Workplace Slang Words and Phrases You Must Know Learn English
slang let’s talk about office slang all
right I think you hit the button so
we’ll begin today’s live stream welcome
back Internet hello students Internet
students today welcome back to our
weekly live stream as always today’s
topic is going to be office slang so
I’ve prepared a few different actually
quite a lot of vocabulary words to talk
about today so I hope we can get through
it all I hope I didn’t prepare too much
but we have a lot to talk about today so
let’s get started first um I want to
review while we wait for everybody while
we wait for Facebook and YouTube to come
up I want to review a couple of points
first if you joined us last week maybe
you remember that we talked about using
gossip expressions we talked about like
how to introduce exciting information or
we talked about how to respond to
people’s gossip and so on so I want to
oh good Facebook is up okay great so I
want to kind of review that so in
preparation for today’s livestream my my
example of using this I used the
expression guess what that we talked
about last week because guess what and
then I said I’m going to use this this
tweet as a review for today’s live
stream so guess what is an expression we
talked about last week that we use to
introduce exciting information so if you
missed it you can check out last week’s
live stream on the YouTube channel or
the Facebook page okay but anyway I see
a lot of people in the Facebook and
YouTube chat hi everybody I see a lot of
new names actually which I from Thailand
uh Eduardo from Guatemala hi um Rafael
hello as always and in facebook site
Dodi echo hi I’m good how are you
hey Mira hi Wow a lot of new names I
don’t see OMA saya hello I recognized
you as you join also please make sure to
hit the like button as you saw there
please please please like and share the
video super helpful ok let’s go back to
the other topic for today if you are
just joining is office slang office
slang but we’re going to wait maybe one
more minute before we begin aha we do we
have we have a thumbnail for today
workplace slang very nice this looks
kind of like a workplace I guess today
that’s good but we’re gonna wait just a
couple more minutes before we begin I
want to mention someone asked a question
last week someone uh locked Yahoo he
asked on Facebook last week about gossip
can I just say you know what you know
what so like to introduce something you
can say that you can say you know what
to introduce a topic for gossip so yes
that’s fine okay Oh El Salvador hi Kevin
from El Salvador yeah good and from
Dominican Republic hello Egypt as well
hello and Brazil too from Syria Wow
there are a lot of people like I don’t
rain - that’s great
welcome everybody alright um we’ll get
into I guess today’s topic then work
about three minutes in so office slang
office leg okay we’re cool alright so
office slang for today um so today for
today’s lesson I basically I prepared
kind of three categories for slang to
talk about today so the first category
is initialisms maybe you remember we
talked about it in the internet slang
livestream that we did we talked about
initialisms so I’m going to introduce
some office initialisms that you can use
so that’s gonna be category number one
for today
number two is going to be expressions
you can use for like when you’re
communicating with your colleagues
so like decision are sorry not decision
making but expressions that you can use
to talk about your opinions kind of and
how to like contact each other
and then third we’re going to talk about
some decision-making expressions you can
use so I want to kind of talk about many
different topics for today
I think someone in the chat says tell us
about perfect tense present perfect
tense check the YouTube channel there
are videos about present perfect tense
already on the YouTube channel so please
check that out if you have a question
alright but let’s begin let’s begin then
with the first category for today’s so
the first category as I said is
initialisms initialism so remember
initialisms are words like we talked
about in the internet slang livestream
like BRB for example be right back there
are words that we read as the letters we
don’t read them as a word so let’s uh
can I tilt the monitor up yes I can a
bit is that okay okay better cool okay
so let’s begin
oh so you can see my fancy hair I see I
might produce the producers giving me
tips okay all over the place today
alright let’s get into the first set of
initialisms for today so I have to maybe
you already know these two they are b2b
and b2c b2b and b2c so these words mean
business-to-business and
business-to-consumer so if a company
supplies like a product or a service to
other businesses and or to other or to
let consumers meaning like just regular
people who use products and use services
they might use these initialisms to talk
about like strategies to talk about
planning and so on so b2b and b2c are
two very common kind of initialisms that
we see at work at the workplace so these
are the first two pretty easy to
understand I think b2b b2c so it doesn’t
actually mean like two of something it’s
just referring to this two here but we
read it that way so that is the FIR
one the second initialism I want to talk
about maybe you already know this one is
ROI ROI this one here ROI so this is one
return on investment ROI means return on
investment and this is an expression
that means how much benefit comes back
to a company after putting like money
into a project after putting money into
something so the return here so return
meaning comeback is the money or the
benefit that you receive from an
