Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 688, Ending a Business Relationship.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 688.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Our website is eslpodcom.
Go there to download a learning guide for this episode that will help you improve your English even faster.
Even faster than what, you ask?
Even faster than drinking beer.
On this episode we're going to hear a dialogue between Jerry and Camilla about what happens when two companies or two people decide to end their business, partnership or relationship.
Let's get started.
Who's going to break the news to tech experts?
You mean about pulling the plug on using their services?
Yeah.
The contract we signed with them last year is almost up.
And as we decided last month, we'll be going with another company.
I think we should hold off on telling them until after all of our current projects are done.
We still have two more in the hopper.
Okay, but I don't want to drag our feet in telling them, even if we're not happy with their service.
As a professional courtesy, We should let them know soon.
That may be true with other companies.
But Tech Experts has really let us down this past year.
If we didn't have an airtight contract with them, we would have switched companies long ago.
Well, maybe they'll learn from their mistakes.
After all, they've been in business a long time.
Yeah, but old habits die hard.
And if you ask me, the company is on its last legs.
It's only a matter of time before they lose most of their customers at the rate they're going.
I don't know about that, but I do know one thing.
It's a good thing you're not their PR rep.
Jerry says to Camilla, Who's going to break the news to tech experts?
Tech experts is the name of a company.
The expression to break the news means to tell someone something that he or she does not want to hear.
To give bad news to someone.
People may say something like, I hate to break the news, but...
It's raining today and our baseball game is canceled.
We won't be playing baseball.
So Jerry, here is asking who's going to break the news, who's going to give this company?
They've been working with the bad news.
Camilla says, you mean about pulling the plug on using their services?
To pull the plug, P-L-U-G, here means to end a project or to end a relationship or agreement.
More generally, it means to stop doing something.
The expression comes from or has its origin in the fact that when you have a machine, many times it needs electricity.
And the wire that runs between the machine and, for example, the wall where there is a place to put the wire into to get electricity.
That wire is called a cord.
The thing that goes into the wall itself is called the plug.
So to pull the plug means the same as to disconnect, to unplug, you could also say, a machine.
Here it means to end a relationship.
So Camilla answers Jerry's question about who's going to break the news to tech experts with another question clarifying what news Jerry is talking about.
She says you mean the news about pulling the plug on using their services, on keeping tech experts as one of the businesses they have a relationship with.
Jerry says, yeah, an informal way of saying yes.
The contract we signed with them last year is almost up.
A contract is a legal agreement, typically written, though it doesn't have to be.
To be up is an expression, a phrasal verb meaning to end, to finish something at a particular time or date.
Someone might say to you, your time is up.
A teacher, for example, to her students if they are taking a test and the hour is finished, she might say your time is up.
You have no more time.
You must stop.
Well, here, Jerry is saying that the contract is up, meaning the contract will end.
He says, as we decided last month, we'll be going with another company, meaning we'll be using another company after the contract between their company and Tech Experts is finished.
Camilla says, To hold off on something is a phrasal verb meaning to delay, to postpone, to wait, to do something until later.
For example, John decided to hold off on asking the pretty girl in his Spanish class for a date until he ended his relationship with the other pretty girl from his math class.
Isn't John a nice guy?
He's going to wait.
He's going to hold off on getting a new girlfriend until he gets rid of his old girlfriend.
Camilla uses this same structure to hold off on and then later in the sentence until.
She says For those interested in the grammar behind this expression, notice that On is a preposition, and so the object of the prepositional phrase must be a noun.
Telling is a gerund, which is a form of a verb that acts as a noun.
So you can't say, I'm going to hold off on to tell him, because to tell is a verb.
You can say, I'm going to hold off on telling him, because telling is a noun in this case.
Anyway, getting back to the story, Camilla says, we still have two more in the hopper.
She means we have two more projects with this company in the hopper.
H-O-P-P-E-R.
Something that is in the hopper is something that is in process.
Things that you are currently working on.
You haven't finished them yet.
But you are working on them or will be working on them very soon.
Camilla says we still have two projects with this company.
We shouldn't tell them we're going to end after the expiration of their contract, until we finish with these projects.
Jerry says, okay, but I don't want to drag our feet in telling them.
To drag your feet means to do something very slowly, more slowly than you should.
To delay, to procrastinate.
I've been dragging my feet on cleaning the kitchen.
Really, I have.
