Asking for Time Off

Hello everyone! Welcome to EnglishPod! Today I’m here with Erica.

Hi, Marco!

And I’m Marco. Hehe. And we’re bringing you a great Elementary lesson about a situation at an office.

That’s true, today we’re gonna learn some phrases for asking for time off.

Right, asking for time off.

Or asking for leave.

Asking for leave, right.

Yeah.

Right, so, we’re gonna give you some great phrases and vocabulary for when you want to ask for leave. So, let’s just listen to our dialogue today, where at in office where Liv wants some time off.

Well, it sounds like the boss wasn’t too happy about Liv’s request.

Well, she wanted to take off for thirty days, so…

I guess that is a long time.

It is a long time. I wish I could do that.

Yeah.

Okay, we have some great words for you today, so, let’s start with our “language takeaway”. Voice: Language takeaway.

Four words on our language takeaway today, uh, Erica, why don’t you tell us a first one?

The first word is vacation days.

Vacation days.

Vacation days.

So, what are vacation days?

Basically, you’re… it’s the number of personal leave days. So, the number of days that you can take to go on vacation.

Uhu. How many vacation days do you have?

Yeah, I think I… I have not so many; I only have ten vacation days.

Ten vacation… Well, in some countries, uh, there’re ten vacation days is normal, in other I guess it’s ten, fifteen, even twenty I’ve heard.

Yeah, yeah, well…

Vacation days.

We can’t take too many vacation days or else we won’t make any more podcasts.

Yeah, I know. Uh, why don’t we look at second word – oversees.

Oversees.

Oversees.

When you travel oversees, you travel over the ocean.

Over the ocean, to another country.

Exactly.

Okay, oversees. Okay and our third word for language takeaway – unpaid leave.

Unpaid leave.

Unpaid leave.

So, this is time off without pay.

Without pay.

Simple.

Right, unpaid leave. And out last word – notice.

Notice.

Notice.

Notice.

So, we have some great examples on how we use notice and from these examples I’m sure you’ll be able to understand exactly what they mean. Voice: Example one.

If you want to quit your job, make sure you give enough notice; you’ll need to tell us four weeks in advance. Voice: Example two.

You didn’t give me enough notice about this project, I didn’t have enough time to finish it.

So, when you give someone notice, you give them information in advance.

In advance, right.

So, if I wanna take time off, I need to give my boss notice – advanced information.

Right, fifteen day notice…

Aha.

Or a twenty day notice, et cetera.

Yeah.

Great, so, that’s our language takeaway for today, now we are ready to listen to our dialogue a second time and this time it’s gonna be really slow. DIALOGUE, SECOND TIME (slow)

A lot of non-native English speakers sometimes feel quite nervous about asking their boss for time off, hey?

Yeah, I guess it’s, ah, kind of a difficult subject.

Yeah, but today we’re gonna teach you some great phrases that you can use next time you need ask for some time off.

Great, so, why don’t we take a look at “putting it together”? Voice: Putting in together.

Okay, so, on putting it together today we’re gonna talk about some, uh, great phrases that you can use when approaching your boss.

Yes, we heard Liv say this. Phrase 1: Do you have a second? Do you have a second?

This is a nice way to make sure your boss isn’t busy when you wanna ask them something.

Right, right. Right, but we could also say this in two different ways. Let’s listen . Phrase 2a: Do you have a minute? I wanna ask you something. Phrase 2b: Do you have a sec? I need to talk to you.

A great way to approach your boss.

Yeah, I lo… I love this phrase do you have a sec.

Yeah, do you have a sec, it’s really natural. Okay, so, you’ve asked your boss for leave and you want to make sure that he agrees with you.

Yes, and this is how Liv did it. Phrase 3: Would you be okay with that? Would you be okay with that?

This is a great pattern and we’ve got two other examples of how you can use it. Voice: Example one.

Are you alright with that? Voice: Example two.

Will you be okay with this? Voice: Example three.

I’m fine with that.

Okay, great examples, great patterns, really useful language.

Yes.

Okay, so now, let’s listen to our dialogue a third time.

I really noticed how Liv in this dialogue used a lot of really polite language, hey?

Yeah, I guess when you’re talking your boss, you really have to be respectful and you have to use really polite language.

What sort of things did she do to make herself seem more polite?

Well, she said a couple of interesting phrases, for example, “well, I was just wondering”.

Yeah, I was just wondering.

Right, it’s like, well… just kind of setting up to ask for a favor…

Yeah.

Or for something.

And she also used another phrase that I thought was interesting.

Yeah, she also said “I was just hopping that”.

Yes.

Right? I was just hopping that maybe I could take some time off.

Yeah, again, it sort of doesn’t sound too strong, so…

Right.

It seems a bit more polite.

Yeah, because if she said “well, I want to take some time off”, that’s too strong.

Yeah, so, I was just hopping…

And then, well, the boss is “okay, well, when do you wanna leave?” and she says “well, I was thinking of, uh…”, right? I was thinking off.

Yeah.

Again, if she would have said “I want to”.

Yes.

Too strong, right?

Yeah, in English sometimes we are careful to not be too direct, when we’re asking for some… something, right?

Right, yeah.

Because if you’re too direct, you sound a little bit impolite.

Yeah, you sound rude.

Yeah.

Okay, so, great tips and great things to take into consideration the next time you’re talking in to your boss.

Alright, guys, we’re out of time, but thanks for listening and be sure to check our website englishpod.com.

Right, where you can leave all your questions and comments and we’ll be there to answer them, but I guess until then it’s…

Good bye!

Bye!