This is the Business English Podcast, Episode 524.
Who assigned what?
How to know in English.
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Hi, Lindsay.
How are you?
Doing great, Michelle.
How's everything for you?
Everything is good.
Lindsay, why is it important for your team to know who is working on what?
That's good.
A good question.
I think the people we need to make sure we don't duplicate tasks and people need to know who they should go to if they have a question about some aspect of the work.
So communications.
Yeah, communication, yeah, trying to avoid overlap, things like that.
Yeah, I think this is really important.
And we are going to answer a listener question. relating to this.
This listener question comes to us from YouTube from Maral Ray 3789.
And this listener says, what does it mean to say I have Dino working on that?
So I'm assuming Dino is a name.
So let's just say I have X working on that.
So this is a good question.
I'm not sure the context, But to me this sounds like it's about sharing what someone on a team is working on.
Totally.
Yeah.
Again, out of context here.
So we're just going to respond and we're going to take this episode in the direction that we can help our listeners right.
Talking about who is currently working on something.
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Okay.
Yeah.
So if you say someone is working on something, right?
I have someone working on that.
It means that you have assigned somebody that task, right?
So let's do a little mini role play here.
Okay.
Okay.
So who did we ask to consolidate the data?
I have Mark working on that.
Yeah.
So very straightforward.
That's who's doing the work.
Right.
Yeah.
You can have one person doing everything in a company.
So you have people helping out with things.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So how is that different than if you had just said, oh, Mark is working on that?
Yeah.
The difference is, is that we're saying I have someone working on it.
So you're implying that you assigned that to the person.
Yeah.
So if you just say that someone's working on that, it's kind of more neutral.
Maybe you assigned it.
Maybe someone else did.
Maybe he nominated himself to take care of it.
Right.
Right.
Exactly.
But if you say I have him working on that, that sounds like you told him, Mark, can you do this?
Yes.
Right.
I would say so.
So, but now we're going to talk about some other ways to tell someone, to share who is working on what, and talk about if these are assigned or more neutral.
Okay.
Yes.
So let's give these a go.
So the first one is I asked X to work on Y. So like I asked Kayla to work on the marketing campaign.
So how does that sound to you, Lindsay?
Yeah, I like that.
Sure.
I mean, you're just being very clear that you are the one who assigned.
So maybe you are the manager or in charge of assigning people's roles.
Right.
Or you could say X is handling Y. So Jackson is handling the RSVPs.
So this one to me sounds more neutral.
We don't know who told Jackson to do this, but this is what he's doing.
We don't have to worry about it because Jackson is on it.
And he's a great guy.
He is.
I'm sure he is.
Really good.
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All right.
And then we come back to knowing exactly who assigned what.
We can say I put X in charge of Y, So you could say I put Jolene in charge of the slides and Casey in charge of the deliveries.
So to put someone in charge could also mean you assigned it.
You are the supervisor.
I put this person in charge of this.
I put this person in charge of that.
Yeah.
What else, Michelle?
Okay, we're going to do one more.
So I assigned X to Y. So...
I assigned the team to work on the budget.
So again, I assigned it.
This is not neutral.
I told them, you guys get working on that budget.
I'm pretty sure you didn't say it exactly that way.
No, I didn't say it.
But something like that.
Michelle, what do you think?
Why do you think this is important for work?
Yeah.
Well, again, keeping those lines of communication open.
I mean, Lindsay, let's talk about how we keep track here at All Ears English.
I mean, we have certain tools where we know who is working on what and you develop systems as part of a workplace so that you don't have any confusion about that type of thing.
I think the most important thing is that people know who to go to and what to do.
Yeah, totally.
So we use monday.com.
We've used spreadsheets.
We use a lot of spreadsheets here at All Ears English.
And yeah, it's just, it's chaos if you don't know who's in charge of what.
I mean, even now, though I've sometimes i forget who's doing what and i'm not exactly sure.
So even just this morning, i emailed one of our team members.
I said are you doing this or is someone else doing this?
You know, just trying to figure out who's doing what.
Um, but yeah, you want to keep track of the roles and then things can be moved around and optimized.
Um, and also, when it comes to like reviews, to understand who's in charge of what and what their what, their responsibilities are right right, exactly because You don't want somebody missing something because they thought someone else was doing it.
Oh my gosh.
Yeah.
Yeah.
This language that we have is just really good for like, let's say, you have a meeting, you're going through a list of tasks, things that need to be completed for a project.
So for you, our listeners, to be able to use this language is going to be really helpful, making sure, like you, we've talked about this expression.
You dot all your I's and you cross your T's.
We know who's doing what everybody, everybody's in it and we all know what to do.
Sounds good to me, Michelle.
That's a workplace where I want to be.
Yes.
Yeah.
That's great.
Let's do a role play, Michelle.
Let's see.
So in this role play, we are supervisors and we're talking about the next month's work.
Okay.
Okay.
Here we go.
Okay.
So you had the team meeting.
How did that go?
Oh, it was great.
Good, good.
So who's working on the summer campaign?
