This is the Business English Podcast, Episode 113.
What do you bring to the table at work? Welcome to the Business English podcast from All Ears English.
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Hello, Lindsay. How are you? I'm great, Michelle.
How's everything on your end? How's it going?
Yeah, everything's good here. I'm excited about today's episode.
Today we are talking about tables. Tables.
Tables. Okay. Interesting. I bet our listeners are wondering what the heck could we possibly talk about tables for 15 minutes?
What am I talking about? I know. So guys, this is really a follow-up on episode 102 of the Business English Podcast.
That was in the table or on the table, how to comment on a spreadsheet at work.
Also recently we did the put a pin in something episode.
Yeah, that was fun. where we briefly mentioned an expression with table that we're going to also talk about today.
So I realize that there are so many expressions for the workplace that deal with tables, not in the spreadsheet way necessarily.
Okay. So yeah, I mean, Lindsay is meeting to record next week on the table or are you busy?
It's off the table, Michelle. I will be on my trip.
So not possible. Okay. Okay, all right.
Okay, that's fine. So it's off the table.
So guys, in episode 102, go ahead and listen to that.
We did speak about prepositions, the word table, like I said, dealing a lot with spreadsheets.
And yeah, this is a follow up. But before we get into it, Lindsay, what do we want to tell our listeners?
Well, two things, guys. Make sure you hit that follow button right here on this podcast, Business English.
Hit the follow button wherever you consume, whether that's CastBox, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Podcasts, or Amazon Music.
Hit follow so it drops right into your queue.
And Michelle, we have another podcast. I wonder if any of our listeners don't know about it.
What is that other podcast we have? I don't know.
No, just kidding. I know. It's the All Ears English podcast.
Guys, this is a huge, huge, huge podcast.
I'm over there with Lindsay, Aubrey, Jessica.
And we talk about culture. We talk about grammar.
We talk about vocab, pronunciation. We do interviews.
So many things. We do it all. We do it all, Michelle.
Yeah. How can our listeners find it? Okay.
Well, wherever you listen to podcasts, hit search and search for All Ears English Podcast.
Exactly. Go on over there, guys, and then you can have two places to hang out with us every week.
All right. That's right. Okay, Michelle, tell me about Table.
All right. I will tell you about tables.
So, well, the first one is on or off the table.
So I asked you if it's possible to record next week.
Is that on the table? And you said, no, it's off the table.
So this is a fancy, fun way to say something is possible or it's an option or it's not an option, a possibility for something to happen or not happen.
So what's an example of that, Lindsay? Yeah.
Well, for example, going to the party is totally off the table if you don't do your homework.
That's kind of cool. So that sounds like something a parent would say to a kid.
Right. Right. Yeah. Right. But like we said, in a business context, I asked her if some, you know, if it was possible to do something and she said it's off the table.
Right. Or you could say, I'm not sure it will work out, but it's definitely on the table.
So maybe you're in a business meeting and, you know, someone makes a suggestion and you're like, I don't know.
It's on the table. Right. It makes me think a lot of negotiations.
Right. What's on the table? What are the issues that could be negotiated?
What are the concessions? I think that comes up a lot in that world. sales, negotiating a sale of a business or a sale of an item, negotiating a partnership, mergers, acquisitions, things like that.
Yeah. Right, right, right. Yeah. Really good.
Really good for business. Another one is to table something.
So this might be the one we talked about with the pin in it episode, I think.
So to put something off for another time.
So I'm tired. Can we table this discussion for another day, right?
Maybe... Or maybe you're thinking we're at this meeting, somebody brought it up and it's five and somebody just started bringing up a new topic and you say, let's table this.
Sometimes you really got to know when are you exhausted and you need a good night of sleep and it just won't add any value to go into a new topic.
But I could see why, Michelle, this might be confusing for our listeners because we just said on or off the table means a possibility.
And now we're saying to table something means You're not doing it now.
You're putting it off for another time. Yeah.
I feel that could be kind of confusing for our listeners.
A little bit. A little bit. Yes. But a useful one for sure.
