This is the Business English Podcast, Episode 9.
Whose job is it? How to find out in Workplace English.
Welcome to the Business English podcast from All Ears English.
Get the English skills you need to achieve your dreams in global business.
For a presentation, a meeting, or your office party, this is Real Business English with your favorite American hosts, Lindsay and Michelle, coming to you from New York City and Colorado, USA.
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Hey there, Michelle. How you doing today?
It's Wednesday, halfway to the weekend. That's right, Lindsay.
Hello, hello. I am excited to be here. Me too, as always, as always.
What are we talking about today, Michelle?
Today we are talking about finding out People's jobs, basically.
It's a little more complicated. Exactly.
Who does what, right? Who is supposed to be doing what?
So this is kind of a business English topic, right?
But I don't like the term business English because it's so big and so broad and kind of boring, honestly.
Totally. We want to make this human. And we're answering a question from one of our blog commenters, from one of our listeners.
I'm not going to give out her email address, but I don't have her name.
So anyways, the person will remain anonymous, but we can just read the question.
So let's do it, Michelle. What's the question?
So this person wrote, thank you for your question.
Hi, Lindsay and Michelle. Oh, I'll read this part.
Thank you so much for bringing us such a wonderful show.
Thank you. We're so happy to listen. I just rated it on iTunes.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I do have a question for you.
Thank you for that. I am now working on a position that requires me writing to people across departments.
Sometimes I will need to check with people if a particular thing is one of their duties or if it should go to another person.
Interesting. But I'm struggling how to say that naturally and concise.
What can I say here? That is a great question.
Great question, because there are a lot of traps that we could fall into.
And this is another really, really good example of when we need to kind of dress up what we're saying.
And again, the textbooks will not suffice here.
What we've learned in our textbooks will not help us.
Okay, so what are some of the things that we could say then?
Let's just throw out some phrases directly for our listener.
Okay. If she's writing an email or she's speaking to someone who wants to know whether something is someone's job or whose job it is, we want to ask that.
So what's one thing we could say, Michelle?
Right. Well, one thing you could say is you could say, is that something you're responsible for?
Right. So, for example, you could say these videos need to be uploaded to YouTube.
Is that something you're responsible for?
Right. Good. OK. And that sounds very it's direct.
You're going to get an answer. Right. You're asking for a direct answer, but you're not trying to accuse anyone of not doing their job.
I think that's what we want to avoid. Right.
We don't want to sound like we're assuming that it's their job and that they're not doing it.
Right. Because somebody can really get offended.
Sure. That's right. Exactly. So that's one thing.
So is that something you're responsible for?
Right. You're right, Michelle. People can get really offended, especially when everyone's stressed at work and people take a lot of pride in their work.
And, you know, things get tricky at the office.
And again, we want to be charismatic at work.
That's why we made our course, The Charismatic Connector.
And we want to have those good relationships.
So this is going to help you guys do it.
So number two, Michelle, what's the next phrase we can use?
Shh. Sure. So you could say, do you normally take care of that?
I like this one. So, for example, every week someone on the team writes a new blog post.
Do you normally take care of that? I like that one.
Why do you like that one, Michelle? I think it sounds very... It's direct, but I think it just sounds very nice.
And it says, do you normally... Maybe the word normally is what likes me.
Likes me. Wow. Wow. Maybe... And maybe it's the word normally that I like.
And I also like take care of that. The whole thing is beautiful.
What do you think? It's beautiful. I agree.
I like it, too. I like it, too. I think it's it just sounds very it sounds kind of polite and it's not intrusive.
I think that's casual at the same time. I don't know.
It's a lot of good things rolled into one.
So we highly recommend this phrase, don't we, Michelle?
Yes. What's another one? Number three. If you have left a review for All Ears English and iTunes, thank you so much.
And if you haven't done it yet, please go on over to iTunes for All Ears English and tell us what you think about the show.
Which episode has been your favorite and what topics do you want to see covered on this show?
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Exclusions apply. See details online. What's the third one?
