BE 400: How to Confide in Your Coworkers When Your Energy is Dropping
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This is the Business English Podcast, Episode 400, How to Confide in Your Coworkers When Your Energy is Dropping.

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. Welcome to the Business English podcast from All Ears English.

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Lindsay, how are you? Hey, Michelle. How's it going? How's it going? Good.

is good. I'm so excited because this is episode 400 of the Business English Podcast. It's amazing. We're going for the big numbers over here on this show as well. Amazing. Amazing. Guys, if you're not following the show, make sure to hit the follow button right now so you don't miss a single episode of this show. Michelle, it's been quite a ride so far. Oh, yeah, for sure. Oh, my gosh. We're having so much fun over here and we are really giving it our all,

right? I mean, we just are giving it our all and we want our listeners to give their all. Yeah. I mean, speaking of I mean, Lindsay, is it realistic for people to give it their all every single day at work? Is that what we should be aiming for? I

- I think, I mean, that's an easy thing to say. I think it's realistic to want to give your all every day. And I think it's realistic to give your all 90% of days. But it's also okay to be honest. You know, if you have something difficult going on, maybe you take a personal day.

right? Maybe you're honest with your manager and say, Hey, I'm really struggling. I think nowadays our workplaces have become a little more human than they were in the seventies, eighties, nineties. And people are understand that, you know, we are whole people when we come into work. And if there's something going on at home that needs to be resolved, you're going to bring that energy into work. And it's really hard to give your all.

So yeah. How about that for an answer? Do you agree? I agree. I agree. We're our people. We talk about this all the time. Yeah. Just because we're at work doesn't mean we're not people. And so sometimes it does take that intelligence to know that emotional intelligence to know I'm not really able to give it my all today. And sometimes it's okay. And sometimes maybe you need a break. Sometimes it's maybe telling you something. For sure. Yes. But for

For 400 episodes, I can say we've been giving it our all. We absolutely have been. We've been here for you guys for a long time and we're going to continue to keep going. So that brings up an expression though, Michelle, give it your all. That is what you said. And I know this expression, I've heard it around. Yes. So, I mean, give it your all. That's another way to say, try your best, put everything into it. I mean, it doesn't mean you have to be successful. It just means you gave everything you had into something.

thing so you're all that's your effort that's all your heart exactly and it is very satisfying to do this right when we actually give full effort into something it whether we succeed or fail we feel good about it at the end right we feel even if we fail

We think, okay, I did everything I possibly could, right? It's a good feeling. - Yeah, yeah, definitely. You can be at peace with the effort that you put in. You didn't feel like you were, you missed out because of your effort. Do you think it's obvious if somebody isn't giving it their all? - Yeah, I think if you know someone and you know what is their baseline, right? What is their normal way of working?

then you can tell that if someone is not giving it their all. I think so. What do you think, Michelle? - I think so. I mean, this goes along with, didn't you and Aubrey do an episode about quiet quitting? - Yeah, that was a hot topic a few years ago, right? During the pandemic. Yeah, I think we did do one. So guys go back into the archives and see if you can find that episode for sure. - Yeah, yeah. So, I mean, what would you do

if you started to realize you weren't giving it your all and it became a habit. I mean, because to me that could be a sign you might need to make a change. Yeah. I mean, I think also it could be a sign of being burnt out. Right. So burnout is something we've talked about a few times on this show, but we have to be really careful about burnout, especially as we get into the higher levels of an organization. So I would think if I'm not if I'm just not trying anymore, something is wrong. Either I need to look for a change

Or maybe I'm simply burned out and I need some time off, right? I need to travel. I need to take a week off and get away from work, right? Yeah, it's crazy how much that really does help. It's hard to think when you are burnt out, it's hard to think, oh, a vacation will actually help. You feel like, oh, no, I'm so burnt out. I can't imagine that anything would help, but it really does. It helps so much. It's...

just being in a new place and not thinking about work just gives you this new energy, right? I mean, I was just in California last week and I feel a renewed sense of energy in my voice. I feel, yeah, I just feel different than I did the week before I left for California. Yeah. Oh, that's so great. Well, so, all right, let's just do some examples of how you might hear this at work.

um lindsay you want to start us off here we go i gave it my all in the presentation i just wish the outcome had been a little stronger yeah and that can also be frustrating and we said it's satisfying but it can also be frustrating because you tried so hard you

you wanted to succeed, right? - Yeah, yeah, exactly. Or here we go. We have to give it our all, but we always do. I'm always so inspired by our team. - Nice, yes. Or I wanna give this project my all, but I'm honestly so overwhelmed.

yeah and that's hard when you have a lot of different projects tugging at you and that's a bonus phrase tugging at you yeah you want to give your all into everything because that's maybe your go-to mode if you're a conscientious person but then you have so many things pulling at you right so how do you do that that is a good question very good question very good question yeah

This episode is brought to you by Amazon Business. How can you free up your team from time-consuming office tasks? Amazon Business empowers leaders to not only streamline purchasing, but better support their teams so they can focus on strategy and growth, free up your teams, and focus on your future. Learn more about the technology, insights, and support available at amazonbusiness.com. Okay, Michelle, we are back. So where do we go from here?

