend would say, yeah, well, what's not to like?
I mean, yes, there's nothing negative to say.
Erica says I'm not sure that's the right move, that's the right decision right now to hire consultants.
Stefan says, to me, in my opinion, it's a no brainer.
A no-brainer, B-R-A-I-N-E-R, is something that is so obvious you don't have to think about it.
You don't have to use your brain about it because everyone knows this is the right thing to do.
Stefan thinks that that is what the decision to hire outside consultants is.
He says, we call the shots.
To call the shots, S-H-O-T-S, means that you make the decision.
You are the one who decides.
Who's calling the shots around here?
Meaning who's the boss?
Who's the person in charge?
Stefan says if we don't like the consultant's work, then we can terminate our relationship at any time.
To terminate means to end, to stop something.
In this case, to end the contract you have with the consultant.
You can also use this with an employee.
We're going to terminate this employee.
We're going to fire them.
Or, the employee has been terminated by the company.
This is not related to the movie The Terminator, where our now governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, was a star of.
Nothing to do with that.
You don't actually kill them.
Terminate could mean to kill someone as well, but that's not what we're talking about, at least at most companies.
I'm not sure here about the Center for Educational Development.
Erica says yes, we could terminate our relationship at any time, but that also means that the consultant won't feel any company loyalty.
Company loyalty is a feeling that you are part of this family, this company, this group of people and you want to help them be successful.
Loyalty in general is a feeling of connectedness, that you are connected and want to help, whatever group we're talking about, whether it's your company, your family or even your country.
Erica adds that this consultant could quit or stop working with us whenever he or she wanted to, Leaving us in a lurch.
To leave someone in a lurch, L-U-R-C-H, means to abandon someone when he or she needs your help.
To stop helping someone at an important time.
You start helping them and then you decide, eh, I'm tired.
I'm going to go home.
And they have all this work to do or they need this help that you haven't given them.
You're leaving them in a lurch.
Stefan says that's true, but that's also true of any employee.
Company loyalty is a thing of the past.
To say something is a thing of the past means that it no longer exists.
It was once true, but it is no longer true.
For many people, writing letters or typing letters on a typewriter is a thing of the past.
They don't do it anymore.
Actually, I've been thinking of buying a typewriter, an old manual typewriter, just for fun.
I kind of miss it in some ways.
Stefan thinks that company loyalty is a thing of the past.
He says, I think we should move ahead.
I really think we should move ahead.
Erica says, well, I think we should take it one step at a time.
To take something one step at a time means to do something slowly gradually, a little bit at a time.
Not everything all at once, not everything right now.
She suggests they start with contracting consultants for smaller projects and see how they do.
To contract means to sign an official legal agreement between two people.
Usually, it's a company hiring someone else, an independent contractor. to do work.
So to contract as a verb is when you pay money to someone else and you typically will sign a document, a piece of paper.
That is a contract.
Their contract is both a verb and a noun.
The piece of paper is the contract.
The agreement is the contract.
Contract actually has even more meanings and those are in your learning guide.
Stefan says, okay, I can live with that.
When someone says they can live with something, they mean it's acceptable.
It's not what I wanted, but it's okay.
That's something I will be able to work with.
Stefan says however, that he can live with that, as long as we don't drag our feet in getting people started on the big project.
To drag D-R-A-G your feet means to do something very slowly, to delay, to purposely not do things as fast as you should do them.
Erica says, don't worry.
If I drag my feet, I know you'll tow me along.
To tow, T-O-W, someone or something along, means to pull someone or something in a particular direction.
The verb to tow is one we use, for example, when you have one car that isn't working and another car that is working and you connect a chain or a cable.
And the car that is working pulls, we would say tows, the other car.
If you have your car and you have a big truck that you can put the car onto, that's another way of towing the car.
We call the trucks that do that tow trucks.
Well here, to tow someone along means to move someone in a particular direction so that they don't go too slowly.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
So your suggestion is to hire outside consultants to handle the extra work associated with the expansion.
I think there are a lot of benefits.
We get someone with the right expertise quickly.
We can use him or her as needed and we can save unemployment taxes and benefits.
What's not to like?
I'm just not sure that's the right move right now.
To me, it's a no-brainer.
We call the shots.
If we don't like the consultant's work, then we can terminate our relationship at any time.
Yes, but that also means that the consultant won't feel any company loyalty and could quit working with us whenever he or she wanted to, leaving us in a lurch.
That's true, but that's also true of any employee.
Company loyalty is a thing of the past.
I really think we should move ahead.
Well, I think we should take it one step at a time.
Start with contracting consultants for smaller projects and see how they do before we have them work on this big one.
Okay, I can live with that, as long as we don't drag our feet in getting people started on the big project.
Don't worry.
If I drag my feet, I know you'll tow me along.
Who has the expertise to write scripts for us here at ESL Podcast?
That's a no-brainer.
It's Dr. Lucy Saye.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us next time on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2010 by the Center for Educational Development.
