5 English Expressions to use at work

Hi. My name is Emma. Today I am going to teach you some of the most common work expressions

and idioms. These are all work idioms and expressions that I hear almost every week,

so they're very common.

So, let's look at the first one. The first work-related idiom, so you might hear this

at work, is "to have a lot on your plate". You might hear this in other places, too.

Not just work, but it's often used at work. And what does it mean? It means that you have

a lot of responsibilities. So, you have too much work and too many responsibilities. So,

this is a plate. So, it's an idiom because when we say we have a lot on our plate, we're

imagining something like this with, you know, imagine you have work here, maybe you have

kids, you're taking care of your kids, maybe you have to take care of your grandma, so

that's on the plate as well, and then maybe it's time to do your taxes, so you have to

do your taxes, and you have a big presentation this week, and you have another big meeting,

and maybe you run a website. So, when you have a lot of responsibility, we say that

you have a lot on your plate. So, here are some examples. I have a lot on my plate since

my supervisor at work quit. So, if your boss quits and now you're doing your boss's job,

that means suddenly you have a lot of work on your plate. So, you have a lot more responsibility.

Here's another example. I might say, "Ugh, I have too much on my plate. I have too much

to do, too many responsibilities." So, here's my plate. I have too much on my plate. I think

nowadays many of us feel like we have too much on our plate. Do you feel like you have too much

on your plate, or do you feel you have a lot on your plate? If yes, write in the comments

if you have a lot on your plate. You can use this expression.

All right, so the next expression is a very common expression we use at work, but you might

also use it with your friends or in other situations. The expression is "on the same page".

So, just so you're aware, this piece of paper is a page, or I have here a book,

and in the book, we have different pages. So, this is a page. So, when we say "to be on the

same page", we mean that we have a similar understanding to someone, so we understand

things the same way, maybe we have the same idea. It can also mean that we are in agreement,

we agree with each other. So, let me give you an example. This is Arnold Schwarzenegger.

I love Arnold Schwarzenegger, and he believes it's important to work hard. You know, he likes

the idea of no pain, no gain. You have to work hard to achieve what you want in life. I agree

with him. Arnold Schwarzenegger and I, when it comes to thinking about hard work, we are on

the same page. That means we have the same idea, we are in agreement. Let's look at some other

examples of how to use this. Maybe at work, you're talking to a coworker, and the coworker,

maybe they think you should do the project this way, but you think you should do the project

that way. So, you have two different ways to work on a project. You might say, "We're not

on the same page for this project." Or another example is, imagine Jack wants to go to a

restaurant. Jill wants to go to a restaurant. So, Jack and Jill both want to go to a restaurant,

we can say Jack and Jill are on the same page. They're in agreement. They both want to do the

same thing. So, I want you to learn English, you want to learn English, we're on the same page.

We both want you to learn and improve your English. So, that's how we would use this expression.

So, the next work expression is "My hands are tied." We hear this most of the time at work,

but you might hear it somewhere else. So, these are hands, and imagine the hands are tied. This

means, uh-oh, I can't do anything with my hands, they're stuck together. My hands are tied. So,

we can use this to talk about this expression. When your hands are tied, it means that you don't

have power in a situation, or you can't do what you want to do because there are rules,

or regulations, or maybe government policy, or red tape, or maybe there's somebody in authority,

like a boss, who prevents you from doing what you want to do. So, this might be confusing,

let me give you some examples. I noticed at work, a lot of bosses really like this expression.

Imagine you ask your boss, "Oh, can I have more money? You know, I think I'm working really hard.

Can I have an increase in my salary? Can I get more money?" Your boss might say, "Mm, I would

love to give you more money. You're a very good worker, but sorry, my hands are tied. I can't

give you more money. Our organization doesn't have enough money to increase your salary. Sorry."

So, that's a very common way this expression is used. Bosses will often tell you their hands are

tied when they can't do something for you, and they don't want to accept responsibility. So,

when they say their hands are tied, it means maybe there's a rule at the company, maybe their boss

is telling them they can't do it. So, you'll hear this a lot with bosses and their employees.

Here's another example. You know, imagine you ask your co-worker for help. You ask them,

"You know, I have so much work right now. Can you help me with this project? I could really use

your help." Your co-worker might say, "Mm, I'd love to help you. I really would, but I can't.

My hands are tied." So, this means your co-worker cannot help you because maybe they're too busy,

or there's some rules or regulations, or there's some obstacle that is preventing them from helping

you. So, again, when someone's hands are tied, it means they can't do something because there's

some sort of obstacle. All right, let's look at some more work expressions. All right.

Our next expression is "on the back burner". So, first of all, notice the preposition,

it's "on". It's not "in", it's not "at". "On the back burner".

So, before we talk about what it means, I'll show you what a back burner is. So, I've drawn here

an oven. So, an oven is something that's in the kitchen, and you cook food on the oven,

or in the oven. So, here we have these four circles, these black circles. That's where

you put a pot to make the pot hot. So, if you want to cook water... Or not water. If you want

to cook spaghetti, you want to cook something like soup, you might put a pot on the burner.

