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Productivity VIP – Point of View

Hello this A.J. Welcome to the point-of-view lessons for this month’s VIP. Let’s get started.

So same story, but different times, different versions. The first, as usual, will be happening now, like we’re going along with Ray.

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So there is a guy named Ray Johnson and he works at IBM. Now, he has never had any problems before at his job. He has worked at IBM a long time and he has never had any problems, but one day his boss calls him into the office and he says “Ray, you’re productivity sucks. You’re spinning your wheels every day. Appearing busy, but doing nothing. You need to shape up or ship out.”

Well, Ray feels bad. He feels bad because he realizes that his boss is right. He realizes that he has been spinning his wheels every day for quite a long time. So he decides to change. First, he decides to complete all of his tasks in just 24 hours. He does all of his tasks with high quality lightening fast. He doesn’t do them a little bit fast he does them lightening fast; super fast, extremely fast.

He doesn’t stop there. Next, he decides to answer his emails only Tuesdays and Fridays and to do them quickly. So each Tuesday and Friday he burns through his inbox super fast. He burns through all of his emails very quickly. He does his emails very quickly, but that’s not all.

Finally, he realizes that he needs to do even more and he decides to be proactive at work; to be very proactive, not reactive, not passive, not waiting for his boss. No, he decides to be proactive. He actually looks for and identifies potential problems at work and he solves them before they get big.

Now, of course, his boss loves all of these changes and after six months his boss says “Ray, you’re doing a great job. You’re now on my A-Team. You’re an A-Player now. You are super productive and I’m giving you a raise. I’m giving you an increase in your salary. I’m giving you more money.”

And, of course, Ray is very happy and his boss is very happy too.

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And that’s the end of our first version of the story. Next version of the story begins with…

Ray Johnson has worked at IBM for many years.

Where has he worked for many years?

IBM.

Which company has he worked at for many years?

He has worked at IBM for many, many years.

Now during this time, during these many years, he has never had any problems.

He has never had any problems at his job. In fact, when he started at IBM he was an excellent employee.

He continued to be an excellent employee for many years. In fact, he has been an excellent employee most of the time he has been at IBM. So during most of that time period, he has been an excellent employee.

His boss has admired him most of that time. His boss has been very happy with him most of that time.

So has he been a good employee for most of that time period at IBM?

That’s right, he has been. However, something changed a year or two ago. Something changed.

See, he had been (listen carefully) he had been an excellent employee until about two years ago. So before that specific time period, before two years ago, he had been an excellent employee. From when he started until two years ago, he had been an excellent employee, but then two years ago, at that time, something changed.

So had he been an excellent employee until two years ago?

Yes, he had. He had been an excellent employee until two years ago and then something changed. His productivity dropped a lot and then for the last two years he has been a bad employee.

For the last two years, during that time period, his productivity has sucked.

During the last two years he has been just spinning his wheels at work every day.

He has been appearing to work hard, but he hasn’t actually worked very hard. He hasn’t actually gotten any results during the last two years, starting two years ago until recently.

So he had been an excellent employee, but then two years ago something changed and since then he has been a mediocre employee. Kind of a bad employee and it got so bad that finally, one day, his boss called him into the office and his boss said “Ray, your productivity sucks. You’re spinning your wheels every day here. You need to shape up or ship out.”

Now, Ray went home that day and he thought about it and he realized that his boss was, in fact, correct, was right, and so he decided to change immediately.

The first thing he decided was to complete all of his tasks in just 24 hours. He did all of his tasks with good quality and he did them lightening fast; super fast. He did all of his tasks lightening fast.

Next, he decided to answer his emails only on Tuesdays and Fridays. He was wasting too much time every day on email, so he decided to do them only on Tuesdays and Fridays and he decided to do them quickly too. So, in fact, every Tuesday and Friday he burned through his inbox super fast. He burned through his emails. He read them and replied to them very, very quickly. He burned through them, but that’s not all.

