Calls and instant messages: Office English episode 4

Phone calls, video calls, even instant  messages: there are so many ways to  

communicate at work.  

I hardly ever use phone calls at work: they're almost always video calls.

Yeah, I can't remember the  last time I made an actual phone call.

It's really easy to just message someone  at work or start a call online. I might call  

somebody on the phone if there's something  urgent, but I don't think I use phone calls  

at work as often as before.

Instant messages are very useful at work, um, we use them all the time.

In this episode of Office English, we're  looking at the language of calls and text at work.

Welcome to Office English from BBC learning  English: your podcast guide to the language of  

business. I'm Pippa.  

And I'm Phil, and we're here to  talk about the more difficult parts of speaking 

English at work. In episode one we were talking  about emails, but there are loads of other ways  

that people communicate in the workplace today.  What's your favourite, Pippa?

I think my favourite is actually a video call. I think it's so useful now that lots of people work from home some of  

the time, to be able to have a video call and  to talk with people, um, and it means that a  

meeting can be quite productive, because you  can prepare what you want to say in advance,  

and you don't have the pressure of being in  the room with people. I find that quite useful  

actually. What about you, Phil?

Um, I think I like instant messages because they're kind of immediate,

they're kind of, you can get a quick answer quite  often, you can chat quite easily, you can look back  

and see what someone said. I think they're quite  practical and they just, they just feel a lot freer than email.

Mm, yeah, but we should talk about instant messages because not everybody has those  

at work, so, um, an instant message is what a lot of  offices use now, so that when you are working at  

home, working remotely, you can still keep in touch  really easily with the people that you work with,  

so it will be a messaging platform that might be  part of your email, or a different app at work, and  

you can talk to your colleagues like you might do  on your phone, um, you can also have the messages on  

your phone, so it makes it really easy, um, and  yeah, those are really popular now, and we use them

them here at BBC Learning English. But, with all  these different ways to talk to colleagues  

at work, making sure you say the right thing  is quite stressful, even if you speak English  

like a pro. So, we're going to look at some  useful phrases to use whether you're talking  

on a video call, using an instant messaging  app, or making a good old-fashioned phone call.

Let's start with video calls. We talked about  the difficult language of meetings before on the  

podcast, but having a meeting via video can make  things even more complicated. What phrases can  

help us here, Pippa?

Well, lots of the phrases around  video calls are usually around technology, so if  

there are problems on the video call, and lots of  people listening will have experienced this, um, so  

we need to know phrases like 'Could you mute, please? to tell somebody to turn their microphone off,  

or 'You're on mute' to tell someone their microphone  is turned off and they need to turn it on to speak,  

but it's also useful to be able to say things  like 'My Internet is slow' or 'I'm going to turn off  

my video because my internet is rubbish', which  means, you know, 'I'm going to try and help the  

call'. And then the other one is 'your video is  freezing', which means 'Your video is not very good  

because your internet connection is bad'. There's  a lot of language around the technology of video calls, Phil.

Well there's one there I like: 'Oh sorry,  you're breaking up. I, I didn't catch that'.   

Yeah, which you can also use if you weren't listening, and you need them to repeat.   

Don't give away the secrets, Pippa!

But then you also need to be able  to interrupt during a video call. Now this can be  

really difficult, because when everyone's talking  on a video call, it's harder to know when someone  

is about to speak. You might have noticed when  you use a video call, people often talk over each  

other, but so you can use some phrases like  'Could I stop you for just a moment' or 'Sorry would  

you mind if I asked a quick question?' Being polite  at all times when you're trying to interrupt  

because you, you might not get the natural pause  like you do in an in-person meeting.

Yeah, and there's sometimes on the different platforms that people use there are things where you can put your  

hand up or show a little picture or something to  say that you want to say something.

Yeah, and that can be a good way if you're chairing a meeting to keep on top of when people want to speak.

So there's lots of technical language for video  calls, but what about sending text messages or  

instant messages at work: how do these work, Phil?  

Yeah, so the great thing about instant messages is 

they're very quick and they can be very immediate,  but of course that also causes a problem sometimes,  

because maybe we expect an immediate response,  or maybe when someone sends it to us we think  

they expect an immediate response. We feel under  pressure and we want to need to stop doing what  

we're doing or we're in a meeting somewhere else.  So it's quite good to use phrases when you're  

sending it saying, um, 'When you have a moment' or  'Sorry to bother you', um, actually and also if when  

you do get a message you're quite busy and you  can't respond, are there any good phrases you could  

use for that, Pippa?