The next one is a seat at the table. So this is the definition from Macmillan Dictionary is a position as a member of a group that makes decisions.
What do you think of this one, Lindsay? Yeah, to have a seat at the table, right?
You know, this is good. This is important.
This is a way to voice what you want. If you want to be a decision maker in an organization or a company, you ask for that.
Maybe you're on a board, literally on the board of a company.
You have a seat on the board or at the table where decisions are made.
Right now, actually, I think that the Union of Los Angeles Public Schools, did you hear about that?
I think they were on strike or they were asking for higher pay or something along those lines.
Oh, wow. Right. Do we have an example kind of similar to that?
Parents, teachers, students? Yes, yes. It's important for teachers, students, and parents to have a seat at the table in what happens at our school.
So maybe you're a principal and you're having a meeting with the staff and you're saying, that's basically saying we need to involve everybody.
So maybe you're making some special organization, some special group where you get to hear from everybody.
So everyone gets a seat at the table. I mean, this is really what democracy is, right?
If you think about government, we need our government to look like us.
And currently, you look at most people in Congress, they are really old, not very diverse in terms of race, background.
Gender, sexuality, like we don't have that diversity that truly represents our country yet in Congress.
So I think a lot of people get really disillusioned with government because, you know, government should represent the people.
Right, right, right, right. It's important to hear from everybody.
Yeah. So I think that'll start to change.
We have our first member of Gen Z in Congress, Max Frost, Maxwell Frost.
And, you know, we have some people representing different marginalized communities coming into government, which is pretty cool.
It's cool to see that evolution, Michelle. yeah oh for sure for sure i love it um then we just have two two more um so the next one is under the table so this is under the table interesting okay this means without something being known in a discreet secret way there was some illegal money paid under the table the police never found out right Yeah.
I mean, a lot of times. Yeah. Sorry. Go ahead.
But you go ahead, Michelle. Oh, no. I was going to say a lot of times when we talk about something being under the table, it's money.
Like you think think about passing money under the table.
Right. So people don't see it. It's a secret.
And why is it a secret? Because there's a problem with a problem.
Or usually it's like money. Most I've seen is people avoiding taxes or like if someone doesn't have the legal right to work, for example, someone might be paid under the table because it can't go through the legal channels, like the payroll kind of thing, right?
So that's when you might hear that, oh, that person was paid under the table.
Yeah. Right, right, right. And then the last one, what is the last one, Lindsay?
All right. So bringing something to the table.
So what do you have to offer, right? What do you bring to the table?
Michelle, this is so important in a job interview.
Yes. Yes. For example... You could say on a job interview, you have to bring something unique to the table.
Yes. So important. And we talk about job interviews a lot on this podcast, guys.
So hit follow. Make sure you stay tuned in.
We show you how to make it clear what you bring to the table using data.
Right. We talked a few weeks ago about having our kudos file.
Right. Michelle, that was pretty cool. Yeah, that was fun.
I like that idea. I have to remember to keep to actually do that.
Kudos file. Me too. I mean, we all need to build your kudos file, put some of it on LinkedIn and keep some of it for yourself.
But weave that into your job interviews.
And guys, check out that episode. I don't know what number it was, but it's somewhere in the past.
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Exclusions apply. See details online. All right, Michelle, are there any other episodes that our listeners should go to?
Guys, we were talking about all ears English.
So all ears English episode 1074 was below, under, beneath, underneath and how to keep them straight in English.
And I believe there was some talk of tables there.
So just a random one to direct you to if you want to if you want to get a little bit of your vocab slash grammar fine tuned.
Find the talk of tables. I love it. So let's see, Michelle, which of these expressions do you use the most?
What do you think? I would say bring something to the table and something is on or off the table.
Those are the ones that stand out to me as the ones that I might use the most.
What about you? I don't use to table something.
I don't really. Well, it's not that I wouldn't.
I just don't end up in conversations that much saying that.
And on and off the table, I don't use as much, although I know people do, guys.
So they're still valid, important ones to learn.
