This is the Business English Podcast, episode 558.
Do you wear many hats at work?
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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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That's allearsenglish.com slash f-l-u-e-n-c-y-s-c-o-r-e Hey, Lindsay, how are you?
Doing great today, Michelle.
What are we getting into on business English?
Well, Lindsay, do you like to wear hats?
To wear hats?
I'm not a big hat person, to be honest, because I feel like it kind of ruins my hair, and my hair is my big thing.
So what about you?
Are you a hat wearer?
It really depends.
I can't really fall in love with a hat.
I don't know.
I try.
They never really seem to work out for me.
Every once in a while I will find more of a hat that's a shape that I really do like.
Um, but yeah, I agree.
It's then with the hair, it's a whole mess.
So it never looks good, but they are important.
They are important, especially when it's super sunny.
So I should totally, I know I've been wearing them more since I moved to Colorado.
The sun out here is crazy strong.
So you kind of have to, but then you can't.
For me, what I have to do is just commit to the hat all day until I take a shower.
If I'm gonna take a shower fine, but like, if I'm not showering, if I just have the hat on the rest of the day, you got some pretty, pretty bad hat hair.
Yeah for sure.
But today we're not talking about hat hair, right?
Although that would be a fun episode.
That would be a fun episode.
We're talking about something that applies to business, about being busy and being responsible for many different things.
Yes.
Right?
Yes.
So this is to wear many hats.
So, Lindsay, do you wear many hats at All Ears English?
Oh, my God.
Wild guess, Michelle, right?
Of course.
You probably wear a hundred hats.
Yeah, I was just having beers with a friend goes into these things.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Especially at the start.
You know when you're really trying to take on as much as you can by like with.
You know without too too many people, because you don't have the budget for too too many people.
So you're just trying to like you wear a ton of hats.
Yeah, you don't have an HR department necessarily.
You don't have a payroll department.
This is scrappy entrepreneurship here that we're talking about.
But even in big companies, this also applies.
Right.
Right.
Yeah, exactly.
Um yeah, I mean, I actually think of.
I think of I don't know if it was one particular old movie or something.
But do you ever see, like when somebody there may have been something actually where somebody is changing hats like an I love Lucy or something, you know, something like that.
But like it makes me think of when it's like, oh, yeah, let me talk to the manager.
I am the manager or like I am the mayor or I you know what I mean?
Right.
They put on a different hat or a different.
Right.
Yeah.
Police and firefighter.
Right.
So, yeah, I'm sure there's actually a specific thing, but I can't think of what it's from.
But yeah, that's that's what it makes me think of.
That's the vibe.
Yes, that's the vibe.
So let's use it in a sentence.
You want to do the first one, Lindsay?
Oh, this is more than one sentence, but yeah.
So we couldn't live without Millie here.
She wears so many hats.
Not only is she our boss, but she's our friend.
She helps us with everything and she's so smart about so many areas within the company.
Wow.
That's a lot.
Yes.
Many hats.
Yes.
Um, it's hard to tell you about my job because I wear so many hats, but I'll try.
Um yeah, there are some people.
Lindsay, do you have any friends where you have no idea what they actually do?
Yeah, for sure.
And when they explain it, my eyes kind of glaze over.
Just not familiar with it.
Right.
Right.
Right.
Yeah.
Sure.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That happens.
Usually that's more like for larger companies.
Yeah.
More corporate.
Corporate.
Yeah.
Or sometimes it's exhausting wearing so many hats, but it's good to know I'm needed.
That's true.
That can be a good feeling, I guess, sometimes when you have the bandwidth.
Right.
When you have the bandwidth and you know that like you are needed and because you do so much.
But yeah, in this sentence, it doesn't mean it's exhausting putting on like so many actual hats.
So we just want to be aware of the context.
Yeah.
But Lindsay, do you think it's a good thing to wear many hats at work?
I think it's a good thing.
I think it's fine.
I think it's normal and it's smart in the beginning.
Um, because you just can't.
Especially if you're starting a company and it's a small company, you just not going to be able to afford to hire people in all these departments like they would have in corporate.
Right.
Um, but it can be scattering, like you can feel very scattered.
Right.
And sometimes you just want to sit down and do the work of the business.
Right.
The dream work.
Right.
For me, the dream work is podcasting.
Yeah.
Right.
Yeah.
But, you know, podcasting is a small portion of my week.
Right.
Right.
Yes.
But yeah.
So, I mean, why but why is this expression useful?
