This is the Business English Podcast, Episode 5.
Be a softie when you're talking to your boss in 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.
Still translating in your head when you speak English?
It's time to change that. The Connected Communicator course from All Ears English helps you train your ear, speak naturally, and finally connect with real people.
In our tailored study plan, you'll hear unscripted interviews from tattoo artists to entrepreneurs from all across America. and you'll use new AI tools to practice speaking anytime you want.
No more stiff, scripted English. Build confidence, fluency, and cultural insight all in one course.
Plus, get real-life speaking experience at our Open Conversation Club every single week and build community with Allers English teachers and students.
Go to allersenglish.com slash connection to save $50 this week only.
Offer ends August 10th. AllEarsEnglish.com slash connection.
Hey there, Michelle. How you doing today?
Hello, Lindsay. I am good. How are you? Welcome to a Tuesday.
I'm doing well. Thank you. Thank you. Welcome to you.
I know. I mean, I know Thanksgiving is coming up in a couple of weeks, so that's exciting.
Are you excited for Thanksgiving? I am excited.
I am excited. How about you? What are you going to do?
I'm excited. Yeah. What are you going to do?
Are you going to go back to Maryland? Actually, no, this year, my parents are coming up here and we're going to spend all the in-laws are going to be together.
And yeah, our family. So that'll be fun.
And in the Jersey area. Oh, I like it. I like it.
I'm going to spend some time with my parents and my niece, who is a super cute.
She's a year and a half now and she's starting to get approach the crazy.
What do they call the terrible twos? Yeah.
She's starting to get a mind of her own.
So she does things. She does whatever she wants.
You know, she puts on a pair of sunglasses.
She wants to put them on. She wants to put on shoes.
She wants to do what she wants to do. So she's super cute.
That's adorable. Oh, have fun. I know. Thank you.
Should be good. So today, Michelle, we are talking about something totally unrelated to our nieces and nephews.
And we're talking about so one of our listeners actually wrote in an asked us to talk about how to defend your point with your boss politely or how to disagree politely with your boss.
So kind of a business English topic. Good topic, right?
Yeah, that is. And that's really interesting.
That's a tough question. It's a really big question.
So we're just going to take a stab at it in terms of vocabulary here.
But whenever we talk about something like this, we need to talk about culture, right?
Because cultures are different. And it's not just the culture of the country, right?
Not just American culture, because it's so hard to talk about American culture.
It's such a big country. But what about company culture, right?
Yeah. Yeah, I would say that's huge because there's so many different kinds of company cultures, right?
And one thing might be okay in one business, and then if you change jobs into another company, something's completely inappropriate.
So it's important to keep those things in mind.
What do you think specifically makes the difference, Lindsay, you think, for company culture?
Yeah. Well, I think often the age of the employees and the age of the boss.
I think that the boss of a company can set the tone for a company culture often, right?
Yeah, yeah, definitely. Yeah, yeah. I mean, like, yeah, one place might be like really, really casual where you're able to, you know, really speak up and talk about what you think.
And maybe you're even like pretty good friends with your boss, right?
And you feel comfortable. Hey, you know, I...
Whatever you think and you're okay sharing that.
Maybe in another company, it's very serious and there's no way you can feel that comfortable.
So it's all different. It's important to keep that in mind that it really depends on the specific place.
Yeah, it's funny. I often read about the company cultures in tech companies like Apple, Amazon.
Well, not Amazon, but Google. These companies... often may choose a younger person to be in a higher position.
It's more based on what you know and what you can do.
It's not so much based on age. And I know around the world, often people move up through companies based on age.
And that still happens here. But it's not always a guarantee in every company that you'll move up just because you've been there longer.
It's not just seniority, right? Right. That's true.
Yeah. So that could create a culture of more openness, more more people being more likely to disagree if, you know, your boss is kind of your age.
Right. That could happen. I mean, Mark Zuckerberg.
Right. I mean, that's an exceptional case.
But what is he like, 28, 30 something? I don't even know.
