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Hello everyone and welcome back to EnglishPod. My name is Marco.

My name is Catherine and today we’re talking about things at the office.

That’s right, we are at the office, but this time we are going to ask our boss or manager for a raise.

All right. So, what is this word raise? Let’s take a look at it in today’s vocabulary preview.

Vocabulary preview

All right. So, we’re gonna ask for a raise. So, if you are at your office and you’re talking to your boss and you say I want a raise. What is that mean?

That means I want more money.

Okay so I want a raise or increase in my salary.

That’s right. So, a raise is a thing that you ask for. And in this case a raise means that you already work at the company, you already have a salary and you want some more money each month.

Okay so that’s what we’re to be talking about today. Let’s listen to this dialogue.

A: Excuse me sir, may I talk to you?

B: Bill! Sure, come on in. What can I do for you?

A: Well sir, as you know, I have been an employee of this prestigious firm for over ten years.

B: Yes.

A: I won’t beat around the bush. Sir, I would like a raise. I currently have three companies after me and so I decided to talk to you first.

B: A raise? Son, I would love to give you a raise, but this is just not the right time.

A: I understand your position, and I know that the current economic downturn has had a negative impact on sales, but you must also take into consideration my hard work, pro-activeness and loyalty to this company for over a decade.

B: Taking into account these factors, and considering I don’t want to start a brain drain, I’m willing to offer you a ten percent raise and an extra five days of vacation time. How does that sound?

A: Great! It’s a deal! Thank you, sir!

B: Before you go, just out of curiosity, what companies were after you?

A: Oh, the electric company, gas company and water company!

All right, we’re back. So now, why don’t we take a look at language take away.

Language take away

So, the conversation we just heard is a conversation between a manager or a boss and the employee. And the employee says, listen, I need to talk to you about something. I have been an employee at this prestigious firm for over 10 years. So prestigious is our first word.

Okay, prestigious is an adjective, right?

That’s right.

And it means very respected, very well known.

Esteem, that’s right. So, something that is prestigious, has a good reputation.

Like for example some universities, like you hear all the time about American universities like Harvard or Yale which are considered to be prestigious universities.

Or the Nobel Peace Prize is a very prestigious award.

Okay, so it’s an adjective to describe something that’s respectable, well known or esteemed as you said.

Exactly.

All right. And what’s our next word?

Our next one is not so happy. This is what we’ve been experiencing in the global economy this last year or two. It’s called an economic downturn.

All right. So, an economic downturn is something negative, as you said. So, it means that the economy is not doing very well.

Right. So, economy, economic, you know what this means. But in this case downturn is the key part of this phrase, to slow down or to decrease. So, a downturn is a time when less people are making money and less money overall is being earned.

Okay. So, when economic downturn, very good. Why don’t we move on to our next word which is negative impact.

So, the thing working here is the economic downturn and it has had an negative impact on our sales on this company’s sales. So, a negative impact, as you know from the first word is not good thing.

Right. It’s an effect, right? But that’s negative so it’s not a good effect.

So, I could say that Marco, being late has had a negative impact on your work lately.

Okay. Or the opposite now, what if something is a good effect on something?

So, Marco your hard work has had a really positive impact on this company lately.

All right, good. So, you can use it negative impact or a positive impact, alright.

Right. So, impact again is just the effect that something has on something else.

And well the boss said that he agrees to give him a raise because, in part, he didn’t want to start a brain drain. What’s that?

This is a very common phrase you hear about countries. They have a brain drain or they want to avoid a brain drain. A drain is the part of a sink or a bathtub where the water goes down or it goes away. And so, brain drain means all the brains or intelligent people or educated people leave the country and go to another country. Or in this case, leave a company and go to another company.

All right. So, for example if all the employees at Apple maybe they start to quit or they are, they start to move jobs and start to work for maybe Microsoft or Google, that’s a brain drain, right?

That’s right because you’re talking about a large number of people. Maybe they’re all unhappy because they say that working in Apple is not very nice, so they all leave and go to this other company. The same is true with countries. You can have very very well-educated people who when they stop studying, they want jobs, they all look somewhere else. They go to America or Mexico or England. That’s called a brain drain because they all go away.

Okay. So, five great phrases right there and words for you. Well, let’s listen to this dialogue again and we’ll be back to take a look at fluency builder.

A: Excuse me sir, may I talk to you?

B: Bill! Sure, come on in. What can I do for you?

A: Well sir, as you know, I have been an employee of this prestigious firm for over ten years.

B: Yes.

A: I won’t beat around the bush. Sir, I would like a raise. I currently have three companies after me and so I decided to talk to you first.

B: A raise? Son, I would love to give you a raise, but this is just not the right time.

