BE 426: How to Divvy Up Tasks at Work Without Sounding Bossy
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This is the Business English Podcast, Episode 426, How to Divvy Up Tasks at Work Without Sounding Bossy.

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 Aubrey, coming to you from Arizona and Colorado, USA. Welcome to the Business English podcast from All Ears English.

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That's allearsenglish.com slash fluency score. Hey there, Aubrey. How's everything going today? I'm great, Lindsay. How are you? Good, good. So Aubrey, what are we getting into on Business English today? Ooh, I have a question. Lindsay, imagine you're on a team with several coworkers and you have to figure out who will do which task.

What would you say to them to divvy up tasks? Yeah, this is a really tough situation. You have to be super careful, right? So I might start saying something like, oh, do you want to do this and I'll do this?

This reminds me a lot of graduate school. But did you do a lot of group work in graduate school, Aubrey? Yes, a lot. And often everyone's kind of sitting back because they don't want to volunteer too much. So someone kind of did need to step up and say, you know, how about if you do that and I'll do this. But no one is the leader, like no one's a supervisor here. So it's tricky.

Yeah, because in graduate school, you don't have a boss, right? And co-workers. And so... But collaboratively, you're all at the same level. Yeah. And so that's kind of the... Yeah.

- Yeah, that's a scenario we're talking about. - We got a great question about this. I'm excited to dive into it. - All right, I'll go ahead and read the question from Mai from Japan. So Mai says, "Hello, thank you for always, for the informative episodes." All right, I have a question. I recently learned that want to has several usages. For example, it can be used instead of should or when inviting or offering. We don't learn about those usages in school. So up until now, I might have sometimes understood when native speakers

said this misunderstood yeah said yeah yeah okay do you often use want to instead of should and when i use want to to ask someone for something do i always have to give a reason for example do you want to wash the dishes while i cook i would like to try using want to in different situations but i'm not yet confident could you tell me in what situations in your daily life do you use want to

Great question. Very interesting. Great question. And though we do this in everyday conversations as well, so it's also extremely common at work among coworkers. So I'm excited to dive into this here. And that's obviously the scenario we're going into today. Equal coworkers, right? Everyone is kind of the same level, but guys, before we do it, hit the follow button on business English. So you don't miss a single episode of our show.

Okay, good. Yeah, because if you need to ask someone to take on a task, but you're not their supervisor, there's a lot of things you would probably feel uncomfortable saying, just like, will you do this? Could you do this? Can you do this? You know, you work on the profit and loss analysis. I'll double check these numbers. Feels...

you know, maybe bossy or too direct because you are colleagues. You're trying to build this connection. You're on equal footing. So you have to adjust how you say something like this. Yeah. And I think this is a situation that you'll be in often because honestly, like your manager doesn't always want to have to think. It's the thinking that takes the brain calories, right? Who's going to do this? And they don't want to necessarily spend that time assigning

task to each person, they want the group to figure it out on their own, right? Exactly. So this happens a lot, right? That you're left to figure it out on your own. Often someone does kind of need to step up and just assign roles. But the way you phrase this is vital for keeping connections with your co-workers.

Vital, vital, vital. Oh my gosh. So incredibly important today. I'm so glad Mai asked this question. Yes. Yes, absolutely. So instead we ask if they want to do it and we do this a few different ways. One is what Mai was asking about want to, which really means do you want to?

Usually when we're speaking, it comes out as wanna. - Yeah, and even in business English, right? - Exactly, right? So when we're speaking to say, want to work on the profit, it takes me too much time, it's hard for my mouth to make those sounds, so I'd say, wanna work on the profit and loss analysis while I double check these numbers? - Yeah, exactly. Or we might say, do you want to, or do you wanna, right? Do you wanna do some mock-ups for the logo? Marie could work on the first few slides and I could create the charts we need.

- Yes, exactly. So notice in these scenarios,

It is often better to say what you will be doing. Like Mai said, give a reason, right? If you're asking someone to do something else, you kind of need to say what you will be doing. The reason that you can't do that. You don't want to put anyone in a situation of thinking or saying like, why can't you do that? Right. You usually give a reason when it's whether it's washing dishes, you know, and I asked my husband, can you empty the dishwasher while I, you know, fill it while I wash the pans, right? I'm not usually going to be like, can you empty the dishwasher? I should do it.

Right. You don't want to be the one that decides to step up and assign. And then you say, Mark, do you want to do that? Matt, do you want to do that? And then you're sitting there and you're just sitting back and doing nothing. Exactly. Right. That would make no sense and would be terrible. That's not a way to build connection. And often, I don't know about you, Lindsay, but in this type of situation, I would usually sort of assign myself the thing that people don't want to do. I'm not going to set myself up to giving...

the less exciting tasks to other people and choosing something that I think everyone would want to do. It's interesting too, you have to think about connection if everyone's going to be like, Aubrey, she's always taking the fun stuff and leaving everything else for us. Right. You don't want to be that person at work for sure. Or you want to take the task that maybe you have a unique...

ability or a connection to someone that could help or something. Yeah, that's even better if you can, if you are sort of the one assigning, then, you know, let them know why you think they are well suited to that task. Yeah, that would be another episode we could do of letting whoever is assigning, whether it's a boss or colleague,

know why you should do something over someone else maybe yeah exactly what's interesting is yeah that we do this with want to right want to do that while i do this but we do this a few other ways too so a cup for example we'll say how about if or how about for example you know how about if you call and let the client know about the changes and i'll work on revising the contract so same meaning as want to and i think that i like how about if because it feels i don't know

it feels not bossy right and we're trying to not be bossy and it feels like you're exploring an idea how about this how about if you do this and i do this yes and it feels more like you're open to them saying no thank you yeah it kind of does it has a bit of a collaborative tone to it right i'm just throwing this out what do you think yeah yeah yeah exactly because no one else is saying sometimes people just don't take action in those scenarios so someone has to say something so you're diving in

Here's another example. I'll work on revising the contract and how about you call the client to tell them about the changes, right?

