Speak Like a Pro in 2023: New Workplace Phrases in English
Ever felt like 'Quiet Quitting'? Think 'Loud Quitting' is risky? Don't know what I'm talking about? Well today's podcast will fix that! This English lesson isn't just about explaining new words and phrases; it's a meaningful way to help you understand the UK's ever-changing workplace culture.
Here's what you'll discover:
- 🏆 Master modern English terms that textbooks won't teach you.
- 💼 Get a taste of the UK's bustling job market and working life.
- 🎉 Impress your colleagues with your up-to-date lingo.
- 🌍 Immerse yourself in British culture and English speaking business insights.
- 💬 Sharpen your fluency and understanding of real-life English.
The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.
⭐ Alan Watts, philosopher.
✔Lesson transcript: https://adeptenglish.com/lessons/english-phrases-uk-workplace-language-trends-2023/
From 'quiet quitting' to 'Rage Applying,' you'll unearth the latest trends that are shaping the way we speak in the professional world. If the idea of speaking fluent, cutting-edge English excites you, this lesson is your golden ticket. Join us and get ahead of the curve with insights that aren't found in your regular textbooks!
I never dreamed about success. I worked for it.
⭐ Estée Lauder
Join Adept English today, and don't just learn; immerse yourself! You'll be amazed at how English starts making sense, not just in your head but in your daily life. And all you have to do is listen.
More About This Lesson
Boost your understanding of the English language with Adept English's podcast lesson, focusing on modern English-speaking workplaces. This lesson covers trending terms and phrases such as "quiet quitting," "loud quitting," and "boomerang employees." It's not just about words; it's a real-world connection to the workplace culture in the UK and other English-speaking countries.
To win in the marketplace you must first win in the workplace.
⭐ Doug Conant, former CEO of Campbell Soup.
Things you will learn in today's English vocabulary and phrases lesson:
- Learn Current Workplace Phrases: 'Quiet Quitting', 'Rage Applying', 'Boomerang Employees'.
- Understand Trends in Workplace: e.g. 'Natural wastage', 'Hiring freeze', 'Layoffs and redundancies'.
- Explore Differences in British English: ‘Resumé’ (American) vs ‘CV’ (British).
- Get to Know Cultural References: E.g., The meaning of 'boomerang' in ‘Boomerang employees’.
- Increase Understanding of New Terms: ‘Loud Quitting’, ‘Quiet Hiring’, 'Copycat layoffs'.
- Focus on Word Formation Rules: E.g., Double 'EE' as in 'Resenteeism'.
- Immerse in British English Usage: Usage of words like 'REDUNDANCY' in the UK.
- Enhance Listening Skills: By following the Adept English 'Listen & Learn' method.
- Identify English Idiomatic Expressions: Such as ‘Pushing out the boat’, ‘Follow suit’.
Benefits of our listen & learn approach to learning
- Understanding of Contemporary Terms: Learn phrases that are part of today's work life.
- Enhancement of Fluency: Mix new and old English words to talk better.
- Connection to British Culture: Learn what's special about British English.
- Accessibility: Enjoy learning for all ages with shared experiences.
Want to boost your understanding and sharpen your fluency in English? Listen now to Adept English, and we'll help you #SpeakFluentEnglish with up-to-date terminology not found in your regular textbooks.
- Terminology Reflecting Workplace Trends: Learn words like "quiet quitting" that show how work life is changing.
- Cultural Insights Specific to the UK: Understand how words are used differently in the UK.
- Introduction to Language Development: Find out how new English words are made.
- Don't Fear Being Outdated: Stay up to date with new English words for work.
- Feel Connected: Talk with your co-workers using the latest terms.
- Be Ready for Jobs: Understand how to apply for jobs in English-speaking places.
- Learn Differences in English: Know what's different between British and American English.
It is always the start that requires the greatest effort.
⭐ James Cash Penney, founder of J.C. Penney.
Are you ready to talk like a modern English speaker at work? This lesson helps you understand and use new words that reflect today's world. Dive into the podcast and sharpen your English fluency with Adept English. Start listening now, and grow with the language. All you have to do is listen, and you'll learn. Happy learning!
Questions You Might Have...
Diving into this podcast is like embarking on a bustling London double-decker bus tour through the thriving streets of modern English language. With each stop, you pick up the vibrant slang and colloquialisms that are shaping the business world of today. Hop on and let the city's linguistic pulse invigorate your fluency!
