Bad news: Office English episode 7

Sometimes we have to give or receive bad news at work.

Even if you're really kind of grown up about it, it's still a difficult thing to hear, so to give that information  

is equally difficult, I'd say.

It's important to remember that you're talking to a real person, and this bad news is going to affect

them in a personal way, and you have to take that into account rather than just following um business kind of speak.

In this episode of Office English, we're talking about the language of bad news.  

Welcome to Office English, the podcast where we  discuss business language to help you succeed at work.

Today, we're talking about bad news. Nobody likes talking about bad news,  

right Phil? But sometimes at work, we have to.

Okay, you're talking about bad news. What do we mean by bad news at work? What things can be bad news at work?

So, it's things that might affect your job in  a bad way - so, it might be a company-wide problem,  

maybe financial difficulties - decisions have  to be made about what people can afford,  

what jobs are going to remain, and who might be  losing their job. Or, it might be something more  

specific to you, so your manager might need to  give you bad news about a report you've written,  

or some work you've done, or something that's  happened in your department that affects you.

And when people give bad news, they often don't  like doing it and so they'll often use something  

which we call a business euphemism, and that means sort of a word or a phrase which sounds innocent,  

sounds harmless, but actually could mean something quite bad or serious. So,  

they're trying to hide the bad news from you or make it sound like a  

positive thing when it might actually be bad for your future at the company.

So, in this episode of Office English, we're going  to look at some of these business euphemisms  

so that you can recognise bad news. And we'll  also talk about some phrases you can use if  

you need to deliver bad news to somebody else.

Right, let's start with recognising bad news.

How do managers talk about problems at work, Phil? What phrases should we look out for?

Yes, keep your ears open for some of these phrases like if you hear about budget cuts,

there's often consequences to that, aren't there?

Yeah, budget cuts mean less money, which means probably fewer things that can have money spent on them.

You mean fewer things, like fewer people sometimes?

Sometimes, yes. Fewer projects, fewer people.

Another one is something called 'headwinds'. So, if people talk about financial headwinds, that means basically 'forces that are

stopping the company from making as much  money as they might like to make'.

Sounds like something from sailing that one, 'headwinds'.

Yeah. I think it probably is a metaphor.

Also, you'll often hear of companies talk about  needing to make efficiencies. What do they mean by that?

Well, it's similar to budget cuts. 'Making  efficiencies' means 'spending less money to get the same amount

of work done', which sometimes means  fewer people to get the same amount of work done,

Yeah, so, a lot of these, I mean, they don't have to be, but they often do mean that there's going to be fewer people working at

the place that you work, which could be bad news.

And these euphemisms carry on because we actually have euphemisms that specifically mean people losing their jobs,

but we perhaps don't want to say that. So, we can talk about downsizing. How is downsizing made? Where is that coming from?

So, if we downsize something, we make  it smaller. This is quite an American term, I think -

an American way to say that the company  is going to change, and there will be fewer jobs at the end of the process.

- So, downsizing means the whole workforce gets smaller. - Yep.

Another one we use is 'restructuring'. So, the word 'restructuring', changing the  

structure of something. We might not think that would necessarily mean that  

there would be people losing their jobs, but it usually does. 'Restructuring' is a euphemism  

for 'we are going through a process where  there will be fewer people working here'.

And another one we've got here is 'streamlining'.  I think in engineering or design, 'streamlining'  

is you 'make something aerodynamic so that it can go faster'. So, you take bits off it so it can  

go faster. Well, for business, sometimes that means taking people out so that it  

can work better or cheaper.

All of these three words: downsizing, restructuring, streamlining,

they don't always mean that people will lose their  jobs. Sometimes they just mean reorganisation,  

but that means change and upheaval. So, that might be bad news for you at work.

And then we have some words that are  specifically about people losing  

their jobs. We've got redundancies and layoffs. What's a redundancy?  

What's the difference between being made  redundant and getting sacked, for example?

So, 'being sacked' is when you lose your job  because of something that you've done or  

because of your performance at work, usually.  Whereas, 'being made redundant', in the UK,  

we have a very formal process for redundancies.  It's basically where a company has to decide that  

they need to make their workforce smaller. So,  some people need to lose their jobs, but it's  

not their fault. So, being made redundant just means that your role won't exist anymore,  

your job won't exist any more, and the company  makes that decision. But it's not something  

that you've done. It's just something that's kind of outside of your control, really.

Yeah. And when we talk about

layoffs, I mean, that's usually the same thing. It's companies reducing  

the number of people working for them to save money. What about  

this expression 'to let someone go'? What do you think of that expression?

This is sort of a phrase that we use to say that somebody has to lose their job.  

It's another one of these euphemisms. 'To let someone go' is almost - it sounds like you're  

doing them a favour when actually you're saying  that they can't work here anymore for various  

reasons. So, 'to let someone go' means 'to make  them redundant so that they lose their job'.