investment so by putting money into a
project into a product or something like
that the return there is the amount of
money or like the the benefit something
that you receive from your investment
but we use ROI to talk about that your
return on investment ROI all right then
I want to our last initialism today I
think though is one you can use in many
different situations it’s not only for
the workplace actually I use this a lot
even just with my friends it’s really
useful for texting too but you might see
this in like but let’s introduce it
first you might see this in many
different places this is ETA ETA means
estimated time of arrival estimated time
of arrival so estimated means get a
guess as to estimate means guess but
estimate sounds a little bit more formal
than guess and maybe a little more
precise than guess at time is like the
same the time that you do something and
then arrival so we see the root here
arrival the base form is arrived so to
be somewhere like to go somewhere to get
to your destination to arrive somewhere
so an ETA estimated time of arrival
means your guests for the time at which
you will arrive somewhere or when a
product will arrive
somewhere so this is an expression we
can use for goods for products for data
we can use it for people as well I use
estimated time of arrival eta to talk
about my ETA when I’m meeting a friend
for example so I want to use this for
our first of your question for today so
um for you then think about your ETA at
the next place you are going to go so
here’s our first question for today so
what is your ETA your estimated time of
arrival at the next place you’re going
so for example my ETA at the airport so
this is the place my ETA at the airport
is five o’clock so here is the time and
the first space will be your location so
my ETA at the office is 4 o’clock
producer says her favorite ETA is in the
nick of time in the nick of time means
just in time like just before something
happened in the nick of time
yes yeah all right so what is your ETA
at the next place you’re going so like I
could say today like my ETA at the
office is 8:45 for example or might ETA
at the office is 1055 for example so
what is your next ETA yes good point
from the producer this is something you
provide this information before you
arrive so if for example like you’re
texting your friend and you’re trying to
give your friend information about what
time you’re going to arrive you send
this if you send this sentence to your
friend before you arrive somewhere so my
ETA is blah blah blah nice ok it’s
coming in on YouTube my ETA at the
office uh is ah my ETA at the office is
10 minutes good clothes however
estimated time of arrival time there
that
I’m part means specifically what time
we’re looking for a specific time so
some people are saying my ETA at school
is 8 perfect my ETA at home is 6:35
perfect my ETA at school is 7 a.m. nice
on Facebook Roberta my ETA at my job is
7:30 perfect nice back on YouTube gear
may my ETA at the meeting is 8 o’clock
perfect my ETA at the shopping center is
some 30 nice ok um let’s see so be
careful make sure this is a time a
specific time not not a length of time
not a length of time not two hours or 4
hours or 10 minutes this should be a
time 2 o’clock 3:30 5 o’clock so my ETA
at this place is time so please make
sure to use a time a specific point in
time not a time not a length of time not
a length of time all right nice ok I
think you guys are getting it my ETA at
the school is 8:30 a.m. nice my ETA is
at 8:00 Oh sharp someone used uh algae
shovels I’m not sure how to say your
name um that person in the YouTube chat
maybe if you’re watching on YouTube you
can take a look at the chat but if
you’re watching on Facebook they use the
expression 8 o’clock sharp
this is nice for ETS I suppose sharp
here sharp means like precisely exactly
so 8 o’clock sharp
I’ll be there at 8 o’clock sharp means
right at 8 o’clock so that’s quite a
nice natural expression to use I’ll be
there for sure for sure
nice one okay all right you guys have
got it my ETA my Japanese class is 8
good my tea at my job is 9 perfect
perfect sounds good sounds good
alrighty um great I think you guys have
the ETA thing down so let’s take a break
then let’s take a break if you are just
joining us yeah please make sure to hit
the like the like button on Facebook and
on YouTube but today’s topic as we are
discussing too
today’s topic is office slang works leg
so words and expressions you might hear
at your job in the kind of business in
business settings so this week we want
to focus on our we have always some free
stuff for you guys who are watching so
this week we’re focusing in on the
business and work free PDF files so if
you would like to practice some more
business and work vocabulary in English
please check this business and work PDF
you can download this for free from the
website there’s a link below the video
on youtube and above the video on
Facebook if you download this it’s a PDF
file so you can save it to your computer
and you can check it offline but this is
basically a vocabulary kind of a bonus
vocabulary sheet I guess so if you know
you need to practice some business and
work expressions and some questions also
there are some questions you can use on
this worksheet or on this this reference
sheet so take a look at that that could
be a really good resource for kind of
filling in some gaps in your vocabulary
especially for work and for business ok
good so please check that the link is
below the video on YouTube above the
video on Facebook okay could I repeat
the thing about neck next time I’m not