Yeah. So, I mean, this is also this expression. It's so good for motivation or even for just being honest. I mean, to me, I think it's a good expression for a manager to use or maybe like a coach inspiring a team before the game. Give it your all. You got this, right? Yeah. Yep. For sure. Yeah. This is what I think of when I think of this phrase. Give it your all. I think of like football movies from the 90s or something. Yeah. Ted Lasso.

or whatever. I never got into Ted Lasso. I never got into it. Oh, it's so fun. I know you highly recommended it. Are you still watching it now or did you watch all the episodes? Yeah, I had watched all the episodes. Got it, yeah. But yeah, there's a lot of ways to express this in similar ways, but also totally different sounding ones. So the first one is give it all you've got. Same idea, right? Yeah, so for example, I know we're tired, but we have three more clients. Let's give it all we've got.

This makes me think of, we've talked before about accountants during accounting season. I mean, that's the kind of scenario where you are maybe burnt out, you're tired, you just have to keep going. You have to kind of compartmentalize that. Give it that push. If you have a busy season for your industry, you kind of just have to push through it in a way. Yeah, you have to get in the zone and just... Yeah, you're not going to take a vacation if you're an accountant during tax season, probably.

probably not probably not um so another one is put your heart into it yes right so you could say I know you put your heart into learning everything for this position and I really appreciate that nice I love it that's a good one or give 110 so we say give 100 but if we want to really emphasize it we say give 110 and you can also customize this how you want you could say give 115 if you want

Right? 150%. Yeah. A thousand percent. Yeah. I guess we hear 110% a little more for whatever reason, but you could say whatever percentage you want. You don't really say like 102%. I mean, it's mostly a little weak. Right. Right. I would say multiples of 10. You wouldn't say like 155%. Right. 117. No. Yeah. 110, 120, 150%.

But here's an example. She always gives 110%, which is exactly what we need here. Nice. Yeah, exactly. All right. Well, do you have a favorite? A favorite, Michelle? Put your heart into something. I like the idea of using heart in our expressions, in our language, because it's just an extension of who we are, right? Yeah. Yeah. I like that too. I think I like give 110%.

Okay. And do you customize that sometimes or do you always say 110%?

I'm going to start customizing it. No, I would say that. I give you permission, right? Yeah, I'll let you know how it goes when I start telling everybody I'm giving 102.25%. You might get some strange reactions from native speaking friends. Exactly, exactly. Although that would probably be a good way to make a joke because it's surprising sounding. So should we do a role play? Let's do it, Michelle. So here we are working together on a project at work. Here we go.

Oh, I just feel a little drained. I get it, but we have to give it our all. I know. I always try to put my heart into it, but I am exhausted. You need a vacation. Then you can give 110%. This isn't like you, Lindsay. I know. I want to get it. I want to give it all I've got. Let's take a break. Nice. Yeah. Sometimes. And sometimes we do actually have these conversations with our colleagues.

We want to be careful who we're talking to, obviously, right? We should be speaking to a peer at work, right? We talk about our energy levels and maybe we're not giving 100%. Yeah. Don't run over to your boss and be like, I'm underperforming and I'm not trying anymore. Just so you know. Yeah.

be a little tactful about it. But this, I would say this is kind of, would you say this is a conversation you might have with colleagues, Michelle? Would you? Yeah, of course. Yeah. This would be something that you might confide in someone about. Yeah. Looking for a little motivation, you know, just a little help from your coworker for sure. Yes. I love it. So let's go through what we said. So you said, I said, I was feeling a little drained and you said, I get it, but we have to give it our all. We have to give it our all. Give it everything.

- Yes. - Give it everything. And then you said, "I know I always try to put my heart into it, but I am exhausted."

and then I said you need a vacation then you can give 110 so after you come back that's what that means right yes exactly and then you said I know I want to give it all I've got so you have this desire to yeah really have this it's good because you have something behind it you're not you're not apathetic about this feeling you want to get better but you just

having trouble and feeling a little stuck. That happens to everyone. Yeah, exactly. And I think that's kind of the takeaway for today is that we as human beings, we generally want to do a good job at our work, right? We want to do a good job. So if you don't want to do a good job anymore, that's a warning sign that maybe you're in the wrong place. You need to look for a new career path, for example. But if you do want to do a good job and you feel like you just don't have the energy, we should be looking at, are we burnt out, right? Is burnout going on?

And then what can we do to heal ourselves? Right? Yeah. Very interesting. Yes. So guys also check out episode 377. That was how to get a genuine response to your email in 2025.

So different topic, but really good, important stuff. I love it. And also a great way, today's topic has been a great way to build a relationship with a coworker, with the right person, sharing a little bit of this and then maybe seeing if they share equally, right? What are they sharing? Testing it out. And that is the basis of a great connection.

at work right there. Love it. Love it. All right. Well, this is fun. I'm glad that we gave it all we got. We did Michelle 400 episodes. Wow. 400 episodes guys. Here's to the next 400. Thank you so much to our listeners. It is.

great to be here on this podcast for 400 episodes and we're gonna keep it going amazing guys hit the follow button and go ahead and leave a review for the business podcast let us know what you think of our first 400 episodes leave us a review and we'll do our best to announce your name on the show all right michelle we'll talk to you soon take care bye lindsay bye

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