This is the Business English Podcast, episode 41.
Are you committing one of these four American workplace taboos?
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Hey, Michelle. How's it going? Pretty good.
How are you, Lindsay? Good, good. Glad to hear it.
Today, I want to talk about The Workplace.
It really makes me think of that show, The Office.
Have you ever seen it? Of course. I love The Office.
It's so funny. Do you watch it at all? It's so funny.
I've seen pieces of it with Steve Carell, right?
Yes, yes. He is just genius. He's so funny.
I know. And I think when we watch The Office, we can really get a sense of all those crazy workplace taboos that happen but shouldn't happen, right?
Yeah, that's the show pretty much, right?
I know. And they make it so funny. But we want to help you guys out today because if you happen to be living in the U.S. and you're from another part of the world, there might be some things that are taboos here that are not taboos in your country.
So first of all, Michelle, what actually is a taboo?
I'm glad you asked that, Lindsay. A taboo is something that is improper or unacceptable based on culture or region.
Yeah, absolutely. And I think it, of course, depends also on company culture too, right?
So it's hard to say that all of these things are taboo in the US because there are so many different cultures within companies, right?
Yeah, absolutely. So some of these may fit for one place, but not for another.
So these are ones that are American office place taboos.
Yeah, but specifically, though, for example, one of them that we're not going to talk about as much today, but was on the list was to not drink, that you shouldn't drink alcohol at work, right?
Yeah. But I know some very cool tech companies, especially here in Cambridge, where they they have beers in the fridge and they invite their customers in for a beer after work on Fridays, like at about at about four on Fridays.
The last hour is that they're just drinking together.
Yeah, I mean, well, because, I mean, I guess it's not a big deal if it's not during the work hours, but every office place has its own kind of culture.
Yeah, so this is just a really broad generalization, but we found an interesting article that did a poll that looked at what the biggest taboos are, and we're going to highlight four of them.
So what is the first one, Michelle? Okay, the first one is... has to deal with spreading rumors, okay?
Ooh, rumors. What's a rumor? A rumor is something that's not true about somebody that you make up and tell other people.
Oh, you mean like gossiping? Yeah, like gossiping.
So, like, I mean, just take a guess, Lindsay.
How many people do you think have spread rumors in the office about a coworker?
Oh, my God. I would guess, you know, probably 50%.
Oh, 50%. Oh my gosh. You have no faith in people.
I have no faith in people. It's actually 22%.
Oh, it's lower than I expected. Yeah. Yeah.
But it's horrible when someone spreads rumors about you, isn't it?
Yes. Yes. You should not do it. Yeah. So that's what we want to try to avoid.
It's always a bad idea because what they say, they say what goes around comes around, right?
I like that expression. Or like karma, right?
Karma, what goes around comes around. So whatever bad sort of air that you create will come back and get you, come back and bite you.
Scary. Yeah. So in American culture, at least I could say that we do look down on gossiping.
It's not a good thing. We don't want to do it to build.
We want to build good relationships at work.
So try to avoid this, guys. If maybe this is something that happens more often in your culture, I don't know.
But try to avoid it if you're working here in the U.S.
Do your best to stay away from spreading rumors.
Right. And also, it doesn't matter. Even if the person is your friend and you're trying to tell your friend something about another coworker, you shouldn't do it because eventually that person is going to start to think that they can't trust you, right?
They think, okay, if you're saying something about somebody else, what are you saying about me?
Right. So you really want to watch out for it.
That's a good point. So when the thought goes through our minds that we want to spread a rumor, sometimes I know that people like to gossip just to build relationships with other people.
But it doesn't have to be gossip that we use to build relationships, right?
We can talk about other things like sports.
Oh, yeah. Go team. All right. Very cool.
So what's the next one that people tend to do?
What's the next taboo at work? The next one is taking credit for someone else's work.
What does it mean to take credit for something?
It means you get all the points. Yeah. You tell everyone that you accomplished the thing, that you did the work, when actually someone else did it, like maybe someone who's lower than you on your team.
Right, right. So like what percentage of people do you think would confess to this?
Yeah, according to this study. So my guess would be like kind of high, like 10 or 15 percent.
What do you think? I mean, what did the study find?
Only 2 percent. Only 2 percent. Wow. I kind of think people are lying.
People might be lying. Yeah. So this study was done by a Harris Interactive poll of 5,700 American workers.
Just so you guys know who these people are that responded to this survey.
I think people are lying. I think so, too.
That number seems low. Yeah. But definitely, again, people don't want to admit to it, don't want to admit to it.
But because we know it's wrong, it's wrong in the American workplace.
We don't want to take credit for someone else's work.
We want to give credit where credit is due.
Another good phrase. Right, Michelle? Yes, yes, yes, yes.
Give credit where credit is due. And then eventually we will get credit for our own work, the contribution that we make.
Yes, exactly. So do your own work. Don't take credit for somebody else's.
Yeah. And what's the next one? What's the next crazy one?