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What Does 'Quiet Quitting' Mean, and How Can It Help Me Speak English Fluently? Quiet Quitting' refers to an employee's decision to reduce their work effort without officially quitting their job. It's a term often used in the English-speaking business world. By understanding and using phrases like this, you can connect with native English speakers and improve your fluency. Remember, the English language reflects the culture and learning these trends keeps you updated.
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How Can I Understand and Use the Term 'Rage Applying' in a Business Context? 'Rage Applying' is a contemporary English term referring to the act of applying for multiple jobs in frustration with one's current position. Engaging with these real-world examples and using them in conversation can help you feel more connected to the English-speaking business world and boost your English language skills.
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What are 'Boomerang Employees,' and Why is This Phrase Important in English Learning? 'Boomerang Employees' refers to former employees returning to a company they once left. This phrase not only offers insight into business practices but also into the fluid nature of the English language. Incorporating such phrases in your speech can provide you with an edge in impressing colleagues and achieving fluency in English.
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How Can Listening to the Adept English Podcast Help Me with English Fluency? Listening to Adept English podcasts, like the one on workplace trends, can sharpen your understanding of terms like 'Quiet Quitting,' 'Rage Applying,' and more. By immersing yourself in the language and British culture through these podcasts, you'll learn to speak English fluently as part of your daily routine. It's not just about language; it's about understanding the culture.
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What's the Difference Between 'Quiet Hiring' and 'Loud Quitting', and How Can Knowing These Terms Enhance My English? 'Quiet Hiring' refers to discreetly bringing in new skills without officially hiring, while 'Loud Quitting' means openly discussing one's intention to leave. Understanding these nuanced terms helps you grasp the subtleties of English, enabling more meaningful connections and discussions in an English-speaking business environment.
Most Unusual Phrases/Words:
- Quiet Quitting: Staying in a job but doing the minimum work possible because of unhappiness or discontentment.
- Loud Quitting: Talking openly about looking for a new job in order to negotiate better terms in your current position.
- Quiet Hiring: Acquiring new skills or temporary workers without officially hiring new, full-time employees, often during a hiring freeze.
- Hiring Freeze: A period during which a company stops or limits the hiring of new employees.
- Copycat Layoffs: When one company lays off staff, causing similar companies to do the same.
- Rage Applying: Sending out many job applications in anger or frustration with a current job.
- Resenteeism: A situation in a company where there is a lot of resentment, negative feelings that have built up over time.
- Boomerang Employees: Employees who leave a company and then return to work there again, sometimes on better terms.
- Natural Wastage: A process where employees leave a company naturally (without being laid off) and are not replaced, reducing staff numbers over time.
- Redundancy: In the UK, this means laying off employees, usually because their jobs are no longer needed.
Most Frequently Used Words:
| Word | Count |
|---|---|
| These | 10 |
| English | 10 |
| About | 9 |
| People | 9 |
| Terms | 8 |
| Which | 8 |
| Company | 8 |
| Often | 7 |
| Podcast | 6 |
| Workplace | 6 |
Listen To The Audio Lesson Now
Transcript: UK English Workplace Language Trends 2023
Understand workplace phrases which have come into being in 2023!
Hi there. Have you ever felt like 'quiet quitting'? Remember when I explained this phrase in podcast 577? Did you know the phrase 'quiet quitting' was named one of Collins dictionary's 'terms of the year' in 2022? And have you noticed how our day-to-day language, especially in the workplace, is changing faster than ever before? If you haven’t, by the end of this podcast, not only will you be updated, but you'll also understand the trends behind these words! When new phrases come into a language, it often reflects trends in society or here, trends in the workplace.
Don't confuse having a career with having a life.
⭐ Hillary Clinton, former U.S. Secretary of State.
Although we’re barely halfway through 2023, there are a whole group of new phrases about the workplace and jobs! So today let’s have a look at these - and you can see if you recognise any of these things, these ‘phenomena’ in your working life. And it’ll give you a taste of what the job market and working life is life in the UK and the English speaking business world as we tend to ‘share phrases’! Are you in your 20s or 30s or 40s? If you're living in a bustling city like London, don't you often feel that your career dominates much of your life? You’ll probably relate to this podcast, if so. Use this podcast to find out what trends are affecting the workplace - and what new phrases to go with that. You may have come across these terms on platforms like TikTok, where people often share and relate to each other's experiences?
