Talking About Work – Essential Vocabulary and Phrases
Core PathWay
1 🌐 Introduction to 'Talking about work'
In today’s workplace, knowing how to talk about your position and duties is essential. Every day, we need to discuss our responsibilities with colleagues and managers. Sometimes we need to tell others about our schedule or explain our workload. We might need to talk about an important task or report that’s due soon. When we have a deadline coming up, we often need to ask for help or explain why we need more time. Understanding these words and how to use them helps us communicate better at work.
Key Terms
💬 Asking for Help with Work
Two colleagues in the office
2 🔬 The Key Phrases you need for 'Talking about work'
Common phrases for work situations:
– hand in – to give completed work to someone
Example: ‘I will hand in my report tomorrow.’
– fill in for – to do someone else’s job temporarily
Example: ‘Can you fill in for me at the meeting?’
– catch up on – to complete work you missed
Example: ‘I need to catch up on my emails.’
– get through – to finish a lot of work
Example: ‘I must get through these papers today.’
– work on – to spend time doing a task
Example: ‘I’m working on the new project.’
– deal with – to handle or manage something
Example: ‘I will deal with the customer’s problem.’
– look after – to be responsible for something
Example: ‘Who looks after the office supplies?’
– take over – to become responsible for something
Example: ‘Sarah will take over the project next week.’
– keep up with – to stay current with work
Example: ‘It’s hard to keep up with all the changes.’
– put off – to delay doing something
Example: ‘Don’t put off writing your report.’
💬 Discussing Workload
Employee talking to manager
3 🔍 Other Key Terms for 'Talking about work'
Important work-related words:
colleague – a person you work with
Example: ‘My colleague helps me with difficult tasks.’
schedule – a plan that shows when things happen
Example: ‘My schedule is very busy this week.’
task – a piece of work that needs to be done
Example: ‘I have many tasks to finish today.’
report – a document that gives information about something
Example: ‘The report is due on Friday.’
meeting – when people come together to discuss work
Example: ‘We have a team meeting every Monday.’
project – a big piece of work with many parts
Example: ‘The new project starts next month.’
team – a group of people working together
Example: ‘Our team has six people.’
4 🧠 Worth Thinking About
Did you know that in different countries, people talk about work in different ways? In some places, it’s normal to say exactly what you think. In others, people prefer to be less direct. Also, the time people start work can be very different. Some offices start at 7:00, others at 10:00! Understanding these differences helps us work better with people from other countries.