Yeah, you could just say 'I'm in a  meeting right now, I'll get back to you later' or, um,  

'I'm really sorry, I don't have time, maybe ask Phil', um, yeah, and also I think when you want to send a  

an instant message to somebody, you should think  about what you're messaging them, so what the topic is.  

So, is instant message the best place for your  conversation? Because things get lost so easily  

if they're in an instant message, because the chat  carries on and it's hard to search for something.  

So if it's an important thing, or a document, or  something that somebody might need to find again,  

an email might be better, but if it's more like, 'Oh  it's just going to be much quicker if we quickly  

chat about it', a bit like you might do if you  thought 'I'm going to phone somebody', then that's  

when you use an instant message.

Now there is one thing that I think is a little bit complicated  

about instant messages, and that is in a way we  don't have many rules yet on how to use them.  

So I think we can sometimes be incredibly informal in instant messages: much more so than you'd ever be  

on an email, but then on the other hand sometimes  you do have to instant message someone who you  

don't know so well, or they're very important, or  you have to to get through to them, and we might  

change the way that we send our messages. We might suddenly become much more formal and it look a  

little bit like an email, the things that we're  sending, or lines from an email.

Mm, yes.

What do you think about emojis and gifs in messages?  

Ah, well, we like emojis. I think that's a place for an emoji.

If it feels like that's the the way other people  at your work are using it, then definitely go for it.

The reason that these platforms exist is to try  and create a sense of being in the office, but when  

you're not, so they are supposed to be more chatty,  they are supposed to be friendlier, but yeah, just  

keep an eye on what other people are doing, so try  and look at other messages people send to you, and  

respond in a similar way.  

Right, so we've covered video calls and instant messages to new 

ways to talk to people at work, but sometimes you  just need to pick up the phone and call somebody.  

Now, are there any phrases that can help us with  that, Pippa?

Yes, so when you're calling someone on  

the phone - and you might already be familiar with  this - you want to introduce yourself and check that  

you have got the right person, so you might say, 'Hi,  this is Pippa from BBC learning English. Is that  

Phil speaking?' And that's when you're calling  somebody from outside your, um, organisation, or  

somebody that you don't know. But, um, because we  don't use phones as often, definitely in the UK  

now at work in the office, it might be useful  to check the person's free, um, to speak to you,  

so, especially if you're calling them out of the  blue, so that means you're calling them and they  

didn't expect a call from you, you say, 'Is now a  good time to talk?' or 'Do you have a few minutes  

to talk about this?' Um, just [a] polite way of checking that they have the time to speak to you, because  

people get annoyed if you call them out of the  blue.  

Yes, and another thing that I sometimes do when I'm calling, often when I call someone is  because I got a problem and I need to get it  

sorted out, so I'm calling other departments and  I don't know whether they can help me or not.  

I might just say, 'I don't know if you can help me,  but...', 'I don't know if this is the right place, but...'  

That's something I say quite a lot, um, and it often  isn't the right place, um, sometimes they can point  

you to the right place to call.

They're much more likely to be helpful if you start the call in  

a friendly way, rather than demanding something from, for instance, the IT department, as soon as you call them.

Just like when you are writing an  email, taking the time to study how other  

people at your workplace use messages, video  calls, and phone calls to communicate can be  

really useful, to make sure you get the tone of  your language right, and that you're using the  

right platform for the right message. 

Let's hear again from our BBC learning English colleagues. 

I might call somebody on the phone if there's  something urgent, but I don't think I use phone  

calls at work as often as before.

I hardly ever use phone calls at work. They're almost always video calls.

Yeah, I can't remember the last  time I made an actual phone call.   

It sounds like as the workplace changes, as more of us work from home, and as we have more access to the internet  

people use phones a lot less, and video calls and  messages more. What do you think, Phil?  

I think it might depend what industry you work in. I think some people might be very keen on making lots  

of phone calls, whereas in others it's much more  based on email, so it does depend a little bit on  

the culture of the company you work in, and maybe  the type of company that you're working for as well.

That's it for this episode of  Office English. Remember there's loads  

more courses and activities to help you with  your English at work at BBC Learning English dot com.  

Next time, we'll be talking about mistakes,  and the language we can use when things go  

wrong at work.

Oh, I think I might need  that one! See you then. Bye.

Bye.