How to make small talk at work: What to say

Man, it's so hot out today.

Ah, Steve, welcome back!

How was your vacation?

Good?

Okay.

How was the food?

Eh, weather?

Ah, that's good.

Anyway, we should catch up at lunchtime, so I'll see you later, okay?

Alright, later, Steve.

Bye.

Okay.

Hey, one sec.

Hey everyone, I'm Alex.

Thanks for clicking, and welcome to this lesson on how to make small talk at the workplace,

in the workplace.

It's in the workplace, it is.

So today, I'm going to give you some set sentences and set questions that you can use to start

up conversations in the workplace to talk about common topics with your English-speaking

colleagues.

Now, this is not a be all, end all, exhaustive list of conversation topics.

But, I have tried to keep them as common as possible, as informal as possible, so that

you feel comfortable speaking this way and hearing these types of conversations when

you are at work, whether it's at the office, the factory, or outdoors, anywhere else, you

can kind of talk about these things.

So, again, the purpose of small talk.

I know small talk can feel very forced sometimes, but the purpose of small talk really is just

to develop, you know, a better relationship with your coworkers to make the environment

more pleasant, more professional, and just to feel comfortable with the people that you

work with and to get to know them better.

So, that's the purpose of a lot of the things we are going to look at today.

So, the basics.

Some of the most common questions, I'm going to let you see the whole board if you want

to take a screen capture and print it somewhere.

So, I will read the basics.

You'll just see my hand here: bam!

How was your weekend?

Or, if your coworker went on vacation: Welcome back!

How was your vacation?

Very general: Hey, how are you doing?

Or: How are you doing?

You can also comment of the weather: Ah, it's so hot, cold, rainy, nice, beautiful, depressing,

cloudy today.

You can also ask about the future, the coming weekend, like here: You got any plans for

the weekend?

If you know the person very well, you've been working with them for, you know, a year, two

years: How are the kids?

If they have kids.

And maybe the last one is very common if you're following up on a conversation you had before:

Ah, how did everything go with your car, or your wife's parents, or the dentist, or, you

know, your dinner with, you know, your sister or something like that.

Because yesterday or last week, your coworker told you, "Yeah, I'm going to have, you know,

dinner with my wife's parents this weekend.

I'm a little nervous because we had a fight the last time we saw each other."

And you kind of, you know, are telling your coworker - or your coworker's telling you,

"I don't know how it's going to go."

And you see them.

"Ah, how did everything go with your wife's parents?", for example.

Okay, so these questions.

I call them the basics, because everyone talks about what they did on the weekend.

Everyone can talk about the weather.

In Canada, we love talking about the weather.

It's one of the most common topics.

You know, I say Canada, but I'm sure almost everywhere, people talk about the weather.

If you live in a country where people hate talking about the weather, please tell me,

because I want to know where that place is.

I talk about the weather every day.

So yeah, very common.

You can just make a comment and usually, you know, your coworker will probably respond.

"Ah, it's so hot out today."

"Yeah, I know, I was sweating."

Then you just follow up with more conversation like that.

And small talk doesn't have to last forever.

It can just be a quick exchange, right?

So, some follow up questions.

For example, if you're talking about a person's vacation, it's like, "Oh, welcome back", like

I was talking to Steve, right?

How was your vacation?

It was great.

Where did you go again?

Where did you go?

Right?

How long were you there?

When did you get back?

Like, you look tired today, like, yeah, we got back at 9:00 last night.

We missed our flight, it got cancelled.

How was the food?

How was the weather?

And here's one, you know, what happened after that?

You can ask in any scenario, you know.

How was the weekend?

Oh, it was really good.

We went to my Mom's, whatever, whatever.

Oh, what happened after that?

And if you're talking about the weather.

Ah, it's so hot out today, it's so cold, or it's so depressing.

You can ask a general question.

Do you prefer the heat or the cold?

Or do you prefer hot or cold?

Do you prefer the sun or the rain, or the clouds or the rain?

Or something like that.

Personally, I do prefer the cold, because at least when I'm cold, I can put something

on, like a jacket or a sweater.

Whereas if it is hot, you can only take your clothes off and I don't like taking my clothes

off in public, except now, because I'm not wearing any pants in this video either!

You will get that reference if you watch some of my other lessons.

Okay.

So, yeah, some reactions to small talk.

So here, we have, Oh, that's great!

So, how did everything go with, let's see, how did everything go with your wife's parents?

Let's return to that example.

How did everything go with your wife's parents?

Oh, it was good.

We had a delicious meal, we had good conversation, it wasn't strange or awkward.

The conversation flowed smoothly; it was good.

And you say, Ah, that's great!

Right.

Or, you're kidding!

You're kidding, you are joking.

That's - you can, you know, "You're kidding" can mean "That's great" as well, depending

on the context.

Or, if something went terribly wrong, you can say, "My car broke down on the highway

while I was driving to my cottage", you know, "to go on a mini-vacation for the weekend."

"You're kidding, your car broke down?"

like it stopped working.

Oh no, that's the worst!

Or, Ah, that's terrible, right.

No way!

So, to express surprise, like you don't believe it.

No way!

I don't believe it!

What?

Really?

So, more expressions of surprise, right?

So, what, really?

No way!

Oh, you're kidding, that's great, or that's great news.

Oh no, really?

Awesome, okay?

So, if you think what I'm doing is like, really weird right now, I mean, people talk like

this, alright?

I'm not the coolest guy, but I use these words and - yeah.

Everyone talks that way.

Okay.

I'm sure you have similar reactions in your own languages too, right?

So, that's it.

Yeah, future plans.

You got any plans for the weekend?

Right?

What are you doing this weekend?

Are you going out to the carnival?

Are you going to see a concert?

Are you visiting family?