So, these are called burners, and we have the front burners at the front,

and then at the back we have the back burners. So, usually in cooking, when you're letting

something cook for a long time, you might put it on the back burner. So, what does this mean for

work? When we talk about the back burner at work, we're not talking about an oven.

What we're talking about is a low priority. So, something that is not the most important

thing to do. It's a low priority. So, let me give you some examples of this

so you can really understand the meaning. So, let's look at this example first.

I have here my to-do list for work. There's a lot of work to do. I have a report, and oh no,

it's due tonight. I have a presentation, and it's due next week. And I have a meeting I have

to prepare for, but that's not until next year. So, out of all of these, which is the lowest

priority? Meaning, which is the one I'm not going to do right away? What am I going to do later?

Well, you'd probably say prepare for the meeting because, look, I don't have to prepare for the

meeting right now. You know, I will prepare for it, but that's a next year thing. So,

I'm going to do these two first because the deadline is soon. So, what I could say about

this is I could say let's put the preparing for the meeting, let's put this on the back burner

for now. So, this means that we're not going to do this right now. We're going to do these two.

We're going to do this later, at a later time because it's a lower priority.

Let's look at another example. Okay, there's no time to do this project. We have too much work

happening right now. This project is not so important, so let's put it on the back burner

for now. So, when you put something on the back burner, it means you're going to do it at a later

time. It's not the most important thing to do right now. You want to do other things first.

It's the later thing to do. The next expression is "24/7". So, that's how we say it. We say

"24/7", but when we write it, we write it "24/7". So, what does it mean when we say "24/7"?

Well, when something is "24/7", it means it happens 24 hours a day,

7 days a week. So, we often use this to talk about stores or places that are open all the time.

So, for example, in some places, you can catch a bus 24/7. There is always a bus 24 hours a day,

7 days a week. Here is a picture of a store. This is the moon. This is the sun.

This is a really happy person, and the reason this person is happy

is because this store is open all the time, 24/7. So, if he needs to buy food for breakfast,

the store is open. If it's midnight and he realizes he's hungry, he can go to the store

and get something to eat. So, we can say "24/7", that means this store is open all the time.

So, let's look at some other examples on how to use this.

So, we mentioned the store is open 24/7. Some bosses want to be able to contact their employees

at any time of day. So, maybe... Think about, you know, the President, for example, of the

Army, 24/7. That means that he can get in touch with them any time, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Maybe your boss says to you, "You know what? I need to be able to get in touch with you 24/7."

That means at any time, on any day. Another good example is a hospital. In big cities,

the hospital is usually open 24/7, and that's so if there's an emergency, you can go any day, any time.

Ooh, some people feel like they work 24/7. So, that means they feel like they're always working

all day, every day, all the time. I hope you don't feel like you're working 24/7.

All right. So, the final expression we will talk about today is "back to square one".

So, what does it mean when you go back to square one? Well, the first thing I want to do is show

you a picture I made. This is square one, square two, square three, and I have an arrow here to

show going back to square one. When we go back to square one, it means that we made some progress,

but we had to go back to the beginning. So, we have to start again. We did some work,

but because of some problems, maybe, we have to start again.

Usually, there's a bit of a negative meaning because people don't want to go back to square one.

If you think about, you know, work you've done, you work so hard, but then you have to start

everything all over again, it can be very frustrating. I'll give a personal experience.

When I was in university, I worked so hard to write an essay. I spent many days working on

this essay, and then my computer crashed and I lost the essay. I could not get the essay back.

I cried. I was really upset, and I thought, "Oh, I'm back to square one. I have to write the essay

again." So, that's an example of back to square one. So, if this was me and I wrote, you know,

the first page, second page, third page, fourth page, and then my essay disappeared because of

my computer, I have to go all the way to the beginning again. That's why it's always important

to save your work. So, let's look at some other examples. So, imagine your company makes an app,

some sort of app for, you know, smartphones, and you know what happens? There's a big problem

with the app. It doesn't work. There's all these bugs. You know, a lot of people are complaining

about the app. So, what happens? Maybe your boss says, "Guys, there's so many mistakes and problems

with this app. We have to go back to square one. We have to start and create a new app

where we're more careful with the design."

Or here's another example. So, this is more of a work example, but, you know, in terms of a personal

example, maybe you have someone who was engaged to be married. Let's call her Kim. So, Kim was

engaged, but her fiancé broke up with her. So, now she's single and she feels like she's back

to square one. She's back at the beginning again. So, there's a lot of ways you can use this

expression, "back to square one". Again, usually it shows somebody feels a little frustrated

because it's not fun to go back when you're moving forward.

All right, well, so I want to thank you for watching today. Why don't you try to use some

of these expressions in the comments? Think about ways you can use "back to square one".

Have you ever had that situation where you had to go back to square one? You can also try to

use some of the other idioms and expressions we used today. Also, remember, the best way to learn

is to practice. Practice makes perfect. So, you can visit our website at www.engvid.com,

and there you can practice what you learned today by taking a quiz on the different expressions.

You can also subscribe to my YouTube channel. There you can find many different videos on

topics related to language learning, topics about English grammar, or listening, or vocabulary,

and so much more. So, thanks again for watching, and until next time, take care.