Yes, I would definitely, I do use this, right? How about if you do that and I'll do this? Yeah. And it's interesting because if we took the time to say, would you like to do this? And I'll do this. Then you have to wait for them to say yes or no. We don't have time for that. Often we're just trying to save time. We're going to throw out an idea and unless they really are opposed to it, they'll be like, yes, sounds great. Yes. I love that. Now let's, let's up the level here and let's throw in another phrase that kind of

is getting at a different goal, kind of. Would you say, Aubrey? Number three. Yeah, this is interesting. So it's what say you, which really means what do you say about or what do you think about? What would you say about? But we're removing all those extra words and we just say, what say you? Yeah. And there's a lot here, right? I feel like, does this come from Shakespeare maybe or something? Old English? I don't know. It feels like old English, doesn't it? It feels like old English. First of all, it's kind of

Jokey, isn't it? It's a little joking. Like, I don't know if you would say this totally seriously. Yeah. So, okay, let me hear. I'm going to give you an example that's a little more serious and tell me if it seems weird. So I might say, what say you to working on the contract while I read these documents? I just think it's definitely a little bit eccentric, an eccentric way of asking the question. Interesting. What about this? I'll make the sales call. What say you to figuring out the error in these numbers?

Yeah. Interesting. It is a little less common. Yeah. Like we don't say it. We, it's not a, I, you know,

Yeah, I'm more likely to say how about if. Right, how about if. What say you to working on the contract? Interesting. We do use this when we're asking someone for their opinion, right? If we're like, I think this, what say you? But it is kind of fun and informal. Right, it's kind of fun. It's kind of eccentric. It's sort of like, hey, maybe this is a little awkward, this scenario, so I'm going to play around and throw in some old English here.

I could imagine using this if I am choosing the more appealing task. I'm like, I'll work on the logo. What say you to calling the client and letting them know we fired them? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. I mean, the other one would be... What I would say is this is totally different, but what do you...

what do you say? But that's a little bit of a different scenario of, hey, let's go to the baseball game tonight. What do you say? That's different. Let's leave that one out. I'm wondering if we could say, would you say like, what do you say about working on the contract while I read these documents? Would you say it that way? You could say that.

I guess you could say that, right? More than what say you, maybe. What do you say about working on the contract? But I like that we have this in here, what say you. But I think it's definitely we want to know, in my opinion at least, maybe we should verify this and come back for a bonus. But it feels a little eccentric because you are, it is old English. What say you. I often crowdsource these. I'll ask. This has happened a few times this week. Yeah, ask around. What say you? Do you use this? Right.

and update us right because it's definitely unique for sure all right we'll take a quick break and we'll be back for a role play okay

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The Venmo MasterCard is issued by the Bancorp Bank and a pursuant to license by MasterCard International Incorporated. Card may be used everywhere MasterCard is accepted. Venmo purchase restrictions apply. All right, Aubrey, role play time. So we are co-workers at a dental office. Okay. Yes. We're dental hygienists here, Lindsay. Took a turn. All right. Different life path. Love it. Okay. I'll start us. Here we go. We have two patients coming in at noon. Want to take Julie and I'll take Gabby? Yeah.

Yeah, that works. We also need two hygienists to assist with the surgery at one. How about if you and I do that? Absolutely. And on a more fun note, what say you to grabbing lunch later? A new sandwich spot just opened up on Main.

Yeah, so definitely more rare and unique in my mind, throwing that in there. Yes. And it's interesting, because as I did the roleplay, you could tell I would have kind of felt weird using what say you for these other two where we're talking about work, and it's kind of serious. But when I'm inviting you to lunch, absolutely. What say you to go into lunch?

You can play around a little bit more, right? It's more fun. It's more playful. More unique. Yeah. Interesting. So the first thing you said was we have two patients coming in at noon. Want to take Julie and I'll take Gabby, right? So we're splitting up, divide and conquer, as they say, right? Exactly. Yeah. And then you say, yeah, that works. We also need two hygienists to assist with the surgery. How about if you and I do that?

So you're volunteering us both. And I'm like, sure, sounds good. And then you pulled out the more unique way of thinking. So again, and on a more fun note, what say you to grabbing lunch later, right? What I'm really curious about, Lindsay, is if you're going to hear this now. If you hear anyone say, what say you in a conversation, you're going to have to come and let us know. I'm going to take my own poll and we'll have to do an update. We'll do a part two on this episode. We'll come back, we'll update you guys and we'll see how common is this really and what is the feeling behind

using this kind of, it feels like old English to me. I'll have to look it up. Yeah. I think we should ask you guys to be sure to come and fill out the Spotify poll. We're going to ask, do you use this? What say you? Do you hear it used? Yeah, we definitely need to get some input.

I love it. All right, guys, hit the follow button if you love our style of teaching business English, which is all about building relationships and connection at the center of your learning. Okay? Good stuff. Awesome. So fun. We'll see you next time. All right, Aubrey. Talk to you soon. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye.

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