This is the Business English Podcast, Episode 22, Do You Work Like a Dog?
The Reason Behind the American Business Work Ethic.
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Good morning, Michelle. Happy Monday. How are you doing today?
Good morning, Lindsay. I'm good. How are you?
I am good. And Michelle, I want to start with a question for you today.
Are you ready? I'm ready. Okay. Here's the question, Michelle.
Do you work like a dog? That's a good question, Lindsay.
Sometimes, yes, I definitely sometimes I work like a dog.
I have a lot of stuff to do. Get very busy.
And but you know, it's good. It's good to be busy.
How about you? Well, yeah, I was gonna say, Michelle, I think you're a really hard worker.
And I think that's good. Like, I find a lot of merit in a good solid work ethic.
You know, it's kind of an it's a bit it's I feel like in some ways, it's becoming a bit of an old fashioned thing, unfortunately.
But I still think that a good solid work ethic is the only way we can become successful in life and get good things done.
But Yeah. What do you think? Thank you.
I think you're a hard worker, too. Definitely.
Yeah, I work really hard, but I love my work.
So that's the important thing. That's why we want to choose something that we love.
And we talk about that on this show all of the time.
Right, Michelle? Right. Right. Yeah. It's really important that. you feel good about work.
It's hard to find something that you feel that good about.
And sometimes, you may not be able to do what you really, really want to do.
But if you can try as hard as you can, that's the best, I think.
Yeah. I mean, there are certain realities around the world.
And we realize it's not easy for everyone to immediately get into a position or a job that they love.
But Thank you so much. I think so. What do you think?
I definitely have found that. Well, I've had this conversation with a lot of my European students, especially Western European students.
And they always say Americans live to work.
And in other parts of the world, we work to live, right?
Yeah, we work to live. Yeah. I remember when I went to study abroad in London, actually, and I was doing an internship.
And I remember one of the first things I never forgot it from our internship course.
We had a course as well. And they said they put up a like a quote on the board that said, And Americans live to work.
And I don't know if it was Europeans or the rest of the world.
I don't know. But work to live. And I remember that really stuck with me.
I never forgot that one. I know. It's true.
Well, and I think everyone has a different opinion about this. this.
I don't think either way is right or wrong.
That's not what we're here today to say.
It's just that it's really interesting to tease out our thoughts on this.
And I think it comes back to these basic psychological differences across cultures.
There are some different cultural ways of looking at life and looking at the world.
And it comes back to this sense of where is our control in our mind?
Do we have an external idea of control or an internal idea of control?
So the What does that even mean, right?
That sounds really funky. Yeah, I was going to ask you that.
That's very profound. I had to wrap my head around that one.
Can you explain more? I mean, it's really interesting.
So we talked about this a little bit in my graduate program on intercultural communication.
And the Pew Research Center, which we cite a lot on this show, did a little research.
And they found that 57% of Americans disagreed with this following statement.
Success in life is pretty much determined by forces outside of our control.
So that means that a higher percentage than most, that is actually a higher percentage than most nations.
And it's far above the global average, which is 38%, right?
So what does that mean, Michelle? I mean, where do Americans think success starts?
Right. So it means that, you know, we Americans believe that it's in our control to be successful.
Right, Lindsay? Right. So if you believe that, what are you going to do?
You're going to work for it. Exactly. I think that that's a really important thing to think.
And again, it's so hard to talk about American culture because it's such a huge culture everyone is coming in from different parts of the world immigrating here our families are from different parts of the world we get messages in different ways but again this is a you know it's a research study and they've looked at the real numbers and there are some numbers behind this so I think that's really interesting I mean what about you when you were growing up Michelle what was the message that you got from your parents in terms of hard work Yeah.
Well, my parents, they both work really, really hard.
And so I definitely grew up with this mindset of, well, that's going to be me too, right?
So I think that they definitely gave me a good work ethic.
But they definitely also believe in taking some time to travel and take vacations and to relax.
But definitely, definitely, definitely hard work.
What about you, Lindsay? Oh, yeah, for sure.
I mean, as I've said on this show before, both my brother and my dad, they're both entrepreneurs.
My dad has an optometry business and my brother owns a bar and he's also been a DJ.
He's had a DJ business. He had a DJ business when he was like 15.
