BE 362: Are You Worn Out? How to Ask Colleagues About Their Energy
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This is the Business English Podcast, Episode 362. Are you worn out? How to ask colleagues about their energy.

Welcome to the Business English podcast from All Ears English. Get the English skills you need to achieve your dreams in global business. For a presentation, a meeting, or your office party, this is Real Business English with your favorite American hosts, Lindsay and Michelle, coming to you from New York City and Colorado, USA. Imagine what's possible when learning doesn't get in the way of life.

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Hey, Lindsay, how are you? Fantastic, Michelle. How are you? I'm good. Lindsay, we've been recording for a while today. Would you say you're worn out or you still have a lot of energy? No, recording actually gives me more energy. So as we've gone on, I've gotten more energy. So that means I love it. Yeah. No, but I would say by Friday afternoon, I'm pretty worn out. Yeah. Yeah. What about you? Are you worn out by Fridays?

Yeah, I would say so. I mean, I think everybody is if you're an active person, we're doing a lot of things, definitely. But no, now I agree with you. I feel a lot of energy from recording. So that's good. Yeah. So today, we're going to answer a listener question about this term worn out and talk about other ways to express yourself with a similar idea in the business world. Because

We have to be honest, we all get tired with work tax and all things that we wouldn't be human if we didn't admit that. Right, Lindsay? Yeah. And it's good to admit that you're human sometimes. I mean, we have an environment now that kind of accepts this more than maybe in the past.

Right. We don't have to all be robots at work anymore. So there are things we can say, but we need to just be clear what we're saying. So this question came from YouTube, right? Yes. Yes. Eduardo Luis Fagunda Silva. Can I read the question, Michelle? Please. All right. So he says, hey, girls, can I say the expression I'm worn out when I'm very tired in daily conversation? Good question.

Yeah, that is a good question. So yeah, we're going to get into it today. And I wanted to do this one for business because I just thought it is, you know, when we talk about business, you know, being human, business is life. So I really wanted to get into this for the Business English podcast. So this is a great question. Guys, if you haven't already, please press the follow button wherever you are listening to the Business English podcast so that you never miss anything from us. You get all of our episodes sent directly to you.

Yes, good stuff. Hit that follow button right now. So, all right. So going into this, worn out, Michelle, it is an adjective, right? What does it mean? It means very tired, right? And, you know, we've spoken about expressions for being tired on All Ears English before, but today we're going to focus on that more professional side. I mean, Lindsay, is it okay to say you're worn out at work?

- Yeah, I think it's okay. I think that it's okay to show, like we said before, show that vulnerability. It's just that it's kind of how you follow it up and what else you're saying at the same time, right? When we do say this, this creates connection between our coworkers and ourselves, right, Michelle? - Yeah, yeah, exactly. And I mean, exactly, it shows that vulnerability. I wouldn't necessarily, I mean,

If you need to be honest with your boss about something and maybe talk about a task that needs to be reassigned or, you know, just be really honest with them about something personal going on, you could use it. But I would say this more for like coworkers you're close with. What do you think? Yeah, I agree. I think if you're saying you're worn out to your boss, there should be another conversation about like,

What's going on with the workload and can things be strategically moved to someone else and what can be changed? So this is kind of more of a peer-to-peer thing that you're talking about. I think so. Yeah. I think so too. I mean, it can also be good to connect over a weekend excitement. Maybe it's Friday and say, oh, I'm so worn out, right? I'm just ready for the weekend. Yeah.

But yeah, it's a very honest and human feeling to have that. And everyone can connect to you, even if you're not talking about work. Right. And that's what we talk about on Business English. That doesn't have to be always about work. Yeah, for sure. So let's give our listeners some examples of how this plays in and we'll see how this looks. So here's one.

I'm so worn out after that meeting. Should we all grab coffee? Now, this is clearly a connection moment, right, Michelle? You can bridge to I'm tired to I want to socialize with my coworkers. I love that. Yeah. Yes.

Yes, exactly. Or you could say, honestly, I think I'm feeling a bit worn out. Can we talk about this tomorrow? Okay. And this is kind of showing boundaries, setting boundaries. To be, you know, when you become a seasoned professional, you should know yourself well enough to know where your boundaries are. Do you work well at 6 p.m.? Maybe not, right? Right.

So, you know, if meetings go that late or that early or something, having being able to articulate this is super important. Right. Right. Because you want to bring your best self.

to work, right? And so again, if your boss really wants you to do some specific task and you're just like, oh, I'm worn out, can I do it tomorrow? It might not go so well, but peer to peer, like we're talking about, your coworker wants to start a new project at 4:58 on a Friday, not so good.

For sure. And then another one would be TGIF. This week has me feeling totally worn out. Michelle, we should do another episode on this construction. Something has me feeling something or something has me something. Let's do that another day. Okay. Sounds good. Guys, hit the follow button on the show so you don't miss that episode.

Yes. All right. So, Lindsay, what do you do if you feel worn out during the workday? I go for a walk. So I go for a walk and or I go for like a coffee break. I go to the coffee shop down the street and get a coffee, you know, just get some sunshine on my face, that kind of thing. What about you, Michelle? What do you do? I also like to take a walk or maybe my, you know, the

sit and eat my lunch or whatever it is. But I just kind of get moving somehow, even if I'm just

walking around, if I'm working from home, walking around my house, even doing like just getting something done, just still just doing something to take my mind off of it. What do you think? Yeah, that's a great one. Yeah. So you're trying to just mix it up so that you kind of, you want kind of a reset, right? Is what you're looking for. Right, right, right, right. So, so that could be something that I do. Yeah. I love that. All right. We'll take a quick break and we'll be right back.

