Talking to Coworkers

a                Talking to Co-Workers

¨             I missed the meeting. Can you fill me in?

¨             I had a doctor’s appointment so I missed the meeting. What happened?

¨             I couldn’t make it to the meeting today. Anything interesting I should know about?

¨             I missed the meeting. Was there anything new?

¨             Matt looks pretty upset right now. Do you know what’s going on?

¨             Did something happen recently? Matt looks pissed off.

¨             I think Matt is mad about something. Do you know what it could be?

¨             Matt talks to me like he is mad all the time. Does he do that to you?

¨             Does Matt talk to you like he is upset? Or is it just me?

¨             It’s not you at all. He talks to me that way too.

¨             Matt is way too moody.

¨             If he knew what he was doing, we wouldn’t be in this mess.

¨             What is wrong with Matt these days?

¨             He is having one of those days again. I think his manager just gave him a hard time.

¨             What do you think about our manager?

¨             He gets too mad easily and he doesn’t really help us out that much. What do you think?

b               Asking for help or offering help

¨             I finished my project already so I have extra bandwidth. Let me know if you need help with anything.

¨             You’re doing the analysis on ABC Company? I did that last year. If you need any help, just let me know.

¨             I’m pretty familiar with your project so if you have any questions, feel free to ask me.

¨             I’m having trouble implementing Plan A on ABC Company. Can you look at my work and see if I am missing a step?

¨             Can you help me analyze the finance data? This is my first time and I don’t want to screw it up.

¨             Do you have a few minutes to help me with the data migration tool? I can’t figure it out.

c                Complaining about another co-worker to a co-worker

¨             Have you worked with Jake yet? He can’t do anything right.

¨             The problem with Jake is that he doesn’t know that he is an idiot.

¨             I remember helping Jake out so much, and then he stabs my back.

¨             I don’t think he does his own work. He goes around asking everyone to do a portion of his work and says he did it all.

¨             If you have to work with Jake, remember the things I told you.

¨             Is management blind or am I being too sensitive about this?

¨             I think the manager likes him because he kisses her ass all day long.

¨             The manager is blind because he is a total brown-noser.

¨             I can’t believe this company is paying $75,000 a year for this fool.

d               Complaining about the company

¨             This is a dead end job. I don’t see much of a future here.

¨             I hate the redundancy. It’s so boring.

¨             Work isn’t exciting for me anymore. I am doing the same thing over and over again.

¨             This company doesn’t care about employees that much. I haven’t received a fair raise in 3 years.

¨             I don’t know if it is my manager or this company, but I’m really getting sick of my job.

¨             How do you tolerate all the political bull shit in this company?

¨             What do you think about all the politics in this company?

¨             The politics suck here. But it is the same for any large corporation. The best way to deal with it is to take advantage of the rules.

¨             I don’t know how much longer I can take this job. I’ve been thinking about applying to a different company.

¨             Have you ever thought about leaving this company?

¨             What company do you want to switch to?

¨             I started applying for other jobs. There are a lot of positions open.

¨             I’ve been looking for jobs on monster.com. They have a lot of positions available.

e                Talking about work experience

¨             What did you do before working here?

¨             I worked at ABC Company. I was a market analyst researching what the user wants in portable devices.

¨             I was over in the sales department on the second floor. I was in charge of overseeing the sales made by all the sales associates each month.

¨             I was a software engineer at Sun Microsystems. I created internal tools using Java to help automate the recruiting process.

f                 Talking to Coworkers – Interactive Practice

¨             A: “Hey Jack. How is your day going?”
B: “Just finishing the project. Other than that, not much. How about you?”
A: “I’m just about finished for the day. I have one more task to do, but I wanted to take a break first.”
B: “Did you have to work with Jake on that project?”
A: “Unfortunately, yes.”
B: “Oh my gosh. I feel so sorry for you.”
A: “Don’t remind me. I’m just glad it’s over.”
B: “Yeah. I remember when I worked on the data conversion tool with him. Everything he did, I had to re-do. It would have been faster if I did it alone.”
A: “That’s exactly what happened to me. It took me longer because I had to re-do everything he did. That really pissed me off.”
B: “Next time the manager wants me to do a project with him, I’m going to tell him that I will do it myself.”
A: “That’s a good idea. Hopefully, the manager will realize how useless he is.”
B: “Exactly. If you’re not busy, you can do my work.”
A: “Ha ha. I got enough to do.”
B: “Yeah. I’m just kidding.”
A: “Aright dude. I better finish my work. I’ll talk to you later.”

¨             A: “Hey Jordan, did you go to the team meeting this morning?”
B: “Yeah. The manager presented a new project to us that we’ll have to do.”
A: “Damn it. I shouldn’t have missed that meeting, but I was stuck in another meeting. What else did you guys talk about?”
B: “Everything else was the same. We talked about progress of current assignments, due dates, about hiring another worker, that’s all.”
A: “What’s the new project about?”
B: “It’s hard to explain. She sent out mail to all of us. You can just review the document she sent out.”
A: “Ok. I’ll do that.”

¨             A: “Hey Bob, do you have a few minutes?”
B: “Sure. What’s up?”
A: “I’m having problems with my computer. I don’t know what’s wrong with it.”
B: “Let’s go take a look at it. Oh. Here is the problem. You have a boot sector virus. Install the anti-virus software. That should take care of the problem.”
A: “Great thanks.

¨             A: “How is your day going?”
B: “The same as usual. How about you?”
A: “Me too. I’m getting sick of work man.”
B: “I’m already past that stage. I was sick of this shit a year ago.”
A: “What are you still doing here then?”
B: “It pays the bills.”
A: “Why don’t you find another job?”
B: “Well, I thought about it, but if I put in two more years, then I get a good pension. I can’t give that up. Anyway, this job is boring, but at least it’s easy.”
A: “Well, you’ve been here for eight years. You have some things to stay for. I’ve only been here for two years. I can’t see myself doing this for another two years. I want to gain more experience in other areas.”
B: “Have you brought this up to the boss? Maybe you can go into management.”
A: “They usually want a person with an MBA degree or a person willing to put in 80 hours a week.”
B: “That’s what it takes man. Either this or that.”
A: “Yeah. I better think about what I want. Why didn’t you go into management?”
B: “It would have taken too much time. I have a family that I want to spend time with, so it wasn’t worth it for me. But you’re single. You can put in a few good years and put yourself in a good position before thinking about settling down.”
A: “You have a point. I’ll see what my options are. Hopefully the manager will help me out with my career.”
B: “She’s pretty cool about that. Just be honest with her and she’ll show you some doors.”
A: “That sounds good. Thanks for the advice.”
B: “No problem. Good luck.”B: “The same as usual. How about you?”
B: “I’m already past that stage. I was sick of this shit a year ago.”
B: “It pays the bills.”
B: “Well, I thought about it, but if I put in two more years, then I get a good pension. I can’t give that up. Anyway, this job is boring, but at least it’s easy.”
B: “Have you brought this up to the boss? Maybe you can go into management.”
B: “That’s what it takes man. Either this or that.”
B: “It would have taken too much time. I have a family that I want to spend time with, so it wasn’t worth it for me. But you’re single. You can put in a few good years and put yourself in a good position before thinking about settling down.”
B: “She’s pretty cool about that. Just be honest with her and she’ll show you some doors.”
B: “No problem. Good luck.”