Another one is, do you have any idea who is in charge of, right?
So you could say, do you have any idea who is in charge of measuring conversion rates on our sales page?
Good. So this is for a kind of marketing department or something, but we're all in marketing.
We're all in sales in one aspect or another, right?
But okay, so that's not the point. So I like the phrase, do you have any idea who is in charge of, right?
Again, I think all three phrases are actually really good.
I'm kind of impressed that I came up with these.
Good job, Lindsay. I think these are really good.
This last one is especially good because, again, when you say, do you have any idea, right, it's very much not intruding on someone.
It's not assuming. It's not intruding. It's not accusing.
Okay? Mm-hmm. Right, right. Because you definitely don't want to sound like you're accusing someone.
Especially at work. It's not good. Yeah, that's what we're trying to.
Yeah, that's exactly the goal of this episode.
But at the same time, our listener here, she needs answers.
She needs to know, he or she needs to know who is in charge of this thing.
And these are three good ways to do that.
Okay. Absolutely. So, Michelle, let's do a little conversation here to show our listeners how to use these phrases.
And in this situation, we're both All Ears English team members and our boss is out of town for the week, right?
What they say is when the cat's away, the mice will play.
That's what I was thinking. Yep, that's right.
I love that expression. Okay. So, we're trying to figure out who should do what, okay?
So... All right. So, Michelle, I know that two videos need to be uploaded to YouTube every week.
Is that something you're responsible for?
No, actually, I don't work on the YouTube videos, but I think Joe sometimes gets them done.
You might want to reach out to him. Oh, cool.
Thanks for letting me know. And do you have any idea who's in charge of measuring conversion rates on our sales pages?
Our boss wants that done this week, and I don't know who normally takes care of that.
Oh, I'm not sure, but I can find out for you.
I'll call Mary down the hall. She usually knows what everyone is in charge of.
Oh, that would be really helpful. Thanks so much.
You're welcome. Oh, wow. We work together so well.
Very cool. Okay. I like that. I like that.
So again, guys, this is another one of those nuanced skills that can make us very charismatic at work.
And these are three high level, but really socially aware phrases.
Don't you think, Michelle? Yeah, definitely.
And I mean, I really like this question because it's really specific.
It's really about getting something done.
Because the worst thing is to be in the workplace and not knowing whose job is what.
And you're kind of in this cloud and you don't know what to do.
And maybe you need to know it because you need it to get your job done.
You know what I mean? Exactly. Yeah, that's a really good point.
It's a really uncomfortable place. And we can't just sit and just keep it to ourselves.
Because otherwise, a deadline will come and we won't even know that it was our deadline.
Right? Right. Yeah. Especially in like a team, you know, a team workplace.
A lot of workplaces, I think, are very collaborative nowadays.
I mean, just in the ones that I've worked in.
And, you know, sometimes you can't get something done until somebody else does.
And so you got to know who that person is, right?
Yeah. That's right. Exactly. And so a lot of these skills really overlap.
You know, again, guys, we've created this new 30 day course called the charismatic connector.
And one of the things that we talk about in that course is how to ask for help right in a charismatic way.
And that would tie in really nicely with this skill here.
So guys, if you want to get the best possible price on that course before it comes out, it's coming out very soon.
You want to go right now to allearsenglish.com forward slash C-H-A-R-I-S-M-A to get on the priority invitation list.
Guys, this is going to change your charisma level, your ability to connect and be well-liked at work.
And that's huge. I mean, we all want to be well-liked at work, right, Michelle?
Yeah. Of course. Of course. Exactly. That's what it's all about.
So I want to say thank you to our listener for asking this question.
This has been really a good one. I'm really glad.
And we want more questions like these guys.
So send your question in to Lindsay at allearsenglish.com and we want to hear from you.
Yes, yes, yes. Can't wait. Excellent. Michelle, I will see you tomorrow.
Same time, same place. Nice. See you then.
Bye. Bye. Bye. Thank you for listening to Business English, a podcast just for you, the high achieving global professional.
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