This is the Business English Podcast, Episode 199, How to Be a Squeaky Wheel in Business English.
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Offer ends August 10th. allearsenglish.com slash connection. lindsay how's it going it's going great aubrey how are you how's it going excellent i have a question for you okay do you ever have to be a squeaky wheel i've had to learn over the years how to be a squeaky wheel yes especially in my like daily life um you know things like getting my car fixed more like errands everyday things yes but it doesn't come naturally so i've had to push myself Yes, absolutely.
If you guys haven't heard this idiom or expression proverb, we say in English, the squeaky wheel gets the grease.
And at least that's how I say it. Is that how you hear it, Lindsay?
Yeah. Yep. Yes. And so we're going to talk about what that means.
What does it mean in US culture? Is this different in other cultures?
And this came up because of a really good question that we got.
Oh, we love these personalized questions.
I'm going to go ahead and read it because we love this listener.
And are you ready, Aubrey? Here we go. Yes, let's do it.
So Aya says, I'm your podcast listener and I've been consuming the episodes through the app for over five years.
That is amazing. I love that, Aubrey. Five years.
That is fantastic. It's so great. It's so great.
Thank you for creating such awesome content, always in making our English learning more fun and exciting.
I really appreciate your dedicated work.
Well, thank you, Aya, and we appreciate your dedicated listening.
Right, Aubrey? Five years. Seriously, that is amazing.
Yeah. So recently I came across the interesting proverb, which is the squeaky wheel gets the oil.
I understand this proverb means attention is paid to those who voice out their opinions or complaints rather than those who stay quiet.
Do people need to have a mindset like this in order to survive in the U.S.?
? Because I heard speaking up loudly is more valued in American and Western society.
I would be grateful if you could make an episode to share your thoughts and opinions about these proverbs.
Thank you for your help as always. Love, Aya.
Amazing. So good. Yes. So interesting. Thank you for this question.
I love that it's a cultural discussion as well as vocabulary because it's a great idiom, right?
Use it. The squeaky wheel gets the grease.
But it's interesting to think about sort of how this is changing, how it's affected by gender.
So I think we should dive into this. there's a lot of good stuff we're going to get into today culture gender society our family you know the influence from our family members or our friends but just want to make sure we're clear with the vocabulary first aubry right so squeaky wheel gets the grease not the oil right yes that's how i hear it the squeaky wheel gets the grease and what does this mean lindsay so it just means whoever kind of speaks up and voices that there's a problem or that they're waiting for something is the one that's going to get served first, whether they're first in line, or, you know, there are other people ahead of them, they're likely to get service first.
Okay, exactly. Yeah, right. That's exactly right.
And we often think about it or say this, when we're thinking about like nagging or pestering, it's like, well, squeaky, well, I guess agree, if I don't say anything, then it's never going to happen.
Yeah, and there's so many scenarios. I'm sure we'll get into examples, but this can be anywhere from getting a table reservation at a restaurant to getting an appointment sooner for a key medical exam you need, right?
A lot of things in life and business. Yeah, I actually had a really interesting experience just Friday night where we were trying to get a table, but we didn't have a reservation.
And I went and asked the host, but I was very kind, you know, and he was like, sorry.
But then he came out and was like, okay, I'm going to get your table because you're so nice.
So I do feel like it's interesting to think about if I hadn't been willing to say anything, if I weren't willing to be that squeaky wheel, we would not have been able to get this table at this fun restaurant.
But also I think in U.S. culture everywhere, I think it's worth being kind.
Like just because you're, you know, speaking up doesn't mean you have to be annoying about it or mean or he said a lot of people are very transactional with how they speak to him as like a host of a restaurant.
And he was like, I love that you treat me like a human.
I'm like, that's crazy. That's powerful.
That's cool. That's really cool. And not just in the sense that you got the reservation at the restaurant, right?
More in the sense of you came away treating someone right.
And that comes back to you. It feels good to be good to people.
For sure. But it's kind of devastating too that it felt so rare to him.
I'm like, that's so sad. But I think we do sometimes get that way when we're trying to be the squeaky wheel.
We're trying to make sure we get what we want.
Are we still being kind and respectful? That's important too, right?
So it's kind of a very powerful combination of being kind and being squeaky.
Yeah. Squeaky but kind. Absolutely. And I do feel like at least in the United States, this does seem to be affected by gender that in the average man seems to be more willing to ask for what they want to stand up for themselves to be that squeaky wheel.
And then often women are trying not to annoy anyone.
They don't want to be called Karen. There's all kinds of reasons to be like, I don't want to be the squeaky wheel.
That's a good point, Aubrey. What is the male version of Karen?