sure next time I’m not sure can you be
specific your comment I’ll try to answer
um alright
but yes ETA was estimated time of
arrival also if you missed some point
earlier in the broadcast remember you
can watch this after the video is live
and you can change the speed as well if
you want to slow it down a little bit
alright but welcome back yes if you’re
just joining today’s topic is office
slang office leg so let’s go to category
two for today yeah office legs we’re
play sling let’s go to category two for
today so the second category of words
for today that I prepared is kind of
about communication communication so
let’s take a look at the next one the
next expression is here we’ll see you in
just a second to give a heads up to give
a heads up means to notify someone like
means to give someone information like
to give them new information a small
piece of information so just a heads up
this is how this is an example pattern
for how to use this just a heads up I’ll
be out of the office tomorrow or just a
heads up there’s no live stream next
week that’s not true there’s the live
stream I see
oh sorry sorry there is a live stream
next week sorry sorry sorry sorry
so just a heads up is a way to quickly
give someone information so yeah just a
heads up the meeting time changed or
just a heads up we’re going for lunch in
an hour do you want to come so this is
like something you can use for quick
short information quick short
information Armando you can check what
ETA means if you watch the video back
ETA estimated time of arrival so just a
heads up you can kind of imagine though
like here the expression is head like
your head up so if you imagine someone
sitting in a desk working maybe their
head is down but when you give them the
information their head comes up for a
short period of time it’s like a heads
up just just a heads up always just a
heads up gives means just to notify
someone of something yeah if you have a
nice example just just up not to just a
heads up or just to give you a heads up
no classes tomorrow
okay so that’s one that’s our first a
kind of communication expression
then let’s go to the next one the next
one is really about is very very
communicative very business this is kind
of a business
expression let’s take a look it is to
reach out to reach out so to reach out
especially used in like business emails
business emails and like other kind of
more formal correspondence you might see
it in a formal letter to reach out means
to contact someone or to communicate
with someone but I feel this is an
expression we tend to use for like an
introduction so if you are for example
proposing an idea or you’re trying to
make the first contact with someone you
can use this expression so here’s a
sample pattern so I’m reaching out to
you to blah blah blah so I’m reaching
out to you to see if you would be
interested in this project or I’m
reaching out to you to see if you can
contact so such and such person
so here the phrase or the verb reach out
is used so it sounds like imagine like
you’re kind of reaching to that person
maybe you’re trying to contact someone
but through your words so like for a
proposal or for an introduction or
something so to reach out means to
contact someone I’m reaching out to you
to blah blah blah so trying to contact
you to contact or communicate with
someone alright so this is very this is
a quite a common one for emails
especially alright let’s go to another
expression then a different one for
communication though but actually I used
this in last week’s live stream when I
didn’t know I didn’t know the name of a
singer I didn’t I didn’t know there was
a singer called the weekend I didn’t
know and I used this expression last
week really yeah I really I didn’t I
didn’t know that was a singer
hilarious I know so good but like let’s
look at the expression so last week the
expression I used was out of the loop
out of the loop so out of the loop is an
expression we use when we are missing
information everyone else has so in this
example from last week everybody like
everybody around me everybody knew who
the weekend was but I didn’t know who
the weekend was so a loop is like a
circle yeah so imagine so here’s a loop
imagine this is information this is the
information everyone in your team has
the information however if you are
missing information so here’s me you are
out of the loop out of the loop meaning
you don’t have the information you just
you don’t know something so you can use
out of the loop I’m out of this circle
of information to mean I’m missing
something I don’t understand something
so in my case last week I said I’m out
of the loop about the weekend so I had
no idea about the weekend but at work
you can use this as well so for example
if your co-workers forget to see see you
on an email you can say I’m out of the
loop about the project for example or
I’m out of the loop about the meeting
plans for example so out of the loop
means missing information about
something out of the out of the loop out
of the loop about something ok good so I
want to go to our last communication
related vocabulary word very common I
almost actually I almost tweeted this in
my in my reminder tweet this morning but
I didn’t I didn’t I wanted to explain it
instead so the last one I want to talk
about is to touch base to touch base to
touch base
means to have a short check in like a
check-in meeting with someone else so
touch base base you can imagine base
comes from like baseball if you’ve seen
baseball it’s that square thing so the
player touches the base kind of you can
imagine that or you can imagine this as
like a home base like a headquarters so