Yeah, I think. Bring something to the table is probably what I think about when we look to bring on consultants onto our team to help us out with things.
We're always asking, what do you bring to the table?
Right. That kind of thing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
OK. So we're kind of in agreement on this.
We're aligned. Yes. So let's let's put them together in a role play.
Most of them. We are looking at a table for work.
So guys, we're mixing in a little bit of a review of the prepositions as well with that.
So remember to listen to that other episode.
All right. So we are looking at a table at work.
So here we go. OK, so in the table, there are four cells to start with.
Right. Great job, by the way. I think your hard work will allow all of our work to still be on the table.
Yes, I think we deserve a seat at the table, don't you?
I do. Sorry, let me scooch in here so I'm actually sitting at the table.
Yes, you're too far away. Should we table this until after lunch? okay i have a lot to bring to the table with this topic that's great okay this is ridiculous obviously we're not gonna do it would be funny if you did or you could do it as a big joke like kind of that's true some people would just go on and on it's like the puns you know kind of a joke yeah exactly office joke or something yeah yeah and if you guys can do that you've reached true fluency That's for sure.
That's for sure. So let's go through it.
So I said in the table, there are four cells to start with.
Right. So I'm talking about like a spreadsheet.
So in the table. Perfect. And then I said, right.
Great job, by the way. I think your hard work will allow all of our work to still be on the table.
So. sounds like you've done something where you've made us more relevant like you've kept us being visible and you know right right right right or maybe we're submitting something for a project right uh you know doing a proposal and you know so that is still going to be you know a possibility to get done at work right perfect and then you said michelle I think we still deserve like I think we still deserve a seat at the table, don't you?
So I'm kind of just saying, like, I think we're really good and we deserve to be here.
So we deserve to get, you know, attention.
Mm hmm. Totally. Sometimes I could see that kind of conversation happening at work with different departments.
You know what I mean? The marketing and the sales department, I feel like in some big companies, there might be some animosity or something between the two departments.
So making sure your department or your team stays visible and attends these key meetings and has a role in the projects.
That is definitely something I imagine our listeners might have to work with in the corporate world.
Things that we don't really deal with here at All Ears English, but you guys do at work for sure.
Oh, good point. Good point. And then you said, let me scooch in here.
So I'm sitting at the table. So this is the, this is the literal table, right?
You're at the table. So next to it, pulled up to it, right?
Perfect. And then I said, should we table this until after lunch?
Right. So I'm saying, what am I saying there, Michelle?
Should we put it off? Should we wait to continue to talk about this?
Perfect. And then I said, okay, I have a lot to bring to the table with this topic.
So I'm kind of just saying, I have a lot to say, like there's, you know, I've prepared things and, you know, I have experience with this.
So yeah. Okay. So you're excited to get back from lunch so we can talk about it.
Yeah. Yes. I'm very excited to get back from lunch.
All right. Well, who knew that we could talk for 15 minutes about tables?
I know. See? Guys, this is huge. It's so funny when one question comes up and it leads to another.
And then I think, wow, we really use a lot of table expressions at works.
It's true. And by the way, I mean, for our listeners, guys, we could go into a whole episode on any one of these expressions that we went into today, right?
We could do a whole episode. So if you have one of these or another one related that you hear all the time at work, send us in your question to michelle at allearsenglish.com and we will build an episode around just that one phrase.
We'll go into lots of good examples for you.
I love that. I love getting those specific questions.
So if you want me to dive deeper and we'll just do a whole episode about one of these, let me know which is your favorite.
Yeah, I think for the takeaway today, it's important to speak the speak, speak the speak, Michelle.
Talk the talk, talk the talk of business.
Right. If you're if the people around you are using these phrases, it's on the table, it's off the table, let's table it.
You also need to use those phrases and be able to to kind of keep up.
So that's that's a takeaway for today. Bring the table into work.
I like it. Bring the table into work. OK, that was great.
Let's end it on that note. Thanks, guys, for listening and have a great day.
All right, Michelle, take care. Bye. Thank you for listening to Business English, a podcast just for you, the high achieving global professional.
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