Right, so we now know some words to talk about bad news at work,  

but imagine we're the ones giving the bad news. What else do we need to say?

Well, this is difficult. So, this will be different depending on the country that you  

work in, the context that you work in. Some  cultures are more upfront about things. So,  

they're more likely to just say what the problem is and give you the bad news. Some  

cultures are more likely to use a lot of these euphemisms that we've talked about.

If you have to do it yourself, it's not a nice thing to do. Probably the best way is to start  

by being honest. So, say something like, 'We've  had to make some tough decisions, and after a  

long and careful review, we have decided that…'  So, that's showing that you've taken a decision that  

you're about to communicate very seriously, um you're taking this whole conversation seriously.

There's an emphasis there. It's a tough decision. 'It's been...' It's saying it's been difficult,  

long, and careful there, it's this idea that a lot of effort has gone into this  

decision. It wasn't just made quickly. It's been thought about for a long time.

Another thing that might be helpful is to try and be quite clear and concise. So,  

a short piece of news. So, you could say, 'Unfortunately,  

your role is being made redundant.' So, it's  really clear what is happening in your bad news.

There's something else that's interesting here as well. If you say to someone,  

'Your role is being made redundant', you're making it about the position  

in the company. You're not making it about that individual. There are reasons why that  

happens in the UK, but in general, it's kind of depersonalising it. So,  

it's probably easier to talk about someone's role than the person themselves.

Yes, and if you're having to give someone bad news,  it's likely that they might be upset. So,  

you need to think about how you're going to  show them that you care, and also kind of make sure that  

they're okay. So, you could say, 'Is there somebody  that I can call for you? Would you like to take  

a moment?' If someone's upset, you could ask,  'Would you like to take a moment?' so they've just 

got time to kind of react to what you're telling  them, which is probably quite a big shock.

And it's often good at this moment to um - yeah avoid clichés. So, things like, 'Oh,  

look on the bright side.' I mean, there could be a nice sentiment behind it,  

but if it's a cliché, it sort of suggests you haven't really been thinking about it,  

and you haven't - you don't really mean it. So, do try to  make sure when you're talking to someone,  

sound like you mean what you say. Don't just use the same old tired clichés.

Yeah, and you probably don't want to just try and cheer them up. Your natural instinct when  

speaking to someone and they're upset is to try and cheer them up. But they probably don't  

want to hear that from the person that has given them the bad news or that they might  

see as responsible for their misfortune. So, yeah, it's a really difficult thing to do basically.

Unfortunately, even if you're calm and sympathetic with bad news,  

people can still be upset. Let's hear again from our BBC Learning English colleagues.

It's important to remember that you're talking to a real person,  

and this bad news is going to affect them in a personal way, and you have to  

take that into account rather than just following, um, business kind of speak.

I think there's a temptation to say to someone  that something isn't maybe as bad as it is,  

and that makes the whole situation even  more difficult. I think you need to be  

upfront with someone, even if it's difficult,  because otherwise you're just kicking that can  

down the road and they'll have to deal with  a possibly even bigger problem later on.

Okay, so Neil used a phrase there, 'kicking the  can down the road'. What does that mean, Phil?

It's a metaphor, and it means that instead  of dealing with something that you need to  

deal with now, you put it off until sometime in  the future. But if we go back to the metaphor,  

instead of picking the can up and throwing it in the bin,  

you're kicking it further down the road. You'll just have to deal with it

later when you get to it. Yeah, the problem doesn't go away,  

so you're sort of delaying it rather than solving it.

And I think this is where, as we said earlier,  it's important to be clear when you're giving  

bad news. So, you don't want to leave the  conversation, either if you're giving bad  

news or you're receiving it, and what needs to  be communicated hasn't been communicated. So,  

it's important to be clear and not kind of hide too much behind euphemisms  

um and phrases that aren't clear about what actually needs to happen.

Um, so if you're trying to be too kind, you're  actually creating a problem further down  

the line - you're kicking the can down the road.

Now, if you're stuck for how to

start the conversation, you could just say,  'Unfortunately, I've got some bad news.'

Yeah, I think that's a good idea. So, start the  conversation and warn someone that they're  

about to hear something bad is probably a good way to start off. Don't start the  

conversation with a nice chit-chat and a really  friendly conversation because they'll just think  

it's a normal meeting, and then the bad news comes and shocks them even more.

That's it for this episode of Office English.  Hopefully, you won't have any bad news at work  

soon, but if you do, these phrases can help you  communicate.

If you like this podcast, you can

find more programmes and activities to help you  with your English at bbclearningenglish.com. Next  

time, we'll be talking about how to deal with  disagreements at work.

- See you then. Bye - Bye.