Well, Mary is handling the layouts of the flyers.
Oh, she's good at that.
Yeah, I agree.
And I have Kyle doing the editing.
Perfect.
I know Layla is interested in the actual presentation itself.
Yeah, so I put her in charge of that.
Perfect.
And Paul's working on the budget I know.
Right.
I asked Henry to call our clients and do a survey.
Okay.
Wow.
Great.
Sounds like you have everything squared away.
Thanks.
Nice.
That's great.
You've got lots of moving pieces.
Yeah.
I mean, this kind of brings up a conversation about strengths finders, right?
Michelle, we've talked about strengths finders a lot at our company.
We've taken that assessment.
Do you remember your top five strengths?
I think maybe communication is my top.
Empathy, I think, was one of yours.
Yes, empathy.
I'm trying to remember what else.
You'll have to review your results here.
I have to review them because I had just looked at them.
But yeah, I mean, they're...
They were very, it made sense to me when I read them.
Yeah.
And we've tried over the years at All Ears English to place people into roles and responsibilities that reflect the StrengthsFinder, but we do, you know, bump up against reality that certain tasks need to get done and just need to get done.
Someone needs to do them.
Right.
But we do try to do, I think we've done, we've done that to some extent.
I think so.
No.
Yeah.
You do a lot of podcasting here.
Um, you know, Aubrey's in charge of our community.
I feel like that's a good role on her end.
And yeah, it's just, uh, we try it.
We try our best in that area.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Exactly.
So in this conversation, I mean, yeah, there are a lot of employees.
There's a lot of things that need to be done.
So let's go through it.
Okay.
So first, you said Mary is handling the layouts of the flyers.
Okay.
So yes, yes, she's handling it.
Maybe you asked her, maybe she volunteered.
Yes.
We don't know.
Yeah.
Um, and then you said, yes.
And I have Kyle doing the editing.
Yep.
So probably I asked Kyle.
Yeah.
You asked Kyle.
Right.
So B, you're implying that you asked him in some level because you said I have someone doing X.
That's a key, uh clue.
And then you said, yes.
So I put her in charge of that.
So Layla said she was interested in the presentation.
So you put her in charge of it.
Right.
So she actually maybe volunteered for that.
And then you said, OK, yes, you were assigned to that.
So, yeah.
And then you said, perfect.
And Paul is working on the budget.
I know.
So that's something that we already knew that maybe Paul always does the budget.
Right.
Right.
And then you said, right, I asked Henry to call our clients and do a survey.
And then I'm very impressed.
You've got everything taken care of here, right?
Yes.
Yeah.
What can I tell you?
Very, very talented.
And a little bonus phrase there, squared away.
You have everything squared away, which, yeah, it means like, you know, everything is okay.
Everything is in order.
Really good.
Good expression for work and life in English, don't you think?
Yeah, definitely.
This is a very common one to be squared away.
What's another episode our listeners could check out right now?
Okay.
So guys, check out episode 512 of the Business English Podcast.
That was get a move on with these business English phrases.
Fun.
Sounds good.
Some episode related to action in some way, right?
Yes.
All right.
Any final takeaway?
I mean first of all, I would say, encourage your company to do some kind of assessment around strengths.
We do recommend StrengthsFinder over Myers-Briggs or the other ones, just because the whole idea of StrengthsFinder is that you figure out what you do exceptionally well.
And we try to place people in responsibilities that allow them to fulfill their like their true talents.
Right.
Whereas other assessments will kind of show you this is what you're weak at.
You know like it's okay to improve your weaknesses, but you can get more bang for your buck uh, as a company by putting people in the roles that they excel at.
Right.
And just not worrying as much about the weaknesses.
Just, just have someone else do the weakness.
Right.
I, yeah, I read somewhere.
It was like just some meme probably, where it's like, you know, we always have this thing of Oh, if a kid doesn't go to math, you give them a math tutor when, if they but they excel at English or you know.
And we've talked about this like how, in the American education system, you do have to like kind of be good at everything.
So it doesn't really lend it.
You know, you have to have this foundation.
Yeah.
But yeah, it's interesting how we are always trying to improve the weak weaknesses, I think rather than really focus on the strengths.
And I think that that might be just a mistake of the way we look at things.
I think you're right.
Because if you're weak in math, you're really only going to go from being weak to being mediocre.
Not to be negative here, but you're never going to be a math whiz, probably, if you're weak in math.
It's just not a natural talent, maybe.
So then that kind of creates mediocrity broadly.
But what if we took someone that was good in math and make them excellent?
Then that person could have a future in the STEM field or something right.
So I think it makes more sense philosophically.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's just a different way to look at things and, you know, consider...
When you're teaching or parenting or whatever it is.
Super interesting.
So that's, and then, of course, more specifically around these phrases.
This is about being clear on whether you assign some something to someone, or whether someone or whether someone may be volunteered for a project.
Okay.
Exactly.
Exactly.
All right, Lindsay.
Well, this was fun to talk about and guys, we will see you on the next one.
See you soon, Michelle.
Bye.
All right.
Bye.
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