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Okay. So Michelle, are there other things that we could say in the business world to kind of express this feeling? What do you think? Yeah. So definitely. So this first one I love to say spent.

Right. So that's another way to kind of say tired. So you could say, well, I'm spent planning on vegging out in front of the TV all weekend. Nice. So these are extreme ones, right? So ready to drop. I'm definitely ready to drop after that meeting. I did not expect that to be so exhausting. Oh, no, that's not good. No.

no, no. Or this one is really fun. Fried. Okay. I tried to ask if she wanted to meet now, but she said she's totally fried and asked if we could delay it until tomorrow morning. Yeah. Okay. So Michelle, which one would you tend to use of these three? Um,

I think I would most likely use worn out or fried. Oh, out of the three. Well, fried. What about you? Yeah, I like fried too. It just kind of means like your brain has been just on too long, right? For too many hours. Yeah. It's sizzling. Yeah.

yeah yeah it reminds me of that commercial in the 90s of like this is your brain and this is your brain on drugs you remember yes yes yes oh of course yep for sure yeah just our listeners if they haven't seen it there was a commercial running in the 90s i think it might have been part of dare or uh the drug alcohol reduction education it was a whole program i think it was um initiated in the reagan era where um

They had commercials and trying to get kids to be drug free and everything. And one of the commercials is so famous, it lives on in our minds today, where they took an egg and they said, "This is your brain." And then they put it on a frying pan and it started sizzling and it said, "This is your brain on drugs."

And I feel like people our age still kind of refer to that in pop culture. You hear it sometimes. It's really funny. Yeah, true. Not funny. Obviously, it's not funny. But it's just it's a piece of our zeitgeist now. It's a piece of our culture at this point. Right. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yep. I hadn't thought of that in a while. So but, you know, we talked about when to avoid using these again. I don't think just going up to your boss and just being like, hey, I'm worn out.

like unless it's part of a bigger conversation but i think that it's okay to express feeling tired at work especially period of here um i think that it can bring about the connection everyone's always tired all the time i know it seems like it right it doesn't it yeah well i've kind of noticed not so much now because i mean we do work that kind of energizes us here but

in other jobs that I've worked historically, like when I worked at Friendly's or I worked at Dunkin Donuts or I worked at just in office jobs, I noticed that that was really constantly in the conversation. How are you? I'm tired. Right. It was like the default answer. So that was kind of yeah, it's kind of crazy.

Yeah. We're all just tired. We're all tired. Yeah. We're all tired. That's why the coffee industry does so well. Yeah. There you go. All right, Michelle, let's do a role play and see what this looks like on a Friday at three o'clock. Yes. All right. So we are coworkers finishing a project. So here we go. So I don't know if you're up for it or if you're spent. Should we keep working? Oh, no. I'm completely worn out, Michelle.

Yeah, you look like you're ready to drop. We can finish going over the accounts on Monday if you want. I think that would be best if that works for you. Yeah, I'm a little fried myself. Okay, let's go to happy hour and blow off some steam. Nice idea. Nice. This is a very typical conversation.

And let's see what we said here. So you said, oh, so I don't know if you're up for it or if you're spent. This is a good connection skill right here, Michelle, because you're opening it up to me and letting me voice what's going on. Right.

Yes. Yes. Right. I'm giving you the option. I'm telling you that I recognize that you might not want to do this. It's really, really good. Yeah. That's a really good way to build those relationships and business. You're not going to plow through and say, we have to get this done right now. Right. Right. Yes. Yeah, exactly.

- Exactly. And then you said, "No, I'm completely worn out, Michelle." - Yeah, so you gave me the opening and I took it, right? - Yes. - You took the out. - Yeah, I took the out. And then you said, "Yeah, you look like you're ready to drop." So obviously you observe something in me.

That something was not right, right and that's pretty extreme when you say you look like you're ready to drop. Yeah, that's true I know it's the whole you're tired discussion. Yeah, I mean, I mean honestly I would just I just want to emphasize that that's really extreme I would say that to someone after they run a marathon probably yes Maybe like or maybe a coding marathon if our listeners are doing like 48 hour coding contests or something No, that's a good very good point. Yeah, not just like an everyday tiredness, right? No. Yeah, I

Right. So you would more likely use it to describe yourself. I'm ready to drop. Right. Sure. So and then I said, yeah, I'm a little fried myself.

I'm a little fried myself. Good. And that's it. So there's another episode all about building those relationships at work. Michelle, what is it? Episode 346 was how to stay relevant at work and talk about it. Excellent. I think this is the takeaway. It's kind of reading, trying to sort of read how people seem and giving them kind of an

option to say, let's do this later. We're human beings, you know? Yep. Yep. Exactly. Yeah. So, and, and if you give somebody that, that out from the beginning, it also shows maybe that you have some empathy or, you know, you're, you know, I think this goes back to that emotional IQ. Um, and just like realizing Friday at 3 PM, I'll, I'll,

I'll touch on it, but I also want them to know, like, I'm not saying, oh, I really want to do this. Right. Usually the quality of your work, 99% of the time is going to be better on Monday morning than Friday at 3 p.m. Anyways. Right. Exactly. Exactly. That's for sure. All right. This has been an important skill today, Michelle. I'm glad we talked about it on the show. Yes. Yes. All right. Well, thank you so much again for that question.

question and yeah we'll see you on the next episode and we hope you guys aren't too worn out that's right take care bye bye

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