He bought these big speakers and started DJing weddings, like adult weddings when he was 15.
So, you know, I think it was really in our upbringing.
My dad used to say to me when I was seven, he would always say things like, you know, Be your own boss.
Be your own boss. Don't work for anyone.
He was saying that to me when I was seven or eight.
Oh, my God. Yeah. And so I saw him working hard.
But anyways, I want to go back to one more statistic just to go just to ground this in something.
You know what I mean? Because otherwise we're just throwing out our own ideas.
But here's a quote from this survey. It says, true to the stereotype, surveys show that Americans are more likely to believe that hard work pays off when asked on a scale of zero to ten. about how important working hard is to getting ahead in life, 73% of Americans said it was a 10.
Wow, that's really high, isn't it? Or very important, compared with the global medium of 50% among the 44 countries that were surveyed.
But I mean, there are other barriers to this, right?
Around the world, there are certain things that may cause us to feel like success is not in our control.
What could some of those be? Michelle, what do you think?
That success is not in our control? Yeah, exactly.
I mean, things like corruption, right? Right, right, right.
Yeah, what class you're in, right? Right, class differences.
And that still exists here. And I think in certain countries, like moving through the classes is, you know, is easier or harder.
I mean, and there's racism, there's prejudice, there's homophobia.
There are real things out in the world, both in the US and in the world that might cause us to feel like we don't have a chance at success.
So we're not going to work for it. Right.
Yeah. Yeah. Oh, man. Deep. This is deep, Lindsay.
I think it's interesting. I can't help but go deep.
Yeah, it's definitely interesting. I mean, why not?
Like in life, I like to look below the surface, right?
If we're always just living on the surface, what's the point, right?
We got to look at why we're doing things and examine our behaviors, the way we look at the world, don't you think?
Yeah, yeah. Well, I love learning about this, you know, the, yeah, exactly, behaviors of different people and why.
I know it's very, you know, we should have studied psychology.
I did. Yeah, I did an undergrad in psych.
What did you study? Oh, well, there you go.
What did you study, Michelle, in your undergraduate degree?
I studied theater. Oh, perfect. We are a great combination.
There you go. But I always found psychology to be so interesting.
Like, I wish I had taken some courses in that.
Yeah, well, the other thing they say about psychology is the kind of major for people who don't want to decide.
It's the default major in colleges in the U.S. for people who don't know what they want to do.
They just go into psychology because psychology is present in everything in our lives.
Right, right. Yeah, there are a lot of places you can go with that.
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So last week, Michelle, we talked a little bit about gun violence in the U.S.
Remember that episode? Uh-huh. Yeah. And we talked about how the word gun or these concepts of guns are present in our language.
So I want to do that again for this word of work and the concept of work.
Let's talk about how we use it in our language in American English.
So we introduced one of the phrases when we started today.
What was it, Michelle? I asked you. Oh, you said, do you work like a dog?
And it's a real phrase that we use, isn't it?
I mean, do you use this phrase? Yeah, definitely.
It makes me think of the Beatles song, right?
A Hard Day's Night. No, I don't know that.
When do they say? Oh, what do they say? Is there a line like work like a dog?
It's been a hard day's night and I've been working like a dog.
Oh, so cool. I love it. I love it. You know the Beatles well.
I'm not so familiar with the Beatles. Oh, you got to listen.
I know. I have to. And so another one is...
To work yourself into the ground. Whoa. Yeah.
That one's depressing. It's a little bit depressing.
I don't think... I think it just depends on what you're working for.
Again, it goes back to... And the other thing is that in this culture, I mean...
The whole narrative in the culture is that the culture is waving like this carrot in front of us and saying, oh, you could you could reach this level if you did this.
And whether that's true or whether it's not true, a lot of people keep, you know, they envision themselves kind of we have this expression, pull yourself up by your bootstraps.
You know that one? Yeah, I don't say that one really, but I know it.
I mean, my dad was born into a lower middle class family.
I mean, his dad worked on the streets. He drilled the streets as like a construction man.
And he worked himself up to more of an upper middle class family, like building up a business.
Wow. And that's a good example. But he's a white man, a man.
And why? I mean, there are real issues of even, you know, sexism.
Oh, yeah. Classism, you know, racism. I mean, so I don't want to deny that there aren't issues.
