Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 836, Working Shifts.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 836.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
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This episode is a dialogue between Danny and Lisette about different times that you work throughout the day.
Let's get started.
You're the new kid on the block, aren't you?
Yeah, it's my first day.
I'm Lisette.
I'm Danny.
Nice to meet you.
You're lucky to be starting on the day shift.
When I started working here umpteen years ago, I had to work the graveyard shift for two years before I got the day shift.
I guess I am lucky.
But I wouldn't mind working any shift, even double shifts, once I get up to speed.
My wife and I are expecting our first child and we need to save up.
Oh, yeah?
Congratulations.
Well, there are always people who want time off and need someone to cover for them.
You can usually pick up extra hours and shifts that way.
Sometimes there's even overtime, but the veteran workers get first dibs.
I can understand that.
Well, if you ever need anybody to cover for you, just give me a shout.
All right, I'll keep it in mind.
Maybe I can help you save up for a diaper or two.
We begin our dialogue with Lisette saying to Danny...
You're the new kid on the block, aren't you?
The new kid on the block, B-L-O-C-K, here means a new person in an organization.
Usually in American cities we call the place where the houses or the apartments are in between the streets blocks.
One block, one rectangle that has four streets one on the north, one on the south, one on the east and one on the west.
Well, that's a block and if you say you're the new kid on the block, that means usually your family has just moved to that particular area.
And the other kids may say you're the new kid here, you're the one that has arrived most recently.
Here we're talking about a work organization, not an actual city block.
Danny says, yeah, it's my first day.
Lisette says, I'm Lisette.
Danny says, I'm Danny.
Nice to meet you.
Hmm.
Maybe we have something going here between Lisette and Danny.
Let's see.
Lisette says, yeah.
You're lucky to be starting on the day shift.
A shift, S-H-I-F-T, is the period of time during the 24-hour day that you work.
The day shift would be the period of time between say, 8 or 9 in the morning and 4 or 5 in the afternoon.
That would be in places that have workers there all 24 hours.
In other words, a hospital, maybe certain factories that make things that... operate 24 hours a day.
Well, you can't work 24 hours a day, so you divide the day up into three shifts.
The day shift.
Then there's the second shift, which is usually from 4 or 5 in the afternoon till midnight or so, and then you have what we'll find out in a second is the graveyard shift.
Lisette says to Danny, you're lucky to be starting on the day shift.
When I started working here umpteen years ago, I had to work the graveyard shift for two years before I got the day shift.
Umpteen, U-M-P-T-E-E-N, is an unusual word in English, but you will hear it in conversation.
It means a lot or many.
The idea is that there are so many years you can't count them.
Often it's an expression or a word used by people who are getting older and can't remember, or don't want to remember, how many years ago it was.
I graduated from high school umpteen years ago.
Many, many, many, many, many years ago.
Lisette says she started working at this company umpteen years ago, many years ago.
And when she did, she had to work the graveyard shift.
A graveyard, G-R-A-V-E-Y-A-R-D, one word, is a place where you bury bodies.
It's a place where you put dead people, a cemetery, we could also call it.
But in the expression graveyard shift it refers to people who have to work from midnight to say 8 or 9 o'clock in the morning.
The people who have to work at night after usually midnight or 1 a.m.
We call this the graveyard shift.
Why?
Well, I guess because people have this idea that the dead are fans of the nighttime, that bodies walk during the night.
I don't know.
That's just what we call it.
Danny says, I guess I am lucky, but I wouldn't mind working any shift, even double shifts.
To work a double shift means to work 16 hours, to work two shifts, the day shift and the second shift, the first shift and the second shift, for example.
Danny says, I wouldn't mind working any shift, even double shifts, once I get up to speed.
To get up to speed means to learn something quickly once you're able to do what you are supposed to do.
So you're learning some new skill, some new thing you have to do at your work.
It may take you a day, a week, a month to really be able to do it as well as you should, as well as everyone else.
You need to get up to speed, to be moving fast enough, if you will.
My wife and I are expecting our first child, Danny says.
Oh, so I guess there's no relationship between Danny and Lisette.
And we need to save up.
To save up is a phrasal verb that means to save money, usually for some particular purpose.
I'm saving up for a car.
I'm saving up for a new computer.
I'm saving up for a new car, electric guitar, so i can be in a rock band.
Yeah, that would be cool.
So i'm saving up for something.
And danny and his wife, who is expecting her first child.
When we say they're expecting, we mean she is going to have the baby, she's pregnant.
Danny needs to save up.
Lissette says oh yeah, congratulations.