Next one is kind of a fun one. It makes me laugh.
Falling asleep at work. Oh, my gosh. This is why we need a siesta, right?
Yes. Oh, my gosh. I'm so with you on that.
Yeah. It's kind of strange that, you know, our bosses expect us to be totally on mentally between nine and five.
It's just not natural. Yeah, it's so true.
I mean, what percentage of people do you think, according to this study, have fallen asleep at work?
Like 75. You always overshoot. I overshoot.
I know. It's 45, which is still pretty high.
I mean, that's almost half of people have done this.
Michelle, what are your strategies for hiding the fact that you're falling asleep at work?
I mean, if falling asleep at work is a taboo, then we have to hide the fact that we're tired.
I mean, what do you do? Like open one eye and stare at your computer?
Maybe just pinch yourself so that you're in pain.
No, I mean, if... If you're really, really tired, of course, drink lots of coffee.
Also, you can go to the bathroom, splash some water on your face, maybe take a two-minute walk or something just to kind of get up, stretch a little bit, something like that.
But don't fall asleep. I know. I haven't had an office job in a couple of years now.
But the last office job I had was an internship.
And I used to get so bored. Oh, my gosh.
So I would fall. I would get really tired.
You know, your energy just gets so low after work because you're not inspired.
So I would try to go and walk around the neighborhood, go for a walk to get a coffee, get up all the time to go to the water cooler.
You know, you got to find a way to keep yourself awake.
Right. Yeah, definitely. Definitely. So try not to fall asleep.
Yeah, it looks really bad. Your boss will really give you.
And I would guess this is true in different parts of the world also.
But who knows? Maybe not. Maybe it's OK in some parts of the world to fall asleep at work.
I mean, I know Google now has. That's what I was going to say.
Yes. Good. Yeah. What do they have, Michelle?
They have like a nap room or something. Yeah.
Like an adult nap room. Nap time. Yeah. Yeah.
So I think it's a good idea. I think it's a great idea because at least Google is acknowledging the true rhythms of our bodies, you know.
So we're moving towards that model. But until your boss implements the nap time for adults, you still need to pretend to be awake or you need to be working in a career that you love where you won't want to fall asleep.
Right. Well, that'll help. Or you can sleep with your eyes open.
That's fine. That's a good skill to cultivate, too.
Yeah. Excludes clearance. Price reflects discount.
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Exclusions apply. See details online. And what's the last one?
The last one is about honesty. Honesty, yes.
Okay, the last one is lying about an academic background.
Ooh, so also a big taboo when it comes to the interview and the resume.
And 4% of people say that they have done this.
Yeah, this is a big one. I mean, honesty is super important, right, in an interview.
I mean, what's the point of lying about your academic background?
Because eventually what's going to happen?
You're going to get caught. Number one, you're going to get caught.
But number two, eventually you're not going to be able to complete the tasks that you need to.
Right. Because you won't have the skills, of course.
Eventually, they're going to do some research on you or it's going to come up and they're going to realize that you don't have that degree or you didn't go to that school that you said you did.
So just don't do it. You know, don't don't do it.
Take your own academic background and present it in the interview in a way that shows that you do have the skills.
Yeah, definitely. Just don't do it because you never know if you get caught.
Yeah, it's not going to be good for anybody.
So be careful. Yeah, and we're going to do more episodes on All Ears English about how to present your academic background in an interview so that it is enough.
So honesty, again, is a huge thing in the professional world.
I mean, don't you think, Michelle? Yeah.
Oh, definitely. Definitely. And, you know, eventually we can talk about plagiarism and things like that.
But what's plagiarism? Plagiarism is when you take somebody else's work and make them your own, which is definitely some of what we've been talking about here.
That's kind of a common theme, I think. Yeah, that's generally more about like written work, but it's really important, right?
When we're writing papers in college and things like that, graduate school and even in the workplace, you need to give credit to the original creator of the idea.
Yeah, exactly, exactly. So, yeah, those are four big taboos.
Yeah, so just to summarize, number one was... Okay, number one was... Sorry.
That's okay. Spreading a rumor. Spreading a rumor about a coworker.
Or gossiping, right? That's the same thing.
Yes. Number two was taking credit for someone else's work.
Again, something we don't want to do. No.
Number three was falling asleep at work.
Big taboo. And number four was lying about your academic background.
Yeah. Yeah. So guys, try to avoid these taboos if you're working in an American workplace culture.
And we want to know if these taboos are the same in your culture or if they're different.
Maybe in your culture, it's okay to sleep at your desk at work.
Who knows? I want to know. We want to know about that.
That's interesting, isn't it, Michelle? Yeah, definitely.
And if it is okay, then I'm moving to you.
Yeah. So I can take a nap. Very cool. So come back to allearsenglish.com slash 278 and let us know your thoughts on today's episode.
Thanks, Michelle. Thank you so much, Lindsay.
See you soon. Okay. Bye-bye. Bye. Thank you for listening to Business English, a podcast just for you, the high achieving global professional.
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