I think you can use it to describe your own job.
We do ask people.
I was just at a meditation event last night and there was a little socializing moment and there were three of us chatting.
And one woman asked, so what do you both do for work?
I mean, even at a meditation event, people are asking you, what do you do for work?
Some people will lead with this.
I think more so on the East Coast than in this area, but people lead with it.
So to say, you know, you could you could incorporate this into your answer potentially.
Right.
Right.
Yeah, exactly.
Well, I wear many hats, right?
So yeah, you can also could show you're a team player.
There's, there's a lot of things that it can, that can show or that in ways that it connect, connect you to others.
So, But there are other things that we can say that are not dealing with hats, that can express similar ideas.
So the first one is to serve or play multiple roles.
Yes, this one's a little bit more professional sounding, just a little bit elevated.
So she serves multiple roles.
So she is invaluable to our team.
Yeah, so companies have roles and usually they're linked to positions, right?
So that would be one way to say that.
Let's take a quick break, Michelle, and then we'll come back with more, right?
All right.
All right.
So, Michelle, any question we want to ask here?
Yeah.
Do you think that many people would like wearing many hats?
That's a good question.
I think there are like people who are more generalists and then people who are more specialists, right?
And some people like being generalists, some people like being specialists.
I think it depends on the way that you like to think maybe.
Like, do you like to go deep and really nerd out on one thing?
Or do you want to kind of stay above and keep like a wide angle lens on a lot of things and understand how they fit together?
Right.
Some people, I think, really thrive on just doing many different things and learning as much as they can about different roles.
And some, and some people might find that exhausting or frustrating.
Especially if it's something you know with their job description and they've been given you know they might find it frustrating.
But others might say, oh, great.
I, you know, I have this attitude where I am happy to give anything a try.
But you know, I think there's a line.
Yeah, for sure it's.
It's definitely personality based and people just think in different ways.
Some people think in a more linear way and they do want to like spend more energy on the one thing, and other people thinking maybe a more horizontal, mundane.
When they're always changed, they're always changing exactly.
So again, you know what have you been working on and you said so much.
I wear many hats, So I've been working a little on the Joni Foundation.
Yes, you know, you know, the Joni Foundation.
And then you say, that's great.
So you do a bit of everything.
That's how I am too.
And then you said, yeah, it keeps things interesting when my role is more cross-functional.
And this is interesting for our listeners, more cross-functional than what?
Right.
Then not.
Then not.
It's just interesting how we do say this sometimes.
It's more cross-functional than we stop.
And that's an acceptable sentence.
But like, what are we comparing it to?
Right, right, right, right.
Wouldn't we know because of what we've already been talking about, right?
We like have context here.
We know what's going on.
Yeah, totally.
Then what did I say?
Then you said, same here.
I love playing multiple roles.
I'm doing a presentation next month and today I'm doing ground marketing.
It's great.
Nice.
And I, you said, nice.
I know you're so good at performing various tasks.
Okay.
That one feels a little formal.
A little bit awkward.
A little awkward.
That one, that one, I'd probably say, what would you, what would you sub in there instead?
Maybe I want to say like, um, yeah, I also love, like, I'm, I'm also invigorated by performing various tasks or I get my energy by performing various tasks.
I don't know.
I know you're so good at doing a lot of different things at once.
Yeah, a lot of different things, right?
Even just switching out the brace completely.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
A little too formal there, but I like the rest of the role play.
So, guys, go to Business English 551, a clean and clear way to say someone is right in English.
Good skill to have.
Right?
Exactly.
All right, takeaway for today.
I think it's really you know about personality types.
It shows a lot about who you are like, do you?
And I don't think any one is better or worse than the other.
Sure.
Yeah.
But I'm sure in certain companies like if you're a person that is does not want to do play multiple roles and you walk into a new job and it turns out you were promised something and then it turns out you're doing a whole lot more.
I could see how that could be frustrating for someone, but many people may find it fun and exciting.
It really just depends.
I also think these terms could play into a conversation about AI in the future, because we know that AI is going to disrupt every industry.
The question is like what types of jobs are going to be more disrupted than others?
Is it more the specialists or is it more the generalists that do do multiple things around, like work cross-functionally?
Or is it specialists that go very deep into one's skill?
That's a really good conversation starter.
Yeah, definitely.
Yeah, super interesting.
Well, Lindsay, I'm glad we talked about this today.
And yeah, I will talk to you next time.
All right, Michelle, talk soon.
Bye.
All right, bye.
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