Now, of course, Lissette must be a little disappointed to find out that Danny is already married, but she doesn't seem to indicate that in the dialogue.
Lissette says, congratulations.
Well, there are always people who want time off and need someone to cover for them.
Time off are hours or days when you don't work your normal schedule.
So normally you work Monday through Friday, but you're going to take some time off.
We use the verb to take with time off.
You're going to take some time off on Friday or on Monday.
You're not going to work all or part of that day.
Lissette says that there are always people, meaning there will always be someone who wants to take time off and needs someone to cover for them.
To cover, C-O-V-E-R, for someone means to work when another person cannot.
So someone says I can't work this afternoon because, Although I am scheduled, I'm supposed to.
Could you cover for me?
Could you work during the time that I'm supposed to work?
Lissette says, you can usually pick up extra hours and the shifts that way.
To pick up, here is a phrasal verb meaning to get something in addition to what you would normally have.
Normally you work eight hours, but you can pick up an extra four hours by working half a shift, four hours of the second shift for someone who wants time off.
Sometimes, Lisette says, there's even overtime, but the veteran workers get first dibs.
Overtime, O-V-E-R-T-I-M-E, one word, is when you work at a job where you are paid by the hour.
And you work more than your normal number of hours for that week.
Usually in the U.S. it's 40 hours.
So if you get paid by the hour, you make 20 an hour or 40 an hour or whatever it is, and you work your forty hours and then the boss wants you to work overtime.
You're working more than your regular forty hours and in the?
U s in most places you get paid extra, so you might get paid.
Instead of your normal twenty dollars an hour, you might get paid twenty five or thirty.
Sometimes companies will pay what's called Double time.
They'll pay you twice as much as you normally work if you work overtime more than your normal 40 hours.
This is only for people who are paid by the hour.
If you get a salary, if you are paid a certain amount every year, then typically you don't get overtime.
You may work 60 70 hours a week, but you are not going to get paid extra.
But overtime is when you are paid extra for an hourly position.
Lissette says that the veteran workers, the workers who have a lot of experience, who have been here a long time, The veteran workers get first dibs.
To get first dibs means that you are the first person or in the group that gets to decide or choose something before anyone else.
So if the company says we're going to offer 10 hours overtime this week, first they will ask the veteran employees, the employees who have been there a long time do you want it?
And they say no.
And then they go to the next group and then the next group.
To get first dibs means to get first choice.
It's an expression that we use often.
Sometimes.
It's often something that you would say as a child.
Let's say there's a piece of chocolate cake or a large chocolate cake with several pieces.
And somebody says, I get first dibs, meaning I get to choose my piece before the rest of you.
But adults can also say this.
Danny says, I can understand that.
Well, if you ever need anyone to cover for you, he says to Lisette, just give me a shout.
The expression to give someone a shout, S-H-O-U-T, means to call someone or to contact them.
Usually it means to call them on the telephone.
It's an informal expression.
You wouldn't use it in a formal setting, but among friends or coworkers, people you work with.
It's okay.
It's probably an expression that will become less common.
Now, instead of giving someone a shout, you would probably send them a text.
Informally, we might use the verb shoot to shoot someone a text or an email.
Send me an email or shoot me an email.
That would mean the same thing.
Contact me.
Lisette says, all right, okay, I'll keep it in mind.
I'll remember that.
Maybe I can help you save up for a diaper or two.
She's helping Danny by giving him extra hours so he can save up for diapers.
D-I-A-P-E-R-S.
Diapers are things that you put around a baby, around their bottom, so that they can go to the bathroom because, of course, babies can't walk and go to the bathroom by themselves.
I don't have a lot of experience changing diapers.
I was the youngest in my family.
I know my older brothers and sisters do.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
You're the new kid on the block, aren't you?
Yeah, it's my first day.
I'm Lisette.
I'm Danny.
Nice to meet you.
You're lucky to be starting on the day shift.
When I started working here umpteen years ago, I had to work the graveyard shift for two years before I got the day shift.
I guess I am lucky, but I wouldn't mind working any shift, even double shifts, once I get up to speed.
My wife and I are expecting our first child, and we need to save up.
Oh yeah?
Congratulations.
Well, there are always people who want time off and need someone to cover for them.
You can usually pick up extra hours and shifts that way.
Sometimes there's even overtime, but the veteran workers get first dibs.
I can understand that.
Well, if you ever need anybody to cover for you, just give me a shout.
Alright, I'll keep it in mind.
Maybe I can help you save up for a diaper or two.
Our script writer has written umpteen scripts, all of them good.
Thank you, Dr. Lucy Say.
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.
