Episode 8 Business English Vocabulary to talk about negative situations at work

On today's episode we were looking at some vocabulary that you might hear at work. As I mentioned some of it could be quite negative situations, and you can use all of them for situations outside of work too. Vocabulary Idiom - 'It blew up in my face' - when something went really badly wrong. Often you got in trouble or maybe someone got hurt because of it. Perhaps you thought you were trying to help someone but when it didn't work out you got into trouble instead. Idiom - 'Out of the blue' - when something happens suddenly without warning. Phrasal Verb - 'She just kept putting it off' - to put something off - when you know you should be doing something but you avoid it again and again. Procrastinate - This has exactly the same meaning as 'put it off'. When we should be finishing our project but we wash the dishes and clean the house instead. Idiom - 'You have to read between the lines.' - When someone tells you something and they expect you to understand some kind of hidden meaning. When we don't say exactly what we mean but hope the other person will still understand. Clique - A small group of people who don't easily let others join the group. I was right, this word was originally French, we stole it in the 1700's! More about that here. Moral - A set of values, a belief in the good in the world, trying to be the best person you can be.In English stories, especially fairy tales we often look for 'the moral of the story', this means the lesson we can learn from that story. It might be something simple like, be a good person or don't sleep in other people's beds 😉. Morale - The feeling or atmosphere in a place or environment. We can have good morale or bad morale. Good morale means everyone feels positive. Bad morale means everyone feels uncomfortable and can't relax. elaborate - goes into great detail