Yeah. So he has people working under him who are twice his age, of course.
So really interesting stuff. But let's just throw out.
Well, Michelle, actually, first, I wanted to ask you when you were working at the radio show, what was the company culture like there?
Could you disagree with your boss? We had a really fun company culture, actually.
Like we we all sat in the same room and we all talked and, you know, we would, you know, really get our work done.
But we were able to kind of have a fun time as well and discuss different things and make jokes because it was also a creative atmosphere, which is important.
That sounds fun. That sounds really fun.
Yeah, it was really, really fun. So, you know, there are sometimes, you know, somebody would say, oh, does anybody have an idea for this or that or whatever?
And as far as my boss, yeah, we had a pretty open relationship.
I wouldn't just say like, no, I don't like that or something like that.
Of course, it's never, you know, unless they're like your best friend and you, you know, I don't know.
It's never going to be that easy. But like, I had a good boss and we were able to talk about, you know, different things and stuff like that.
So it was a good culture. I like that. So even though it was an open, creative, young New York City culture, you still needed to use some tact when you wanted to disagree with your boss.
Right, Michelle? Of course. I think I think pretty much always you have to.
Yeah, so that's what we're going to show our listeners how to do today.
Perfect. So we have a handful of phrases.
What does it mean when I say a handful, Michelle?
A bunch, a lot. A bunch, a handful, a few, maybe five, six phrases, right?
Right, exactly. And to share with our listeners, to show you guys, if you do want to disagree with your boss...
And I think it's important, you know, if you don't agree with something in, you know, obviously it depends on your company culture.
But I wouldn't want to work in a place where I couldn't disagree.
Right. If something was going on that wasn't good, that wasn't good for the company or for me as an employee, I would want to speak up.
Right. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Abercrombie's viral denim sale is back and Spotify listeners get an extra 15 percent off with code Spotify AF.
So we have some phrases on how to do that.
Michelle, what's the first one? The first one is I have to disagree.
Yeah. And when you say I have to, how does it change the phrase as opposed to I disagree?
It's kind of, that's a good question. It's just, it's kind of not as direct, right?
It's kind of like taking the, in my opinion, and saying I disagree.
It's like very extreme, like this is what I feel, right?
I have to disagree. It might be like a little less confrontational sounding.
Yeah, I agree. I think it's taking one step back from saying I disagree is very black and white.
It's pretty gutsy if you say that to your boss.
I mean, you do need to put some words around it, you know, and just to build that relationship.
So when you say I have to disagree, I think it makes it sound like maybe you don't want to disagree, but you have to.
Right. I agree with you, Lindsay. Oh, you agree.
Good. It's okay if you disagree. Yeah. So the next one, a different way of going about this could just be, can I share my opinion?
Right. You just start it that way. Instead, it's a little bit less confrontational if you start your contribution that way.
Yeah. Right. Right. True. And the next thing you could say is, I have a slightly different perspective.
Again. Yeah. Slightly different. Slightly different.
Yeah, another nice way to say that you're going to disagree now, right?
I think that word slightly is really kind of taking a bunch of steps back.
It's taking a bunch of steps back, right?
So you could also say I have a different perspective, but that would be a little more direct.
When we add slightly, it takes it another step back, right?
Right, exactly. To show that respect. And then the next one is actually I can't completely agree.
And that's very similar to the first one.
I have to disagree, right? Mm-hmm. Right.
Yeah. So here I think the two words are like actually and completely.
Right. That kind of bring it back a little.
Yeah. Actually, actually is very useful in this case.
Right. Again, it softens things. It makes you more.
I don't know. It kind of helps you connect with people.
That word actually is a linchpin, I think.
Yes. Yes. OK. What's the next one, Michelle?
The next one is. Oh, this is. Yeah. I need to respectfully disagree.
Right. Oh, we're getting creative with these phrases.
Yeah. All right. All right. And then we have one more.
Not too many more. Right. We don't want to throw too many phrases at our listeners here, guys.
Just one more. We can say I'm not on board with that.