you’re coming to meet with like your
home team or you’re coming to like a
safe place sort of you’re checking in
together at this safe place with someone
so we use the expression to touch base
to mean to have a short check-in with
someone so here’s a very common pattern
a common way to use this let’s touch
base about something so here is your
topic what do you want to check in about
so let’s touch base about our new
product or let’s touch base about the
status of your proposal for example
let’s touch base about your contract I
don’t I don’t know so something you want
to have a short check-in meeting about
touch base touch base let’s touch base
so this is our next viewer question for
you alright so please think about the
next person you need to touch base with
who do you need to have a short check-in
meeting with so for example I need to
touch base with our video team about
videos so what do you need to touch base
I’m sorry who do you need - whom do you
need to touch base or who do you need to
touch base with sorry I need to touch
base with my manager about my project or
I need to touch base with my team about
our proposal for example I need to touch
base with my landlord about a
construction project for example so
please explain who
the next person you need to touch base
with yeah as our touching base is kind
of a strange expression yeah to touch
base to touch base but it’s very common
in like in planning and business and you
can use it outside the office as well
you can’t use it outside the office
Shari sharee says let’s touch base about
our chalk about chalk what do you need
to talk about with chalk okay
grammatically correct grammatically
correct so uh Hatem says let’s touch
base with Alicia about her feelings my
feelings uh I feel a bit warm right now
I feel a bit warm this room is quite
warm it’s a little hot in here okay um
good junior and I say junior welcome
back I saw your message - yeah I need to
touch my base I need to touch base with
my coach about the next game I need to
touch base with my friend about homework
I need to touch base with my boss about
the new English book I Taylor I need to
touch base with my team about the future
of my company I need to touch base with
Alisha about my English improvements I
need to touch base with the engineering
team
Wow suddenly just a rush of example
sentences on YouTube perfect these are
perfect I need to touch base with my
boss about my page that go good luck
good luck with that
nice nice great great example sentences
you guys fantastic okay sounds good to
me
so touch base touch base means to have a
short check-in meeting with someone okay
let’s take a break this morning let’s
take another break if you missed it if
you missed it because today’s topic is
office slang workplace slang we do as
always have some free stuff of course if
you have not please make sure to LIKE
the video please please please hit the
like button it helps other people to
find the video but as we talked about
earlier if you missed it this week of
course we have our free PDFs for you
guys but we want to focus in and remind
you about the business
work-related cheat sheets so if you’re
missing any vocabulary relating to
business or relating to work as we’re
talking about today you can check this
PDF you can download this for free you
can save it to your computer and you can
take it on your phone or your tablet of
course your your computer as well but
this PDF has vocabulary words phrases
you can use also some useful questions
you can use at work as well so if you
want to practice some more business
related words please take a look please
download please go download this it’s
free it’s in the link below the video on
YouTube and above the video on Facebook
so please check that out you can find
that for free on our website ok let’s
finish up today so we’ll go to the last
category for office slang today again if
you have not please make sure to like
like the video helps so that other
people can come join us to UM alright
let’s continue so I said our third
category for today would be expressions
we use for making decisions so some kind
of opinion related things so let’s take
a look I think I have maybe four
expressions I want to talk about so
we’ll go quickly then um let’s look at
the first one the first expression is no
brainer a no-brainer
so no-brainer means it’s a choice that’s
so easy something that is so easy
there’s no need to think about it it’s
such an easy thing to decide this is a
no-brainer
so for example someone says like here
would you like some free money you can
say oh my gosh yes of course that’s a
no-brainer
or this is a no-brainer so a no-brainer
it’s an easy choice it’s so easy I don’t
have to think a no-brainer a no-brainer
decision so very easy choice so
at work when you are presented with a
really nice proposal or there’s a really
easy decision to make this is a
no-brainer you can use this this is a
no-brainer let’s do it for example okay
let’s go to the next one the next one is
also quite common outside of work
outside of business it is a win win a
win win a win win is a situation or a
plan where all parties so here I’ve used
parties this part this doesn’t mean like
party party party this is also a word we
use to mean like groups in a business
situation so like company a and Company
B we could like that’s one party and
another party so we use party to mean
groups groups or like organizations or
companies so a win win a win win is a
situation or a plan where all parties or
where everybody benefits so so there’s
something good a benefit means there’s
something good for everybody in the
situation so a win-win situation
