This is the Business English Podcast, Episode 503.
Fair enough, your secret weapon for polite business English.
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Hey, Aubrey.
How are you?
I'm great, Lindsay.
How are you?
Good, good.
What's going on today?
Oh, well, I may need to cut our recording session short today.
I'm having Wi-Fi issues.
Oh, fair enough.
We can schedule for another day.
I forgot I had added this little role play at the top so that we could say fair enough, which is what we're talking about today.
I love this phrase.
Hey, Aubrey, are you going to start the role play?
Yeah.
And this is a pretty common scenario.
I mean, everyone experiences internet issues, right?
And it's not something we can get mad at someone for.
So this is a perfect phrase, right?
Fair enough.
Yeah.
What are you going to do?
Yeah, exactly.
So today we're answering the second half of a listener question from a previous episode.
And I'm excited about this today, Aubrey.
Yes, I'll read this part of the question that we're covering today, which is asking about fair enough.
And the student said, it's really interesting to me because every time I hear it, I don't expect it.
And I wonder why people use it in that way.
And this was Rama from Saudi Arabia saying, And we answered the first half of their question in a recent episode.
So stay to the end.
We'll share details if you missed that one.
Yeah.
And I wonder if Rama is saying that to him it doesn't make sense.
Is what he means by not expecting it, or just feels like it comes out of nowhere?
Maybe both.
Right.
Because I could see this.
I think we say this a lot as native English speakers.
Yes, we do.
But we use it two very different ways, too.
So I could understand why it would be a little confusing.
Yeah.
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Let's dive into these different ways.
It's really three different ways, but two of them are very related.
So the first one is we use this to show understanding or reluctant agreement, right?
It sort of means like, I understand your point.
You accept what someone says, even if you don't love it or you don't 100% agree.
Yeah.
So we can do this as a little role play here.
Aubrey, if you want, I can be the first person.
So I don't think we should change the plan right now.
Fair enough.
Let's revisit it next month.
Yeah.
So you don't really agree, but maybe I'm like the manager or something.
You just have to kind of go along with it for now, right?
That's a good point.
Sometimes it's like not really your place to disagree or maybe you don't have enough information to confidently disagree.
So I'm just like, fair enough.
We'll talk about it next month.
Yeah.
Kind of deferring to someone else.
Or how about this one?
Sorry, I can't stay late today.
Fair enough.
You've already worked extra hours this week.
Yeah.
So this might not be my ideal situation.
Maybe I need you to work more, but I have to reluctantly agree.
Like you've worked a lot.
Fair enough.
You can go.
Yeah.
So reluctant agreement is a good, I like that.
That's well said, right?
That's the first use of fair enough.
What would be the second use?
This one's very related to that first one, sort of to show that something sounds reasonable or acceptable.
So you think what the other person said makes sense.
Okay.
Yeah.
So for example, we need to increase the budget if we want better results.
Fair enough.
That's a good point.
So you're kind of sharing that maybe you hadn't thought of things this way.
Something we really often say off the cuff, right?
We're just sort of as we're thinking like, okay, you know, that's a good, that sounds reasonable.
And we'll say, fair enough.
Or this one, we can't guarantee delivery before Friday.
Fair enough.
I knew it was unlikely.
It was such short notice.
Yeah.
So, I mean, very similar usages between the two categories, right?
It's not like we're saying.
It means something completely different in these different contexts, right?
These two are very similar.
And we also say a similar phrase, which is just, that's fair, means the exact same thing.
These are very interchangeable.
I could also say, that's fair.
I knew it was unlikely with such short notice.
And this is even more interchangeable with this second one, right?
Because it just means like, that makes sense.
I also hear some people just shortening that and just saying fair, right?
Fair.
That's fair.
Fair.
Absolutely.
Or shortening fair enough to just...
Yeah.
Yeah.
There's a lot of ways we could do it.
And then, just in this very similar vibe, just slightly different, to politely end a disagreement meaning OK, let's move on.
Right.
So here's an example.
I still believe my approach is better.
Fair enough.
Let's agree to disagree.
Yeah.
So this is interesting.
It's interesting how we'll say fair enough, and it really means nothing about how much we actually agree or how much something makes sense.
You don't really know unless you get details from the person.
Yeah, this is not fully saying, yes, I 100% agree with you.
It's just saying, okay.
It's kind of saying, okay.
Exactly.
If we really, really disagreed, like if we're having maybe, a political conversation and someone says something we totally disagree with, we probably wouldn't say fair enough, because it does imply a little bit of what the other person is saying makes sense or is logical.
So there are other things we've gone over this in past episodes of things we can say that's like just agree to disagree, or you know, interesting point, something that doesn't imply that we agree, at least a little bit.
