Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 772, Types of People at Work.
This is English as a Second Language podcast, episode 772.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Our website is eslpod.com.
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This episode is a dialogue between Raoul and Ursula about the kind of people you may work with.
Let's get started.
Thanks for showing me around on my first day.
It's no problem.
I want to give you the lay of the land and tell you about the people you'll be working with.
For instance, that's Julie over there.
She's really nice, but she's also a perfectionist.
If you ever work with her, remember that she's a stickler about everything.
Okay, I'll remember that.
And Phil over there?
He's a slacker and a troublemaker.
Stay away from him, far, far away.
Thanks for the warning.
And that's Luis.
You'll be working under him.
He's a slave driver and a workaholic, and he expects everybody else to be one too.
That doesn't sound good.
Don't sweat it.
Standing next to Luis is Gil.
He's a yes-man and very, very ambitious.
Almost ruthless.
Don't get in Gil's way.
Okay, I won't.
Thanks for showing me around.
By the way, who's the office gossips?
Oh, we don't have one of those around here.
Raul begins by saying, thanks for showing me around on my first day.
To show someone around means to give someone a tour, or what we might call an orientation, showing them or teaching them where things are.
We often would say that to someone who is new to an office.
Let me show you around.
Let me introduce you to the people who work here.
Let me tell you where things are in the office and so forth.
You could also show someone around who was visiting you from another country or another place.
Raul thanks Ursula for showing him around on his first day, his first day at work.
Ursula says, it's no problem.
I want to give you the lay of the land.
The expression the lay L-A-Y of the land says Here means how things are organized, where things are found.
It might be used in a very general way to tell someone how something is organized.
It could be a report or a book.
It could be the people in an organization.
In this case, it's the people in the office.
Ursula says she wants to give Raul the lay of the land and tell him about the people he'll be working with.
For instance, for example, that's Julie over there, she says.
She's really nice To be perfect means to have nothing wrong.
A perfectionist wants everything to be without an error, without a mistake.
Everything has to be perfect.
Someone who always wants to be perfect is a perfectionist.
That can be a good thing.
That can sometimes be a bad thing.
Ursula says, if you ever work with Julie, remember that she's a stickler about everything.
To be a stickler.
S-T-I-C-K-L-E-R means to follow the rules exactly and insist.
Make sure that everyone else follows the rules exactly.
It can also be another word to describe a perfectionist.
Someone might say, I'm a stickler for details.
That is, I want every little thing to be correct.
You can be a stickler for something, something that you are very strict about, something that you want to make sure is absolutely perfect.
Raul says, okay, I'll remember that.
Julie is a stickler about everything.
Ursula says, and Phil over there, he's a slacker and a troublemaker.
To be a slacker S-L-A-C-K-E-R is to be lazy, someone who doesn't work very hard, someone who doesn't do their job or do what they're supposed to do at their job.
You don't want to be working with a slacker, someone who never does what they're supposed to do.
My nephew is a slacker.
He never works very hard.
He doesn't get very much done.
I just won't tell you which nephew of my 20 nephews I'm talking about.
But you know who you are, nephew.
Ursula also says that Phil is a troublemaker.
A troublemaker, all one word is a person who creates problems, who makes trouble, who creates difficulties for other people.
Sometimes we talk about a student in school being a troublemaker, causing problems in class or getting into trouble outside of school.
But you could also be a troublemaker in an organization or a business where you are always perhaps complaining or causing problems.
Ursula says that Raul should stay away from Phil far, far away, meaning don't have anything to do with him.
Raul says, thanks for the warning.
A warning is advice about something that is dangerous or difficult that might happen in the future.
If someone says, be careful walking on the ground there, it's very icy.
You could slip and fall.
That's a warning.
That's telling you something bad could happen in the future if you're not careful.
Ursula continues, and that's Luis warning.
You'll be working under him.
To work under someone means that someone will be your boss, that person under whom you are working.