So prepare to impress your colleagues with your understanding of phrases like 'Rage Applying' or 'Boomerang Employees'? You won't find these in your regular textbooks, but they are current in English-speaking workplaces. And we’ll cover some more established English terms which are used commonly in the workplace too. They still may not be in the language textbooks, so boost your understanding and sharpen your fluency with this podcast!
Hello, I’m Hilary, and you’re listening to Adept English. We will help you to speak English fluently. All you have to do is listen. So start listening now and find out how it works.
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Quiet Quitting
So ‘quiet quitting’, covered in podcast 577 means not that you ‘quit your job and actually leave’, but rather that you want to leave, you’re unhappy and discontented, but that you don’t actually leave. Instead you ‘quietly’ decide to do less work, perhaps the bare minimum you can get away with. You’re no longer motivated, no longer ‘pushing out the boat’ in terms of effort. You’re just sitting in your role and doing as little as possible. Obviously this isn’t great for companies, but sometimes maybe the company needs to look at why their employees get to feel like this. Keeping employees motivated and keen is often what companies don’t give sufficient focus to. And costs them to replace employees who do leave - valuable knowledge ‘walks out of the door’ with the employee.
So that’s ‘quiet quitting’. Let’s look at other terms - this is relevant, educational, cultural - and hopefully for you, relatable content!
📷
A bored office worker about to rage apply. Get Inspired: This isn't just educational content; it's relatable and culturally relevant too.
Loud Quitting
Loud quitting - like ‘quiet quitting’, in that it doesn’t actually involve leaving your job. Instead it’s about talking loudly and openly to anyone who’ll listen about how you’re looking elsewhere for work. The hope is that people will be shocked - you’re indispensable, of course - and the hope is that the ‘scary prospect’ of you leaving will mean that you can negotiate a better salary or position - a promotion, maybe! This may work, but of course, your boss may not respond as you would like. They simply may not be in a position to give you what you want. Or it may be that you’ve over-estimated your value to the company - and your talking about quitting spurs them on to make that happen. Oops!
Quiet Hiring
Quiet hiring - another term which has crept into the language. One of the trends that’s been evident, especially in big tech companies is the laying off of huge numbers of staff. It’s politic in these times also to announce a ‘hiring freeze’. If companies didn’t do this, then it would seem hard to justify the layoffs - or ‘redundancies’ as we tend to call them in the UK - that’s REDUNDANCY. So a ‘hiring freeze’ or sometimes called ‘a headcount freeze’ means that the company cannot advertise for new staff or be seen to be taking on new staff. We use the term ‘to freeze’ or ‘frozen’ not just for actual ice, but to mean ‘something doesn’t move’, that it’s fixed, it’s ‘frozen’. Sometimes a hiring freeze is really inconvenient. If you’ve lost critical staff in an important area of your business, it can really hold an organisation back, if those people cannot be replaced. It can also mean that the people left behind have a difficult time - too much work to cover - so eventually they leave as well! Other unpleasant terms like ‘natural wastage’ are used - meaning that if you do a ‘hiring freeze’ for long enough, then you’ll ‘naturally’ lose employees who choose to go and get jobs elsewhere - and you won’t replace them. And this is seen as a way of avoiding lay-offs or redundancies. The trouble with this approach however - it’s often the brightest and the best who leave because they’ve got other jobs. ‘Unintended consequences’ are always interesting!
So ‘quiet hiring’ is when an organisation acquires new skills, but without actually taking on new, full-time employees. This may mean training people up to do a different job or perhaps even taking on short-term contract people to fill the gaps. This is ‘quiet hiring’ - so doing what you can, without breaking the terms of the ‘hiring freeze’.
Copycat Layoffs
So just mentioning how big companies, especially big tech companies have been doing ‘big layoffs’ this year. Examples are Google and Microsoft etc. And the term ‘copycat layoffs’ has been coined - meaning that when one tech company lays off huge numbers of staff, its rival companies, its competitor companies are more like to copy, ‘to follow suit’ and do the same. Hence the term ‘copycat layoffs’. The word ‘copycat’, COPYCAT - is one that children use for another child who ‘copies them’. But this phrase has been used in other ways - ‘copycat crimes’ is an example. There may be a type of crime or criminal activity that’s in the news. And this seems to inspire others to commit the same type of crimes - or ‘copycat crimes’.