Finally, he decided to be very, very proactive at work. Not to just wait to be told what to do, but rather to go find things to do. What he did is he looked for and identified potential problems and he solved them before they got bigger.

Well, of course, his boss was very, very happy with all of this and so after six months his boss came to him and said “Ray, you’re doing a great job again.

You’re on my A-Team now. You’re an A-Player. You are super productive and because of that I’m giving you a raise. I’m giving you an increase in your salary.” Of course, Ray was very happy about that and his boss was very happy too and they were both very, very happy.

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And that’s the end of our second version of this story. Now, as usual, in the third version we’re going into the future. We may be dreaming it, we may be imagining it, but we’re thinking this is going to happen in the future.

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In the future there will be a guy named Ray Johnson and he’s gonna’ work at IBM.

Of course, if you’re new, “gonna’” means going to. It’s for the future. It’s what we usually say in speech in normal conversation. It’s very common, gonna’, going to.

So Ray Johnson is gonna’ work at IBM in the future. Now most of his time at IBM he’ll not have any problems. He’s not gonna’ have any problems at IBM for many years, but then something’s gonna’ change and, in fact, his productivity is going to drop a lot and it’s gonna’ keep dropping and keep dropping until finally, one day, his boss will call him into his office.

His boss is gonna’ say “Ray, your productivity sucks. You’re just spinning your wheels here every day. You need to improve. You need to shape up or ship out. You need to improve or leave.”

Now Ray, of course, will be sad about this and he’ll go home that day and he’ll think about it and he’ll realize that his boss, in fact, is right. So he’s gonna’ decide to change, to change everything at work. First, he’s gonna’ decide to complete all of his tasks in just 24 hours. He’s gonna’ decide to do all of his tasks very well and also do them lightening fast; super fast.

Next, he’ll decide to answer his emails only on Tuesdays and Fridays, because he’ll be taking too much time with his emails and he’ll realize he has to be more efficient. So every Tuesday and Friday he’ll burn through his inbox. He’ll burn through his emails super fast. He’ll do them super fast.

Finally, he’ll make the biggest decision of all. He’ll decide to be proactive at work. He won’t wait passively anymore for his boss to tell him what to do. Instead, he’s gonna’ go looking for problems. He’ll identify potential problems and he’ll solve them before they get too big; before they get bigger.

Now, of course, his boss is gonna’ be really, really happy about this and he’ll call Ray into his office again, but this time he’ll very positive. He’ll say “Ray, you’re doing a great job. You’re on my A-Team now. You’re an A-Player. You’re super productive. You’re proactive. I’m giving you a big raise.”

Of course, Ray is gonna’ be very happy about getting more money and about his boss’ praise and his boss is gonna’ be very happy about Ray’s increased productivity. So they’re both gonna’ be really happy and Ray will continue to have an amazing, incredible, wonderful career.

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And that’s the end of our point-of-view stories for this month.

I’ve mixed in a little bit of different grammar in each of these, especially the second one.

Now what I do not want you to do is think a lot about the grammar rules. Certainly, don’t go get a grammar book and think about them. What I want you to do is just listen to these stories, each version, every single day for one month.

You can make it a game if you want. You could pause and copy my pronunciation.

Whatever you want to do, but listen to them every single month. Just notice how the verbs change, notice how some of the words change, notice some of the introduction words and the time words that I use, just notice, but don’t analyze it too much. Don’t think about it too much.

You don’t want to be thinking while you’re speaking English. You want it to just happen automatically. That takes a little bit of time, but the best way to get that, the best way to get excellent grammar in your English speaking is to listen to these versions of the stories and the regular mini story again and again and again every single day for a month and then the next month you get a new one, do it again.

Then, after a few months, you’re gonna’ start understanding and feeling the grammar more and then, after a few more months, you’re actually gonna’ start using it more correctly, automatically, without thinking a lot. All right, so just listen to these every single day.

All right, thank you my special VIP. I love teaching you and I will see you again soon, bye-bye.