I work under John.
That means John is my boss.
John is the person who is my manager, who tells me what I'm supposed to do.
Ursula calls Luis a slave driver.
A slave is a person who is owned by someone else, who is the property of someone else.
Slavery, of course, is illegal in almost every country, if not every country.
When slavery was legal...
The people who were in charge of the slaves, who made the slaves work hard, were called the slave drivers.
And that's where this expression comes from.
It's someone who makes you work very hard, even if you're not technically or legally a slave.
Ursula says that Luis is a workaholic.
A workaholic, W-O-R-K-A-H-O-L-I-C, is someone who works constantly.
We might say that he is addicted to work, someone who works very, very hard all day, even at night.
Someone perhaps, who loves to work a lot.
That's usually the idea.
When someone says, I'm a workaholic, that means that they like to do it.
They're addicted to it.
Just like we have the expression alcoholic, that's where workaholic comes from.
That's where we created that word from.
Well, Ursula says that Luis is not only a workaholic, he expects everyone else to be one too.
Everyone else must also work as hard as he does.
Raul says, that doesn't sound good.
Remember, Luis is going to be Raul's boss.
Ursula says, don't sweat it.
The expression, don't sweat, S-W-E-A-T, it, means don't worry about it.
Don't get too concerned.
I'm not sure why I would be concerned.
Then Ursula says, standing next to Luis is Gil.
Gil is a yes man.
Y-E-S hyphen M-A-N.
Ursula says that Gil is a yes man.
A yes man is someone who is always agreeing with his boss or the supervisor, someone who wants to make his or her boss happy.
So they always say, oh, yes, that's right.
Oh, yes, I agree with you.
They never say no to anything their bosses tell them.
Ursula says that Gil is very ambitious.
He wants to succeed.
He wants to move up in the company.
He wants to get a better job, be more successful.
Ursula calls Gil almost ruthless.
To be ruthless means R-U-T-H-L-E-S-S is to not care about anyone else's feelings, to not care who you hurt.
You're going to get what you want, and it's not important to you if you hurt other people.
Ursula says to Raul, don't get in Gil's way.
To get in someone's way W-A-Y means to interfere with someone, to prevent someone from doing something they want to do.
Raul says, okay, I won't.
I won't get in Gil's way.
He says, thanks for showing me around.
By the way.
We use by the way as a way of saying oh, one more thing, or I forgot to tell you or forgot to ask you.
By the way, who's the office gossip?
A gossip G-O-S-S-I-P is a person who tells other people secrets, who gives private information about someone else to another person.
Usually these are negative things about someone else.
To gossip can be a verb.
It means to talk in this way, to talk about other people's problems.
Did you hear that John didn't come home last night and that his wife is really angry at him?
Well, that would be gossip, telling bad things usually about other people.
Generally speaking, that's a bad idea.
Ursula answers by saying, oh, we don't have one of those around here.
Of course, Ursula is the office gossip.
She's the one who's telling Raul all these negative things about his co-workers.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Thanks for showing me around on my first day.
It's no problem.
I want to give you the lay of the land and tell you about the people you'll be working with.
For instance, that's Julie over there.
She's really nice, but she's also a perfectionist.
If you ever work with her, remember that she's a stickler about everything.
Okay, I'll remember that.
And Phil over there, he's a slacker and a troublemaker.
Stay away from him far, far away.
Thanks for the warning.
And that's Luis.
You'll be working under him.
He's a slave driver and a workaholic, and he expects everybody else to be one, too.
That doesn't sound good.
Don't sweat it.
Standing next to Luis is Gil.
He's a yes-man and very, very ambitious, almost ruthless.
Don't get in Gil's way.
Okay, I won't.
Thanks for showing me around.
By the way, who's the office gossip?
Oh, we don't have one of those around here.
Our scriptwriter is no slacker.
That's because we have the perfectionist, 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.
