Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 752, Working with Unreliable People.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 752.
I'm your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan.
Coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Our website, you know what it is, eslpod.com.
Go there, download the learning guide, enjoy life.
This episode is a dialogue between Paul and Jackie.
And it's going to be talking about people at work who don't do what they are supposed to do.
Sound familiar?
Let's get started.
What time is it?
It's 2.30.
The Cleveland office report should have been emailed to us by the end of the workday yesterday.
What are we supposed to do now?
NOEL SIMMONS
Oh, no.
I know, Noel.
I used to work with him in the Columbus office.
He was always dropping the ball on his responsibilities, and I was always having to cover for him.
You must have had the patience of a saint.
If he's such a flake, why is he still working for this company?
Beats me.
But I know we're in for a long wait if he's in charge.
We have to do something.
Get on the phone and see if you can light a fire under him.
Unless we keep on him, we'll never see that report.
Okay.
I'll call the Cleveland office right now.
And Jackie?
Yes?
If he gives you a line or some kind of excuse, let me talk to him.
What'll you do?
I'll take him on a trip down memory lane.
When I used to work with him, I wasn't always so patient or polite.
We're in a business office in this dialogue.
Paul asks Jackie what time it is.
Jackie says it's 2.30, 2.30 in the afternoon.
She says the Cleveland office report should have been emailed to us by the end of the workday yesterday.
Cleveland is a city in the state of Ohio, which is in the eastern central part of the United States.
Jackie says that office, the Cleveland office report, should have emailed them a report.
What are we supposed to do now?
What can we do now?
What should we do now?
Paul says if we don't get their report, we'll have to hold up the production of the annual report.
To hold up.
Here means to delay, to make something happen later than you originally planned because there has been some problem.
In this case, the problem is that the other office didn't finish their report, their set of papers they were supposed to prepare about something we don't know what.
To hold up here then means to delay the production or the making of the annual report.
Hold up has other meanings, very different meanings in English.
You can find some of those in our learning guide.
An annual report is a report that a large company produces, especially what we would call a public company, a publicly traded company, a company that people can buy stock in partial ownership in.
They're required to produce an annual report that says what they did the past year, what business they did, what new projects they have and so forth.
Annual means every year.
Paul says if that happens, somebody's head is going to roll.
The expression heads will roll or someone's head is going to roll, R-O-L-L means someone will be punished for this.
Someone is going to get into trouble for this, perhaps even fired from their job, lose their job.
The expression comes from when you kill people by cutting off their heads and of course, after you cut off the head it would fall down on the ground and roll, turn around, kind of like a ball, kind of like a soccer ball.
Always reminds me a little bit of that.
Anyway...
Paul says this really leaves us in a lurch.
To be left in a lurch, L-U-R-C-H, means that you have a big problem, a very difficult situation.
He left me in a lurch.
He left me with a very difficult situation.
Paul says, who's responsible for the report in Cleveland?
Who is the person who is supposed to be writing this report?
Jackie says, Noel Simmons.
Paul says, oh no, I know Noel.
I know this person.
I used to work with him in the Columbus office.
Columbus is another city in Ohio.
There are three cities in Ohio that begin with C, at least three Columbus, Cleveland and Cincinnati.
Well, Paul used to work with Noel in the Columbus office.
He says Noel was always dropping the ball on his responsibilities.
The expression to drop the ball means not to do what you are supposed to do, to be unreliable.
The title of this episode is Working with Unreliable People, Not Reliable.
Reliable means you can trust them.
You can trust them to do what they are supposed to do.
Well, Noel is unreliable.
He's always dropping the ball.
Paul says, I was always having to cover for him.
To cover for someone means to do something so that other people don't know that this person has made a mistake.
You are perhaps lying or doing something so that no one else discovers what your friend or your co-worker did wrong?
You're helping them that way.
At least you think you are.
Jackie says, you must have had the patience of a saint.
To be patient means to be able to wait, to tolerate or put up with difficult situations without getting angry or without losing your temper.
A saint is a holy person.
Someone here who represents a perfect person, someone who is very holy, someone who is very, very good.
Jackie says you must have had the patience of a saint.
It's an expression.