Why don't we have one? Exactly. There shouldn't be a Karen.
There just shouldn't be either. I hate it so much.
Guys, we've done an episode about this, about being called a Karen somewhere in our archives.
You'll have to come back to our website or scroll through our archives.
But just to sum up what it means, Aubrey, Karen, just so our listeners... It's kind of being a squeaky wheel, right?
It's like a middle-aged woman who's willing to be a squeaky wheel, I feel like.
If you're complaining to the manager, if something's wrong, you're going to say something.
You're not just saying... There's definitely a very negative connotation to it.
It's more someone who does it in an unkind way, who is transactional, like this person was saying.
Yeah, I think it's even worse than being a school... I see them as a little bit different, maybe related, but with the Karen, I see it as people that are just... kind of like can be kind of entitled like maybe it's the way you're being a squeaky wheel like without kindness exactly entitled expecting like you're entitled to a certain treatment or respect and so you're not asking for that kindly yeah exactly exactly Yeah.
It's interesting, though, as far as business English, because we often do have to be the squeaky wheel.
We've got to remind someone of due dates or ask for something to be done, often multiple times.
So we wanted to sort of focus on this today.
Like, yes, in American culture, you're going to have to be the squeaky wheel.
I am fascinated to know what this is like in other cultures.
But if you work in the business world, you're likely going to have to do this.
So what's the best way to do it? Yeah. And I like your pro tip here, Aubrey.
Don't apologize. It's not about apologizing, right?
For asking for the thing. Exactly right.
You don't need to preface something with like, oh, I don't mean to nag, but or sorry to bug you, but this.
No, I know as a maybe it's gender, but I have a tendency to do this and I'm trying not to because I'm What I'm asking for, I don't need to apologize for.
I haven't done anything wrong. I'm just trying to get this information across.
So I have to keep myself from apologizing for it.
Yeah. Are we bringing this out of some real internal communications here?
Yes. This is going to be great. So I pulled an email that you had sent to me, Lindsay, because the first sentence I felt was so professional.
And we're going to give three options to start an email when you need to express to someone, you need to remind someone of a due date, or you need to remind them of something that they need to get in because this is tricky.
It can feel very critical, right? It can feel...
There's all kinds of things that if you just went right in and said, your proposal was due today, or this is late, this is due, the tone can change depending on how you start that.
Yeah, I mean, for sure. There's a lot to be done here.
And there's nothing wrong with drafting up an email a few times.
Actually, you should be. If you're frustrated about something.
I mean, to be honest, I was frustrated in the moment that I wrote this email.
Did you draft it a few times? I'm curious for the insight.
I remember it. Moving back, drafting. But the worst thing you could do is say, where is this assignment?
Like, where is this proposal? Right. Oh, I love that we're getting that. inside info here right so to give you guys a situation i was late i was needed to send notes for something and they were a couple of days past due and the email lindsey sent it just started with i believe i still need your notes for ad six is what it said it was so professional and respectful i love this inside info knowing that you had to draft it a couple times because it had put you back like it had messed up your dates on something so the frustration that's going to happen but what do we do do we read it and recognize okay how is this going to come across maybe i should rewrite this thank you for doing that for me lindsay i appreciate that of course you're an important part of our team aubry and we need to maintain our you know our our communication good positive communication but we also need to be clear when something is something we need something to be delivered right so i think the point here before we get into the examples is if you're not stopping and first of all, putting yourself in the head of the receiver when you're writing an email, something's wrong, right?
Yeah, that's a really good point. Yeah. Because then if it does offend or come across really poorly, you sort of have no one to blame but yourself because you didn't take that second to rewrite it and realize like, ooh, I may be being a little too harsh or something.
Yeah. So let's get into it then. Let's get into what are the three things we could do to soften these communications.
Let's do it. Yes. Number one is what Lindsay chose on this email to start it with, I believe, right?
I believe your proposal was due Tuesday.
Can you send that to me today by five at the latest?
And just listen to just leaving off those two words.
If you just say your proposal was due Tuesday, can you send it to me by today at five?
A world of difference. Yeah, that is so interesting.
If I had just written, your proposal was due today or Tuesday, that is, oh, you're exactly right.
It's like slapping their face. It's so interesting.
Oh my gosh. Okay. Good stuff. So I believe your proposal was due Tuesday.
Can you send that to me today by 5th? So it's clear.
It's not like I'm saying, oh, it's okay.
No problem. I'm saying I need this by today.
Right. But it doesn't need to be rude. It doesn't mean to be need to be mean.
Exactly. Just that little bit, that little chunk that I believe takes away anything that's like mean or frustrated or rude.
Like we're still getting the message across clearly.