Rage Applying, CVs and Resumés
More grumpiness and dissatisfaction at work! Have you ever felt so frustrated that you started 'Rage Applying'? I think I might have done this in the past! The term ‘Rage Applying’ has been invented for when employees suddenly put out a flurry of job applications because they’re annoyed, they’re fed up in their current job. A bit like ‘redundancies’ and ‘layoff’s, another interesting fact: while Americans might say ‘resumé - that’s RESUMÉ - we Brits prefer ‘CV’ or ‘Curriculum Vitae’. That’s what you put out in a job application - a short document which tells a prospective new employer all about you. It's these little differences that make British English its own thing! So you might send off your CV or resumé, to lots of different companies. Sometimes this is called a ‘scattergun approach’ - you’re not necessarily very discriminating or choosy in whom you apply to. You just go for numbers, in the hope that some employers receiving your details will be interested. And of course, what often happens with ‘Rage Applying’ - it works! ‘Rage’, RAGE is a more extreme form of anger, if you like. It works and someone’s interested, but I guess the downside - you could end up with lots of job interviews to go to. And you’re left making all kinds of excuses to your current employer about why you need so much time off work. Sometimes when people do this - they find that other employers are willing to pay more for their skills and talents than the current one is - they’re being ‘underpaid’ in their current role in other words. Or maybe when you’ve calmed down a bit, you do see the benefits of your current job and decide to stay!
Resenteeism
Resenteeism or ‘grumpy stayers’ - both new terms. ‘Resenteeism’ - that’s RESENTEEISM. Well, you may understand the verb ‘to resent’ - that means that over time, you come to have negative feelings about someone or something, it builds up gradually. And they’re seen as ‘wronging’ you - you ‘resent’ them. Where a word has double EE on the end - here ‘resentee’ - it means ‘the person who does the resenting’. Like an ‘absentee’ is the person who’s absent from something - ‘absent’, ABSENT meaning ‘not there. A ‘trustee’, again double EE, is someone who’s trusted, an ‘amputee’ is someone who’s had an arm or leg ‘amputated’ or removed. So these new words are invented according to existing rules of English - and that double EE looks to me as though it’s French grammar in origin. And then you put ISM, ‘ism’ on the end. Then it becomes ‘the noun which represents the presence of a resentee’ - ‘the person doing the resenting’. So you might say ‘There is a lot of resenteeism in our company at the moment’. You could argue it’d be simpler just to say ‘There’s a lot of resentment in our company at the moment’! Or you could say ‘there is a worrying level of absenteeism in our company at the moment’ - means ‘a lot of people taking time off’. That is a more established word and recognised word. But it’s interesting to see the development of the language like this and it’s developing all the time. All these terms I’m talking about today are ‘this year’s’!
Using Therapy 🛋️ Terms 📘 In Your Everyday English Conversations
Boomerang Employees
Another term that’s perhaps a bit older - the idea behind it has certainly been happening a long time - and that term is ‘Boomerang employees’. Anyone who knows what a ‘boomerang’ is, that’s BOOMERANG, they’ll understand immediately what this phrase means. ‘Boomerang’ is an indigenous Australian word - meaning it comes from the original inhabitants of Australia - and it refers to a weapon, which you throw, used originally for hunting. Apparent there are ‘returning boomerangs’ and ‘non-returning boomerangs’ - but the word ‘boomerang’ is associated for most people with the idea of ‘something which returns to you’. So we use the word ‘boomerang’ as an adjective to describe ‘something which returns’. So you can guess - a ‘boomerang employee’ is usually someone who’s either been laid off or has left a company, then guess what, in no time, they’re back working there again, sometimes on better terms and conditions, because the company they left have found that actually they really need them! And this happens in all kinds of industries - and often means that the employer is paying more for the same employee.
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A summary of phrases covered in this podcast
OK, so the new workplace phrases that we’ve covered in this podcast?
- Loud quitting
- Quiet hiring
- Hiring freeze or headcount freeze
- Natural wastage
- Layoffs and redundancies
- Copycat layoffs
- Rage applying
- Resenteeism and
- Boomerang employers
That’s certainly enough vocabulary to be going on with. But really useful for the workplace and for workplace trends. Things you need to know if you hope to get work in an English speaking company, perhaps.
Goodbye
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Enough for now. Have a lovely day. Speak to you again soon. Goodbye.
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Links
- Quiet Quitting podcast 577
- Biggest workplace buzzwords of 2023
- Definition of 'quiet quitting'
- High-risk way to negotiate a raise
- Quiet Hiring
- Tech layoffs in 2023
- Hiring Freeze
- Copycat layoffs
- Rage Applying
- What is Resenteeism
- Boomerang
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