so like for example maybe I don’t know
you guys can watch a like free live
stream on the internet and we get to
make a cool video so it’s a win-win
situation everybody wins in some way so
a win-win situation means everything or
rather something is good for everybody
involved in this situation all righty
that’s one all right let’s go to I’m
sorry we’re going quick we’re out of
time but the next one I want to talk
about is game changer a game changer a
game changer game changer is interesting
game changer can mean a positive or a
negative thing but the key here with
game changer is it’s a new situation or
a decision that changes an agreement or
changes your approach to a project so
this is some new thing
happens or some new decision and it
changes your approach it changes your
plans for something so a but it’s like a
big change something significant so
here’s an example the CEO of our
competitor so the competing company the
CEO of our competitor is stepping down
stepping down means leaving his or her
job to step down means to leave your job
so the CEO of our competitor is stepping
down this is a game changer so this
means there’s this is a big change this
introduces a big change in our plans so
here’s one example this is how we use
game changer something of a big change
that causes you to change your thinking
as well all right I have to go quickly
so let’s go to our last point for today
our last one for today lots of
hyphenated things here the last one for
today is a deal-breaker a deal-breaker
so deal deal means agreement deal means
agreement sorry deal means agreement and
to break means like to stop that thing
so remember an expression like break the
law for example it means like to to go
against something means like to cut
something or not do something correctly
to make a mistake sort of so a deal
breaker is like an agreement stopper I
guess you could say so this is a
situation or a decision that ends an
agreement or ends a relationship so we
can use this in business yes we can use
this at work we can also use this in
like interpersonal relationships like a
romantic relationship or even searching
for a product like trying to buy a new
car or trying to find a new apartment
for example something some situation or
some stitute some decision that you that
you think no there’s no way I can’t I
can’t forgive this or this is impossible
for me to deal with that’s a
deal-breaker so here’s an example
his resume looks good
but he has a lot of negative reviews
from former employers so previous bosses
previous bosses so that’s a deal breaker
so here
that’s refers to these negative reviews
this situation he has many negative
reviews so that’s a deal-breaker
so I’m we’re going to decide not to
choose this person for the job
so a deal-breaker so something that
means
oh no I’m I’m definitely not doing that
all right so that’s our last one for
today I wanted to use this to ask you
guys a question about what would be a
deal-breaker for you but maybe you can
me you can send that in the comments and
I can choose some interesting ones to
introduce next week yeah I don’t think
we have time so right nope yeah so we’ll
we’ll pass on the question but if you
like you can send a comment along yeah
for you maybe what would be a
deal-breaker for you Oh someone has a
good one already
Mooka says my girlfriend stopped
responding to all my messages that is a
deal-breaker oh that’s pretty legit
legit legit means legitimate legitimate
like true or a genuine so like if your
boyfriend or your girlfriend ignores
your messages or something or doesn’t
respond to your messages that’s pretty
fair that’s a deal-breaker you know yeah
that would bother me I hate it when
people ignore my messages guys be nuts
oh nice one nice example nice example so
if you have some other examples yeah
send them along and I’ll I’ll check the
comments after the live stream and
gather some good ones to introduce for
next week but we have to finish up for
today’s lesson thank you very much for
your questions and for all of your
example sentences as well I hope this
was a useful kind of introduction into
some workplace slang for today and again
if you want to see some more you can
check out the free PDFs in the links
below or above the video but uh we’ll
wrap up today’s lesson we had a lot of
new vocabulary so please join us again
at the same time next week next week
will be Wednesday February 27th
I believe Wednesday February 27
Wednesday February 28 28 28 okay okay
good February there it is I wrote it
down I forgot Wednesday February 28th at
9 p.m. Eastern Standard Time so please
remember that’s New York City time next
week so we talked about business words a
lot here but we can use some of this in
next week’s lesson next week is going to
be about making breaking and changing
plans so that means that can be for
business yes but also just like going on
a date like we talked about in the
Valentine’s livestream we’re just making
plans with your friends as well so we’re
going to talk about yeah making breaking
changing plans for next week that will
be next week February 28th 9 p.m. 9 p.m.
Eastern Standard Time
Wednesday night New York City time so
please join us for another fun
livestream so not so business focused
but we’re gonna review some points about
plans and maybe introduce some new
things too all right
I am extremely late today so thank you
very much as always for joining for
commenting for liking for sharing very
helpful and I’m happy to have the chance
to connect with all of you again this
week enjoy the rest of your day enjoy
the rest of your night your week
whatever and I will see you again next
week thanks very much bye bye
you