Your colleague is leaving, Sarah's told the company she's expecting a baby, you found out that John's dad passed away, what should you say?
I'm going to walk you through specific one -liners you can use for these and other really common situations.
Let's crack on then, shall we?
Welcome back to Confident Business English.
You're here with me, Anna, your host and neuro -language coach. We're going to have a look at some really common situations you might find with colleagues.
and my intention is to train you on one specific phrase you can use for each situation.
The key point is I'm trying to make your life easier.
Here at Confident Business English, we are absolutely not in the business of reinventing the wheel.
We are in the business of getting the job done.
And the goal really is to help save you stress by helping you get some of these phrases on autopilot.
And even though yes, there is a bit of a time investment to learn them it's a huge return because you're going to be using these phrases again and again and again for each situation I'm going to set the scene I'm going to give you one phrase explain it and then give you a chance to practice after me I've got quite the list here so we're going to move through these quite quickly feel free to pause it go back repeat as much as you want first situation you're coming into the office you sit at your desk you have your cup of tea your coffee your water and and your colleague pops in and they say, oh,
by the way, have you heard?
And you're like, heard what?
Michelle's pregnant.
And you think, wow, that's really great news.
I must say something to Michelle the next time I see her, but I'm not actually really sure what I should say.
A really natural phrase that you could use here is, I've heard the news.
Congratulations. Congratulations.
I'm going to do it a couple of times.
Repeat after me. I heard the news.
Congratulations. I heard the news.
Congratulations. Next, same topic.
We're still with Michelle here.
A few months have passed, though.
Michelle's tummy is getting rather large, and she is just about to go on maternity leave. What do you say?
Here's your sentence.
Repeat after me. I hope everything goes well with the baby.
I hope everything goes well with the baby.
Moving on, same topic, different perspective.
Antony's partner has had a new baby.
What could you say?
The thing is, I don't think it's very common to say congratulations on your new baby.
I mean totally understandable but I just can't imagine myself saying that.
Something that is more common is congratulations on your new arrival or congratulations on your new addition or congratulations on your new addition to the family.
I know I've cheated a little bit because I said one liner but they're all kind of variations of the same thing.
So here are two of these sentences again and try and practice after me.
Anthony, I heard the news.
Congratulations on your new arrival.
Anthony, I just heard the news.
Congratulations on the new addition.
And I'm going to cheat again a little bit because we could also add a little question after that, so you could say something like, Anthony, I've just heard the news.
Congratulations on the new arrival?
How is the little one doing?
How is the little one doing?
Meaning the tiny little baby.
And that question is by no means mandatory.
It's just a little optional add -on because I was thinking about what I actually say when people have had babies.
And that's definitely something that I've asked before.
Moving on. We're done with the babies now.
Let's move on to some other classic situations with colleagues.
What about if your colleague comes in one day and they have a ring on their finger.
And in English, we call this process getting engaged.
What is your one -liner?
Well, the most common thing to say here would to be something like, Sarah, congratulations on your engagement.
I'll repeat that a couple of times so you can practice.
Sarah, congratulations on your engagement.
Sarah, congratulations on your engagement.
congratulations on your engagement.
Or if you just want to say a quick one, you could say, Sarah, I heard the news.
Congratulations. If both of you more or less are on the same page in terms of the context, you don't necessarily need to say on the engagement.
But if you do, the preposition is on.
on. Moving on, different topic.
We're going to be talking about illnesses and difficult times as well.
Well, imagine you've got a colleague called Sarah.
She went off on sick last Thursday, but she's back in the office today.
What could you say to her?
Here's your one -liner.
Glad to see you're feeling better.
Glad to see you're feeling better.
Now imagine a situation where somebody has been off for a much longer period of time.
Now maybe this is stress, maybe they've had a leave of absence to go and do something else, maybe they've been on maternity or paternity leave or an injury, whatever it is, what is your one -liner?
It's great to have you back.
It's great to have you back.
Now let's talk about a situation which is a little bit more sensitive but unfortunately inevitable and that is when family members of colleagues pass away.
What is a one -liner that you could say?
The best thing to say here is I'm really sorry to hear about and there are some some nuances here.
I'm really sorry to hear about your loss.
That's very formal and professional.
Definitely the best choice if you don't know somebody very well.
If you know them a bit better you could refer to that person by their relationship.
You could say I'm really sorry to hear about your dad, your sister, your brother, your mum and if you know them very well and personally and that you could even refer to their name.
I'm really sorry to hear about John, Sarah.
Let me repeat one of those sentences then and try practicing out loud.
I'm really sorry to hear about your dad.
I'm really sorry to hear about your dad.
It really doesn't need to be any more complicated than that and that can make you feel a little bit more comfortable that you're not being insensitive if and when that situation pops up.
Next, imagine that you have a situation where one of your colleagues just doesn't seem right.
Maybe they're a little bit stressed or upset and you really want to ask them if they're okay.
What could you say?
Here's your one -liner.
Is everything all right?
Is everything all right?
this is a sister phrase to are you okay but it really is an invitation for them to share with you if they want to how they're feeling moving on and coming back to more professional areas let's talk about work achievements and successes imagine that your colleague has brought in a really big client or maybe they've got a promotion or they're moving or they've passed one of their professional exams, your one -liner should start with congratulations on.
You're going to recognize that one from before.
Congratulations on the new client.
Congratulations on the promotion.
Congratulations on the move.
I know you were really hoping that would happen.
Let me just take one of those so you can practice out loud.
Congratulations on the promotion.
promotion. Or if you wanted to be a little bit more relaxed, congrats on the promotion.
I'm sure you'd sound a lot more happy than me doing it now because I'm listening to myself back and I sound miserable, but I am really happy.
Next, imagine that you're giving some feedback to one of your team members and you want to give them some praise.
They've done something thing really well.
Your one -liner is going to start with well done.
Well done on the report.
Well done on the presentation.
Well done on that client meeting.
This is definitely from the perspective of you being a more senior member of staff and them being more junior.
Here's your sentence to practice out loud.
Well done on the report.
All right, last ones.
Imagine you're in a meeting and you've been working with John for quite a while and then he drops a bombshell.
He's like, I'm leaving.
And you're like, no, you're really happy for them, but you don't want them to leave because they're a great team member.
What's your one -liner?
Here's something for you.
It's a little bit longer, so you might have to repeat this one.
I'll be really sorry to see you go, but I wish you all the best. I'll be really sorry to see you go, but I wish you all the best in your new job.
moving on let's imagine a situation where rather than somebody leaving the company you've got a new executive or a colleague that's just joined in the last few weeks you haven't really had a lot of chance to interact with them but you cross them in the corridor and you want to ask them something what could be your one -liner i love this question and it's super natural and sounds great rate.
How are you settling in?
How are you settling in?
Last but not least, if you have a team member that's going away on holiday, you don't know where they're going, but you want to ask them, what is your one -liner?
Off anywhere nice? Off anywhere nice?
You'll know that native speakers, we like to chop off that auxiliary sometimes it sounds really natural if you want the full version it would be are you off anywhere nice just another way to say where are you going but I love that one and it's one that I use all the time all right we'll leave it there for today I hope it was useful to go through that and you have your one -liners now and you can practice them and you've got that done you don't need to come up with any other sentences you can just use those if you found that episode really useful of all don't forget that I also have a newsletter
every Friday where I send around even more tips I don't include on the podcast other professionals really like it they say it's a really good compliment to the podcast every week if you want to sign up it's totally free and the link is in the description box of this episode thanks again for squeezing in that session today I really hope that it helps make you feel more confident and I look forward to speaking to you next time which will be our penultimate episode of this season bye
