What to say (and NOT to say!) when you dismiss someone in English

- Laying someone off, dismissing a member of your team,

firing someone.

It's not a fun situation,

but eventually, if you lead an international team,

you may need to dismiss someone

or lay someone off in English.

Let me help you have the right expressions

so that you say the right thing

and sound confident and diplomatic

if you find yourself in this situation.

And we'll start with some commonly confused expressions

so that you can stay out of trouble.

Whether you are letting someone go

or you're talking about being between jobs yourself,

there are some expressions that you do not want to confuse.

Let's get started.

Since this is such a difficult topic,

you definitely want to avoid confusion.

And I want to remind you that, yes, I'm here to help you

with your Business English needs,

but the rules around hiring and ending employment change

and they can depend on where you live and work

so I can't give you specific advice on that.

Your human resources department would know best

about the rules and regulations for your country.

But I can help you with your English.

Hi, I'm your English coach, Christina,

and welcome to "Business English with Christina,"

where you become better at English and better at business.

And let me help you with my expertise

as a neurolanguage coach and someone who leads

an international team so that you can show your expertise

in business and in English.

Go over to christinarebuffet.com/worksheets

to get the free activities that I've made for you

on this lesson to help you learn the expressions

and really use them in your real life

and test your knowledge of what you learned today.

Right, let's get into it.

In English, we have different expressions that we use

when someone has to leave their company.

First, let's start with a common situation.

Let's say an employee loses his or her job

because of financial reasons.

It's beyond the employee's control

or even the business's control.

In this case, notice the expressions that you would use

in these example sentences:

Sam, we're gonna have to let you go.

Unfortunately, we're gonna have to lay you off.

In this situation, it's no one's fault,

and you may want to explain why it happened like this:

As you may know, business is not going well

and we've been forced to downsize.

And in this case, of course,

you can also let your team member know

that you regret the situation.

You could say something like, "I'm sorry this is happening."

You know, as a neurolanguage coach,

I know that when we are in situations

that are more stressful, it can be harder to do your best

in your English, and that means that saying the right thing

and using diplomatic language in these moments

when it's especially important is more difficult.

So it's a great idea to learn the right expressions

and practice them in advance.

Of course, when you lead a team,

there are also times

when you to terminate someone's employment

because of something they did or something they didn't do.

As the leader, you have to do what's right for the company,

even if it's difficult,

and that may mean dismissing someone.

Now, just a word of caution.

Another expression for dismissing someone

is to fire someone, but that's not very diplomatic language.

It would sound unprofessional to say, "You're fired,"

to your employee.

(hand pounds)

- You're fired.

(ominous music)

- Listen to the next two examples.

They're diplomatic and professional ways

of dismissing an employee:

John, today will be your last day at our company.

We've provided ongoing warnings about meeting your deadlines

and you were notified that continuing to be late

would lead to your dismissal.

In business, saying the right thing is important,

so before we see the correct words

to talk about your unemployment periods,

be sure to go to christinarebuffet.com/worksheets

to get that worksheet to test yourself

on everything that you're learning in this video.

You know, I work with a lot of clients

who are between jobs too.

I mean, it can happen to anyone,

especially in today's volatile workplace.

And if you're in the middle of a job search,

of course, you want to have the right words

for talking about your current situation.

Here are some things that you can say

when you're looking for work:

I'm currently unemployed;

or, I'm between jobs right now.

It's two ways of saying, "I don't have a job right now,"

but in a more professional, maybe even more positive way.

And you would actually be surprised

how many clients I've worked with

who accidentally told me that they were fired

from their last job, when in reality,

they were laid off because of economic reasons,

not because of something they did.

And when we dug into the situation a little more

and we realized that what they really wanted to say

was that they were let go or laid off

or that their contract came to an end,

which is a totally different reason for not having a job,

you know, compared to being fired,

which means that you did something bad.

Anyway, like I said, being able to make the difference

between those nuances is important,

especially in the challenging moments in your career.

So learning the expressions from this lesson

is a great example of a small step that you can take

that will add up to a big difference in your life

and in your English if you keep taking these small steps

over and over.

And if you've got a situation that is complex

and challenging and you would like someone

to help you with that, remember that my team and I

are also here to coach you through those situations.

And if you don't use it, you lose it.

So here's how you can use what you learned

in today's lesson.

In the comments, here's a quick one,

just see if you can use the expression, "to let go,"

or "to be let go" in a sentence.

It's the perfect opportunity to practice

to make sure that you're using this expression correctly

and to add it to your active vocabulary.

And if this lesson was helpful for you,

of course, I would love to know,

and there are three simple ways that you can tell me:

Give this lesson a thumbs up on YouTube

and subscribe to my channel so that you can continue

getting my Business English lessons.

Number two, go over to christinarebuffet.com/worksheets

and get the worksheet to test yourself

on all of these nuances that you learned in today's lesson.

And you can go ahead and watch the next lesson,

which is "Six Advanced Business English Words

to Upgrade Your English."

Thank you so much for improving

with "Business English with Christina,"

and I'll see you next time.