Right. To be on board with something means to what, Michelle?
To agree, basically. Yeah, to agree, to be, yeah, to be in agreement, to be on the team.
You say, yes, we're going to do this. But if you say, I'm not on board with that or I can't get on board with that, it just means that you don't agree.
You don't want to do it, whatever it is.
Right, right. Sometimes people will ask, like, are you on board with that?
You know, in a question form. So like, yeah, that's basically means like, are you good with this?
Do you agree? Same thing. Exactly. You got it.
So let's have a quick conversation about All Ears English and the location of the office.
You're the boss, Michelle. All right. Here we go.
So, Lindsay, I propose we rent a big office in downtown Boston and move the entire company here.
It will be better for employee morale. Excuse me, Ms.
Kaplan? Yes? Yes. I have to disagree. I actually think that what boosts employee morale is a sense of autonomy, and our staff members love to be able to work from home.
Really? I think we would have better communication if we all worked in the same room.
I need to respectfully disagree. I've talked with a few of my colleagues, and they're much happier being at home.
I know when I have a slightly different perspective, but when employees are happy, they communicate well.
Interesting point. Yes. Thank you. So I think I screwed up there.
I should have said, I know I have a slightly different perspective.
Again, another thing you could add to just show that, you know, that you're disagreeing and again, builds the connection.
Right. Right. Yeah. So those are a couple of ways that we could.
What phrases did we use here, Michelle? Let's just break it down here.
OK, so let's see. So you said I have to disagree.
I actually think. Right. I actually think.
Right. Yeah. Good. And then what else did I say?
Um, I use that I need to respectfully disagree.
Yeah, I need to respectfully disagree. And I also said, I know I have a slightly different perspective.
And that's not one of the phrases that we taught.
But again, for our listeners, it's a good way to build that.
I know this might not come off well, right?
You show the person. I know I see it differently.
But here's my perspective. Right. Right.
Exactly. Right. So saying I know I have this right because we talked about slightly different perspective, but the way that you put it forward, I really liked.
I know that I have this, but, you know. Yeah.
I mean, the worst thing is just to come out and say, I disagree.
Right. Right. The offices should not be in Boston and everyone.
Obviously, we need to use some tact. We need to be smart about building the relationships with our bosses, with our colleagues, with our clients.
You know, I mean, it's all and the way to do that is through good vocabulary like we're showing you guys today.
Michelle, any final thoughts before we wrap up?
Um, no, I think that this is really, I think that the main thing is this idea of using certain words in a way to soften them.
And, you know, you can even take these and, you know, think about other ways that you can use them too.
You know, maybe you're going to use them in a relationship or something like that, you know, there are lots of other ways.
So I like this way of using it because, um, yeah, it was a great question, right?
How do you defend your point with your boss?
But Some of these things you can think, OK, well, how could I use these in other areas of learning English?
That's a good point, Michelle. Right. The softeners.
Right. The words that soften your point and help you build connection with the person.
And the whole point is we don't want to enter a conversation intimidating someone.
Right. Right. We don't want to start off on the wrong foot.
I like that expression to start off on the wrong foot.
We've got to build that connection first.
And that's what we believe here at All Ears English.
The connection is the key. And then from there, there's no limit to the progress we can make together at work.
Right. I agree. So, yeah, these words to soften, I think, are really are really key and good for building these relationships.
So, yeah. Good. Excellent. That's it, Michelle.
I love it. I love it. Well, Michelle, thanks for hanging out today.
Hope you have a great day. Thanks, Lindsay.
You too. All right. Take care. Bye. Bye.
Thank you for listening to Business English, a podcast just for you, the high achieving global professional.
Want more from All Ears English? Don't miss our biggest and best podcast with 8 million monthly downloads.
Just search for the All Ears English podcast and hit follow to get four new episodes per week on fluency, American culture, grammar, and so much more.
Or tap the link in the show notes. Remember, we believe in connection, not perfection when it comes to learning English.
Follow the All Ears English podcast now.