I need to clean my kitchen.
My wife is not happy with me, just between me and you.
Don't tell anyone.
Anyway, Jerry says, Notice in is also a preposition, and therefore it needs a noun.
Telling is a noun form, and that works.
You can't say.
I don't want to drag our feet in to tell them, just like the previous example of to hold off on.
Jerry says, as a professional courtesy... we should let them know soon.
He's saying that, even though they are not happy with the service that Tech Experts has given them, as a professional courtesy, we should tell them about our decision soon.
Professional courtesy is something that you do or say in business and because it is considered the correct, the polite, the nice thing to do.
You don't have to do it, but it's nice if you do do it.
Well, Camilla doesn't want to be nice.
She says that may be true with other companies, that is, we should let them know as a professional courtesy, but tech experts has really let us down this past year.
To let someone down means to disappoint someone to do something not as well as someone was expecting you to do or not do what someone was expecting you to do.
You let them down.
They became disappointed.
Camilla says if we didn't have an airtight contract with them, we would have switched companies long ago.
Airtight, one word, means...
Very carefully written, something that has no mistakes, no errors.
It's often used to describe something in a legal situation where a contract, for example, doesn't have any weaknesses.
There are no things you can use as an exception.
That's airtight.
Jerry says, well, maybe they'll learn from their mistakes.
After all, they've been in business a long time.
That is, tech experts will learn from their mistakes.
Camilla doesn't agree.
She says, yeah, but old habits die hard.
This expression means it's difficult for people or organizations to change.
They are much more likely to continue doing the same things they have done in the past, even if they're not very good or very successful.
Old habits die hard.
Die hard, just like the movie Die Hard.
To die hard means it dies a difficult death.
It is something that dies with a lot of pain, perhaps.
That's also what is going on here when we say old habits die hard.
It's very difficult for you to change or kill your habits, the things you're used to doing.
Camilla says, and if you ask me, the company is on its last legs.
To be on your last legs, L-E-G-S, like the legs you walk on, means that you are about to die or about to fail, that you're very weak, that you're almost finished.
In this case, we're talking about a company on its last legs.
Camilla says it's only a matter of time before they lose most of their customers.
It's only a matter of time means that it is, we would say, inevitable.
That is, it's going to happen.
It's not something you can avoid.
It will happen.
It's just a matter of when it will happen.
It could be today.
It could be next week.
It could be 10 years from now.
But eventually, this thing will happen.
Camilla says it's only a matter of time before tech experts loses most of their customers at the rate they're going.
The expression at the rate they're going is used to show how someone is performing or acting differently.
Assuming that it will not change.
So, for example, you're spending 10 every week on buying sandwiches.
At the rate you're going...
By the end of the year, you will have spent $520 on sandwiches.
If you continue doing what you have done in the past, that's the idea.
Jerry says, I don't know about that, meaning I'm not sure you are correct.
But I do know one thing.
He's making a little joke.
He's saying Camilla is being so critical of the company.
It's a good thing she doesn't work as that company's public relations or PR rep.
Rep stands for representative.
A PR rep is someone who works for a company, who tries to give a positive image, a good image of the company, especially to news organizations, to newspapers, television stations and so forth.
Public relations is about getting a positive message out about your company to your customers or your potential customers, people who might want to buy your product or service.
Now let's listen to the dialogue again, this time at a normal speed.
Who's going to break the news to tech experts?
You mean about pulling the plug on using their services?
Yeah, the contract we signed with them last year is almost up.
And as we decided last month, we'll be going with another company.
I think we should hold off on telling them until after all of our current projects are done.
We still have two more in the hopper.
Okay, but I don't want to drag our feet in telling them, even if we're not happy with their service.
As a professional courtesy, we should let them know soon.
That may be true with other companies, but Tech Experts has really let us down this past year.
If we didn't have an airtight contract with them, we would have switched companies long ago.
Well, maybe they'll learn from their mistakes.
After all, they've been in business a long time.
Yeah, but old habits die hard.
And if you ask me, the company is on its last legs.
It's only a matter of time before they lose most of their customers at the rate they're going.
I don't know about that, but I do know one thing.
It's a good thing you're not their PR rep.
We don't want to pull the plug on our scriptwriter, the wonderful Dr Lucy Say, because she does such a wonderful job.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us again here on ESL Podcasts.
English as a Second Language podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2011 by the Center for Educational Development.