Right. Right. Right. Yeah, yeah. So it's really interesting.
So what's another idiom, Michelle, that we use?
Okay, there's one. This one's cute. Working hard or hardly working?
Yeah, I like that. Yeah, yeah, it's funny, right?
Why did you say working instead of working?
Because it's kind of, you know, it's a it's a cute way.
It's a more casual way of saying it. And it's kind of a cutesy phrase.
What do you think? Yeah, it's cutesy. I mean, casual is definitely when we drop that G on a lot of verbs.
Our listeners probably know because they're at this upper intermediate level.
It just it's a way of making it sound casual and fun.
Are you working hard or hardly working? Yeah.
Yeah, it makes me think of, have you heard of work hard to play hard?
Yeah, yeah, work hard and play hard. Yeah, yeah, sure.
Definitely. Is that what you do, Michelle?
Are you a work hard, play hard type? No, I'm not really a play.
I mean, it depends what you mean by play hard.
I mean, all work and no play, right? That's from Silence of the Lambs.
No, it's not Silence of the Lambs. That's from, oh, what is that movie with Jack Nicholson about the hotel?
He was crazy. Oh, oh, God. Oh, geez. Forgot it.
Well, we'll have to get that on the blog.
So, guys, you can come back to our blog and we'll try to cite that movie.
Yeah. Okay. The Shining. The Shining. Yes.
The Shining. Oh, whoa. Did we both remember that at the exact same time?
We did. We did. That's a classic horror movie.
Yeah. Here's another one, Michelle. Are you ready?
To buckle down. Okay, yeah. Yeah. What do you think about that?
This one is common, I think. It's really common.
You need to buckle down, right? Your exam, your IELTS exam is coming.
I'm sure some of our listeners, that will ring true for them.
It's time to buckle down, get into a good system, right?
And, you know, get ready for the exam. And be disciplined.
Yeah, it's a nice phrasal verb there. Buckle down.
Doesn't make any sense, logically. I know.
I'm thinking about that. Like, what does that mean?
Right, because we buckle, right? What does that verb mean?
Yeah, we're like strapping ourselves to...
When you buckle, you're like closing your jacket, right?
You're buckling your jacket. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Well, yeah. It doesn't make any sense, but fine.
Another one that I like is when you're on a team.
Michelle, have you ever been on a team where someone wasn't pulling their weight?
I think everyone has been in that situation.
But what about you? Well, especially if you've been to graduate school, because in graduate school these days, they put you in groups all the time.
And there's always someone who, oh, my God, I have a full time job.
Well, everyone has a full time job in graduate school.
You know, there's always someone who can't do the work for some reason.
Yeah. Yeah. Sorry to sound bitter. So the expression there is to pull your own weight.
Right. OK. Yeah. All right. So let's practice.
Let's have a conversation. Are you ready?
Yes, I'm ready. All right. So Michelle, are you still working on our episode planning for next week?
Gosh, you've been working yourself into the ground lately.
I mean, what's up? Yeah, yeah, I know. I have kind of been working like a dog, but I feel like now that we're getting into 2016, I need to buckle down, right?
I mean, we have a lot of goals for All Ears English this year.
I mean, everyone on the team needs to pull their own weight, but I feel like you're going overboard, Michelle.
Come on, take the weekend off and we'll get back to brainstorming on Monday.
Okay, thanks, Lindsay. Good, yeah. It's important to take the weekend off, right?
Yeah, yeah. You're going to have some time.
Yeah. So, I mean, this has been an interesting episode.
And I think that there'll be a lot of comments from our listeners.
Guys, I would love to know what you think personally.
Do you think that success is... inside our control or is it outside our control?
Let us know. Come back to our blog. Come back to allearsenglish.com.
Type in 450. Go into the comments and leave us a comment.
Let us know your work ethic. Do you work like a dog?
Do you think that you can become successful if you work hard?
Or are there other things that are preventing your success?
Let us know. We want to know. Let's have a conversation about this.
Yes, please. Yeah, I'm really interested to hear what you guys have to say.
I know. It sounds good. All right, Michelle, let's wrap it up for today.
I'll see you back here tomorrow. All right.
See you, Lindsay. All right. Bye. Bye. Thank you for listening to Business English, a podcast just for you, the high achieving global professional.
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