Yeah.
And if you want to learn more about that, you can go to our blog and just type in politics.
Maybe that will come up or controversial topics.
I know we've done some episodes on that.
You know how to talk about something you really disagree with.
Different episode, different vibe, right?
This is like, okay, let's move on.
But I'm not telling you I strongly disagree with you.
It's kind of like, okay, maybe, I don't know.
I don't have a lot of information, maybe.
Exactly.
And I think we have one more example here, Aubrey.
I think we should keep the old logo.
Fair enough.
I can live with that.
Yeah.
So this is like maybe I've really been pushing for the new logo, but I'm realizing it's a losing battle.
So I'm just like, fair enough.
I can live with that.
Yeah.
I mean, you can't fight everything.
You got to pick your battles in life sometimes, right?
It would be exhausting to kind of you know.
So sometimes for some things we just give a concession and we go along with it, because it's too tiring to fight everything.
Well, and at work, it would really be exhausting to work with a person who's fighting every battle.
Oh my gosh.
And like never negotiating, never compromising.
So you don't want to be that person that's exhausting to work with.
Yeah, we're all about how to build relationships at work and find connection.
Yeah, so we know this as professionals.
We have to pick our battles.
This is how to do it.
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Okay, Aubrey, role play time.
So here it looks like I am a project manager and you are a marketing lead, and we are preparing for the launch of a new product.
Yes, absolutely.
I was thinking we should postpone the product launch until next month.
The design team needs more time.
Okay, that might affect our campaign schedule, but fair enough.
Quality comes first.
Well, I also saw that you're using the old logo.
I know there was some discussion about creating a new one, but wasn't sure where that landed.
Yes, we decided there wasn't time to get the new logo finished.
Fair enough.
Yeah.
And managers also need to pick their battles too, right?
And trust their team and decide what really matters.
Absolutely.
And this is interesting because you may have thought of this as very casual vocabulary, but this sounds very normal to me.
And this is a manager in a pretty serious meeting with a marketing lead.
And we would still hear these phrases.
They're sort of phrases about compromise.
Yeah, I wouldn't worry about this being informal or anything.
I mean, there are a lot of phrases that can cross the boundary between work and life.
This is one of them, right?
Definitely.
Okay, Aubrey, what did you say first?
So I first, you had let me know that we need to postpone the product launch.
And I said that might affect our campaign schedule.
But fair enough, quality comes first.
So I'm sort of in real time thinking of the ways this is going to affect me and my team and what we have to do.
But I'm realizing that You know that there's nothing we can do.
The quality is most important.
So I say, fair enough.
It's kind of my way of saying like, OK, I agree.
I'm on board.
Exactly.
And then I mentioned that there was a discussion about changing the logo.
And then you said we decided there wasn't time.
And I just I kind of conceded.
I said, OK, fair enough.
Fair enough.
Right.
So and also because we know that you I know that you took a closer look at that than I did.
Right.
So there's a lot implied here.
You're sort of saying, like, I trust your judgment.
Right.
I trust that you have looked into this.
And so, you know, it's you're sort of not micromanaging it.
You're like, fair enough.
I know that this is the best choice if that's the choice you're making.
Yeah.
In some ways, this is how not to micromanage at work.
Right.
True.
Right.
This is a good phrase to say, like, OK, I trust you.
Yeah, I love it.
What's another episode our listeners could go to?
Yeah.
So this was answering the first part of Rama's question, which was episode 498.
Scroll up if you missed it.
It was called my coworker said my mistake.
Were they being sarcastic?
This Rama had also asked about that phrase, my mistake.
So we answered that there.
If you missed it, you might not be following.
Be sure to hit follow so you don't miss any of our episodes.
Yes, and for a takeaway, i mean.
So it's a tiny little phrase, it's a simple uh, unassuming phrase, but it can do a lot of good stuff for you at work and can take a little pressure off when you decide to kind of concede, let someone else make a decision, help you not micromanage what else.
Definitely, and it's just a great phrase, to be polite, when you're compromising, there are a lot of ways.
If you're needing, if you're negotiating in some way, a lot of these examples, you're sort of compromising.
You can do that in sort of a hurt irritated, a way that's slightly more rude.
Fair enough is really a polite way to do this, whether you agree or disagree.
It's quite polite.
Yeah, it's very human.
It's kind.
It's really showing like, okay, I'm taking my hands off this.
You go, yo, whatever you, yo, you make the decision in a sense, right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Really good stuff.
All right, Aubrey, we'll see you back here on the show very soon.
You have a good rest of your day.
Awesome, you too.
See you guys next time.
Bye-bye.
Bye.
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