Do you have any birthday parties to attend?

Are you going to your cousin's house?

What are you doing this weekend, right?

Very casual Friday, or Thursday conversation at work.

How are the kids?

You know, maybe you had a conversation before with a closer colleague and they told you

their kids were sick.

Ah, how are the kids now?

Are they still sick?

Okay?

So, you can have a lot of different small talk topics here.

It just depends how comfortable you are, how familiar you are with the person you're talking

to.

I mean, don't force it.

Like, hey, how was your weekend?

Like, make it natural.

Make it genuine, like, small talk works best when you actually care, and you're interested,

okay?

So, keep it genuine, keep in natural and let's see what else you can talk about.

Compliments and observations.

So, you can, you know, compliment a coworker, make observations about a coworker.

Obviously, you need to have a good relationship, a good familiarity with them.

Some people are not comfortable having things pointed out about, you know, their appearance.

So, use your discretion, your familiarity with the person, obviously.

So, you can say: Ah, nice haircut.

Ah, nice shoes.

Maybe they got new shoes.

Nice shirt.

Nice glasses.

You can say.

Ah, thanks, I just got them this weekend.

Ah, really?

Like, why did you get new ones?

I had my old ones for, like, five years.

It was time for a change.

Ah yeah, what's your prescription?

So, you can, you know, ask a lot of follow up questions about these types of topics.

Haircuts, maybe not.

Like, how often do you get your hair cut?

Once every two or three months.

Like, for me, it's once every two or three months.

Otherwise my hair starts getting really long and wavy and weird, so I like to keep it this

length.

Okay.

Very general: Is that new?

So, maybe, you know, you notice something new about them.

A new watch or a new bag or a new phone or something like that and you can say, "Hey,

is that new?"

"Oh yeah, I got it on the weekend."

"How much did you pay?" if you're comfortable asking that and if they are comfortable answering

that, right?

Similar to, "Is that new?", let me show you the whole board here.

Did you get - and again, we're asking, you know, did you get a haircut?

Did you get a new bag?

Did you get new earrings?

Is that new?

Did you get a new haircut - a new haircut, well, a haircut, or a new bag?

Where did you get that pen?

Where did you get those shoes?

Where did you get that necklace, that bag?

You know, whatever, whatever is new that you notice about the person, right?

So, you can compliment them.

Nice ________.

Is that new?

Did you get _______ whatever, a new something?

Where did you get that pen?

Where did you get that?

And you can follow up, asking about cost or frequency or, you know prescription of sunglasses

or glasses, if they have glasses or sunglasses, maybe.

Okay?

So, compliments or observations, other very common small talk topics in the workplace.

Current events.

So, hey, did you see the game?

So, maybe the championship game, whether it's, you know, any sport.

Soccer, hockey, basketball, football, sports, what other sports are there?

Baseball, right?

Did you see the debate, right?

Maybe it's in the middle of an election cycle and there's a public debate that happens on

television or it streamed live online.

Did you see the debate, what did you think?

Oh, I thought it was horrendous, or I can't stand that guy or that whoever.

So, did you see the opening ceremonies?

Maybe it's in the middle of an Olympics cycle and you want to talk about, you know, the

Olympics.

So, talk about something current, something that's happening, something that, you know,

everyone is chatting about on the street.

So, the game, the debate, the opening ceremonies, and let me step off again.

Did you hear about _____?

Right?

Did you hear about the robbery?

Or, the new law they passed, right?

Did you hear about this?

Did you read about this?

Or, you can also, you know, a lot of people, they just show YouTube videos.

It's like oh, have you seen this video?

And it can be something that's funny, or is the dress yellow or gold or blue, or are the

shoes pink or gray or teal?

Like, this kind of stuff, like meme culture.

You can ask about those things as well, obviously.

Those are current events too, right?

So, yeah, hey, did you see, did you hear about, or did you read about?

Have you seen this?

Okay?

And obviously, work topics.

Very, very easy to make small talk about work topics.

For example, let me step off.

Have you seen ________ today?

Have you seen Brenda, you know, have you seen Kuldeep?

Have you seen Jason?

Have you seen Jamilah, like whoever, right?

Have you seen these people today?

Where is he?

I haven't seen him today; I'm supposed to have lunch with him.

Or, he's not answering his emails.

Or, I'm getting too many calls because he's not working right now, or he's on lunch for

too long.

Alright?

Do you know if the printer has been fixed?

Do you know if we're having a meeting today?

Okay?

So, you can ask about things that, you know, you're wondering about in the workplace to

one of your colleagues to make some small talk.

Alright, that's it for now, guys.

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Alright, that's basically it.

I just want to say a couple of more things about the small talk, though.

So, really, the most important thing is keep it genuine.

Keep it natural, keep it real.

If you don't care, like, if you genuinely don't care about, you know, making small talk,

you don't have to make small talk.

But it does make things more pleasant in the workplace.

It is a skill, it is a skill, period.

I was going to continue that, but no, it is a skill.

I'm not very good at small talk, still.

I find that I still have to find words and search for words and topics in the moment.

Sometimes, the other person doesn't give you much to work with or respond to, right?

It's like, "How was your weekend?"

"Good."

Okay.

Small talk, this is really hard, right?

So, it's hard.

But, the more you practice, the better you'll get at it, the more comfortable you'll be.

Follow up with questions, practice those follow up questions.

Where did you go?

Who did you see?

When did you go?

How was it?

How was the food?

Was the weather good?

That kind of stuff.

So, keep practicing, keep it up.

You'll get better.

It's a skill, and I hope I gave you a lot of useful information today.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I am a little hungry.

I'm going to go see Steve, because it is lunchtime.

Yo, Steve!

Steve!

Oh my god, Steve, what are you doing?