We're not apologizing, but we're doing it in a very professional way.
Yes. Love it. It's yeah. What would be the second one, Aubrey?
So the second one is I noticed, which is very similar to I believe, but this totally works.
I noticed your forms haven't been filled out.
Please complete that ASAP and let me know when it's finished so I can submit everything.
It's so much better than just like your forms haven't been filled out.
Get that done right away. Yeah, super interesting.
I think maybe sometimes people, some people, it's not my style.
My style is actually more the using these, but some people might be more direct and just say your forms haven't been filled out.
Maybe they don't know that it could be misinterpreted.
Maybe in their mind, it's just direct. But you have to keep in mind who's receiving it and all the ways they could interpret it.
Right, Aubrey? Yes. And that's where it comes into play how well you know your co-workers.
Because you know, for me, I'm devastated if I miss a due date, if something is late.
I really value being able to be dependable and get things done on time.
So you knew that if you sent me an email that just said, your notes are late, I would be like, oh, I'm so sorry.
It would ruin my week. I would feel so awful.
Just the language you use can really affect how someone ends up feeling about themselves, if they're beating themselves up about it or not.
And this is why with remote work, we have an advantage because we can sit there and draft the email, we can work on it, we can stop, take a pause before we hit send, we can do all these things.
But we have the disadvantage of we can't be in person to get to know each other.
We know each other pretty well. By now we've been working together online for three years.
But maybe for a new hire, we have to do things to make sure we know you know, how they're going to interpret something, how they're going to receive something.
And this is where I think text messaging really causes a problem for people.
Cause if you just send a quick text, it can come off really blunt.
Like often it's like, I just need to call them on the phone to make sure that they're receiving this the way I intend.
Yeah. And then there's culture too. I mean, right.
If we're coming from a certain culture where these are not required, these kind of buffers are not required.
Wow. We could get into a lot of trouble.
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Exclusions apply, see details online. Okay, there's a third.
Let's let our listeners know what it is.
Yes, the last one is to start it with, it looks like.
So here's an example. It looks like the contract hasn't been signed and our deadline was yesterday.
Please send that to me as soon as possible.
Yeah, and the other thing I like about this usage here is that we are moving into the passive voice, right?
It looks like it hasn't, I'm not saying you didn't sign the contract or even it looks like you didn't sign the contract.
I'm saying it looks like the contract hasn't been signed.
That's a good point, right? Your grammar can really help with how, and it's not, you're still being direct, right?
The message still comes across very clearly, but by using the passive voice, you're not as accusatory.
It's not, you haven't done this yet. You need to get it to me, but the message is still there and clear.
So there's kind of two things we can do.
We can use the words the way in which we start the sentence, which seems to have more weight, right?
Because we start a sentence and it's just the tone and the voice that we're using, active voice using a you didn't do this or you didn't do that versus it hasn't been done is also useful in some cases, right?
Yeah, that's true. And again, this comes down to how well you know your coworkers, how they're going to receive something.
Because even with this, you know, I believe or I noticed if you still then say, I noticed your forms haven't been filled out.
If you know that your coworker is still going to take that personally, use the passive voice.
Just make sure the message is still clear.
Yeah, I love it. Any takeaway other than this?
I mean, it's a big topic here, right? It is, right?
I think, I mean, the squeaky wheel gets the grease, at least in the culture of the United States, right?
You often have to speak up for yourself.
You have to ask for what you want or it's not going to happen.
Yeah, for sure. But the key is how we do it both at work and in our everyday lives, right?
The key and then just putting good energy out into the world.
I'm not trying to be woo woo, right? But there is a there's a certain karma, there's a certain energy that comes back to us and affects how we feel in life.
Like how happy are we? It's linked to how well we treat people.
Very true. Absolutely. Right. And also just the value of getting to know your coworkers and really knowing them as people so that you are aware how they'll respond to certain things, how they're worded, how you say something and taking those few minutes to rewrite an email if you're frustrated.
Right. It shows that you value and respect the people you work with.
I love it. Good stuff. So thanks to Aya for asking this awesome question.
We love these questions and just want to let Aya know she also asked another part of the question and we're going to answer that on another episode of All Ears English or Business English.
We better be following both guys to make sure we don't miss that episode.
Yes, absolutely. That was the rest of her question was so interesting about a proverb in Japanese.
And since Lindsay was there, she's got some great insights.
Yes. Or I'll come up with it before we record.
Yes, absolutely. That's going to be a good one.
So follow both podcasts so you don't miss it.
All right, Aubrey, you have a good day. I'll talk to you soon.
Awesome. Thanks. Talk to you soon. Bye. Bye.
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