A: I understand your position, and I know that the current economic downturn has had a negative impact on sales, but you must also take into consideration my hard work, pro-activeness and loyalty to this company for over a decade.

B: Taking into account these factors, and considering I don’t want to start a brain drain, I’m willing to offer you a ten percent raise and an extra five days of vacation time. How does that sound?

A: Great! It’s a deal! Thank you, sir!

B: Before you go, just out of curiosity, what companies were after you?

A: Oh, the electric company, gas company and water company!

This first phrase in today’s fluency builder is one of my favorites. It’s something that we say often when we’re having a conversation and we want the other person to just tell us what they’re talking about.

All right. So, the guy said, you know what, I’m not going to beat around the bush.

We could also say please don’t beat around the bush. So, I’m not sure where this phrase comes from what it means, please be direct. Or I’m going to be direct, I will not wait any longer to tell you what I’m talking about.

So, if somebody is beating around the bush, that means they are not being direct. They’re not telling you something immediately.

It’s you know like, when a person is trying to think but you know, has a hard time. They’re really trying to explain something but you know it’s just—well, you know what I’m talking about. It’s like that time with that thing where he did that—okay, this is really annoying, I know. It’s called beating around the bush because you just don’t say what you’re thinking.

Right, exactly. So, you don’t say something directly. Now our next phrase is to take into consideration, take something into consideration.

Well, this is something that the young man brings up when he’s asking for a raise. He says, you should take into consideration all of these great things I do. This means when you make your decision, I want you to think about these things. So, consideration means you’re thinking when you’re trying to make a decision.

to consider. Alright, so to take something into consideration, or you can just say to consider.

So, I’m interested in buying a new TV but I have to take into consideration the fact that I don’t have a lot of money. That means I probably won’t get a new TV after thinking about these things when I’m making my decision.

Right. Okay, very good. And our last phrase for today, towards the end, the boss was a little bit interested in knowing what happened or which companies were interested in him. So, he said just out of curiosity.

So, this is something we say when we don’t need to know something. It means that we would like to know because we’re curious, we’re interested but not because I need to know right away what companies offer you jobs. So, this is a polite way to ask why someone did something. So, for example, so just out of curiosity Marco, what kind of shampoo do you use?

That is very interesting knowledge that you want there.

Well, obviously I don’t need to know what kind of shampoo Marco uses, but I’m curious because maybe I’m going to buy a new kind of shampoo.

So, you can start your sentence by using this phrase, just out of curiosity.

Just out of curiosity. It’s a great one. Listen for that again as we listen to today’s dialogue one more time and we’ll be back in a moment to talk about getting a raise.

A: Excuse me sir, may I talk to you?

B: Bill! Sure, come on in. What can I do for you?

A: Well sir, as you know, I have been an employee of this prestigious firm for over ten years.

B: Yes.

A: I won’t beat around the bush. Sir, I would like a raise. I currently have three companies after me and so I decided to talk to you first.

B: A raise? Son, I would love to give you a raise, but this is just not the right time.

A: I understand your position, and I know that the current economic downturn has had a negative impact on sales, but you must also take into consideration my hard work, pro-activeness and loyalty to this company for over a decade.

B: Taking into account these factors, and considering I don’t want to start a brain drain, I’m willing to offer you a ten percent raise and an extra five days of vacation time. How does that sound?

A: Great! It’s a deal! Thank you, sir!

B: Before you go, just out of curiosity, what companies were after you?

A: Oh, the electric company, gas company and water company!

All right, we’re back. So, interesting enough, he was, he needed a raise, not because three companies wanted to hire him, but because he needed to pay his bills.

This is funny because he is not talking about companies, that’s right, who are offering him jobs, he’s talking about the gas, the water, the electrical company.

Right

It’s a very funny dialogue, but I think asking for a raise is very hard to do because you know that your boss is worried about money or it’s a bad time to ask, but you wanna ask because it’s important that you get the right compensation for you.

Right. And actually, it’s important to have a clear objective when you wanna ask for a raise. So, more or less what you want to earn and, but plausible within the company. So you’re not gonna ask for 100% raise, right? You can maybe aim for a 5 or 10 percent, and most likely you’ll get it if you negotiate properly.

That’s right, and sometimes a raise isn’t just about money. You can also, like he did, ask for some time off. So, he get some vacation days or perhaps some training

Or bonuses

Or bonus, so this all depends on the kind of negotiations that you make but it’s worth it to ask. So, please let us know if you’ve ever had a good time or a bad time asking for a raise. It can be a very nerve-racking experience. I know personally I’m very uncomfortable with it. But we’re excited to hear what you have to say. And if you have any questions or any comments, leave them for us on our website Englishpod.com.

All right, we’ll see you guys there.

Bye everyone.