She says, if he's such a flake...
Why is he still working for this company?
A flake, F-L-A-K-E, is an unreliable person, someone who doesn't do what they're supposed to do.
The state of California.
The city of Los Angeles especially, is full of flakes, people who say they're going to do something but don't.
At least that's the reputation that the city and state have with some people.
Jackie wants to know why Noel, if he's such a flake, is still working at the company.
Why didn't he get fired?
Paul says, beats me.
Beats me is an informal way of saying, I don't know.
I don't know the answer to that question.
He says, beats me, but I know we're in for a long wait if he's in charge.
To be in for means to be expecting or deserving to have something done.
We're in for a cold winter this year, meaning we can expect a cold winter.
In this case, Paul says they're in for a long wait if he, Noel, is in charge.
To be in charge means to be responsible for some project or some group.
You're the person who is the boss of that project.
You make the decisions and so forth.
Paul says we have to do something.
The expression to light a fire under someone says means to do or say something to get that person to work.
To do something, especially if the person is lazy or unreliable.
Usually it means...
Applying some sort of pressure, doing something to push the person to get their job done.
If you light a fire, you will create heat, of course, and that will cause a person to get up and move, if you actually lit a fire under someone.
Well, that's what you're trying to do here.
Paul says, unless we keep on him, keep on Noel, we'll never see that report.
To keep on someone means to bother them repeatedly until they do what you want them to do.
Another word for this would be to nag.
N-A-G.
Stop nagging me.
This is something husbands occasionally, not this husband... says about their wives.
My wife is always nagging me to do something, always telling me to do something until I actually do it.
Well, that's what Paul says they have to do with Noel.
Jackie says, okay, I'll call the Cleveland office right now.
Paul says, and Jackie?
Jackie says, yes.
Actually, probably says something like, yes.
Paul says, if he gives you a line or some kind of excuse, let me talk to him.
When you say you're giving someone a line L-I-N-E, you mean you're giving them an excuse, something that other people might say as an excuse.
Oh, I got busy, or oh, my cat died and I had to go home and bury it, put it in the ground, give it a funeral, and so forth.
These are excuses, and many people try to give excuses when they don't do what they're supposed to do.
So Paul says if he gives you a line, an excuse, let me talk to him.
Jackie says, what will you do?
Paul says, I'll take him on a trip down memory lane.
A lane, L-A-N-E, is like a small road.
But the expression to take a trip down memory lane means to spend some time remembering things that have happened in the past.
Normally, the expression means you're taking a pleasant trip, if you will.
You're remembering good things that happened in the past.
But in this case, Paul is making something of a joke.
He's going to remind Noel of bad things that happened in the past.
He says, when I used to work with him, I wasn't always so patient or polite.
To be polite, P-O-L-I-T-E, means to be kind, to be nice.
It's the opposite of rude, R-U-D-E, which means to be mean, not to be nice.
Paul is saying that he's going to treat Noel the way he used to treat him in the past.
That is, he's probably going to get angry with him.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
What time is it?
It's 2.30.
The Cleveland office report should have been emailed to us by the end of the workday yesterday.
What are we supposed to do now?
If we don't get their report, we'll have to hold up the production of the annual report, and if that happens, somebody's head is going to roll.
This really leaves us in a lurch.
Who's responsible for the report in Cleveland?
Noel Simmons Oh, no.
I know Noel.
I used to work with him in the Columbus office.
He was always dropping the ball on his responsibilities, and I was always having to cover for him.
You must have had the patience of a saint.
If he's such a flake, why is he still working for this company?
Beats me, but I know we're in for a long wait if he's in charge.
We have to do something.
Get on the phone and see if you can light a fire under him.
Unless we keep on him, we'll never see that report.
Okay, I'll call the Cleveland office right now.
And Jackie?
Yes?
If he gives you a line or some kind of excuse, let me talk to him.
What do you do?
I'll take him on a trip down memory lane.
When I used to work with him, I wasn't always so patient or polite.
Our scriptwriter never drops the ball on her responsibilities.
That's because we have the wonderful Dr. Lucy Say.
Thank you, Lucy.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us again here on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2012 by the Center for Educational Development.
