BE 429: Not On My Watch! How to Show You Care as a Leader in English
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This is the Business English Podcast, Episode 429. Not on my watch, how to show you care as a leader in English.

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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Hey, Lindsay, how are you? Hey, Michelle, doing great. How's everything for you? Everything is good. Question for you. Do you wear a watch? I don't, Michelle. I have not worn a watch in a long time. It's been a while. A time? Yeah. Oh, no pun intended. Yeah.

Although I have been wearing like a smart watch. Sometimes I try those smart watches. I try them out because I like to track, you know, my heart rate and my sleep and all these things. So, yeah. But no, I don't wear a watch watch. What about you? Watch watch.

No, I don't. I did. I had a Fitbit for a little while around COVID time and I was, yeah, for same, same thing, the steps and everything. Um, I've toyed with the idea of getting like an Apple watch, but I don't want to pay for it. Um, but,

it could help me in certain areas of my life. So I don't know. But I think then my kids would just take it and it would be more annoying than anything. Oh, that could happen. Yeah, that could. I mean, for me, I feel like it's kind of nice being able to track like how I'm sleeping and that sort of thing. But you're right. If you have kids around, they might take it. They might break it. Who knows? For sure, my daughter would be wearing the Apple Watch all around. For sure.

So today we're going to share an idiom with the word watch that is super useful. And this came up because my friend Jeff used this on a conversation and I stopped him because of my friends know about the podcast. And I said, that's going to be a future episode. So thank you, Jeff. So

The idiom is on my watch or not on my watch. Lindsay. That's a great one. Yeah. Yeah. So do you use this or have you heard this? What do you think? Yeah, I've definitely heard this and I like it. And what does it mean? It means I'm in charge and this thing is not going to happen when I'm in charge if I have any control over it, basically. Right? Right, right. So I would say that it's not so much...

right if you think about it is it on my watch like the idea of a actual watch i is it like representative of the time or is it more like not when i'm watching yeah oh that's good question i always assumed it was

on my watch watch but it's it might actually be more like on my care interesting in my in when i'm i have an overview of the situation or i'm in charge of the situation well or interesting right could be it could be either but yeah it might mean more the second way it doesn't it either way it doesn't really matter because we just say not on my watch yes really interesting yeah

Yeah, I mean, Lindsay, why business English? Why could this be good for business? Well, I think that in business, we are assigned certain areas of our company. We are in charge of certain departments or making decisions or levels of management, right? Where we own a decision. If you're the manager of a department and the people under you screw up, it's your fault. It's their fault, but it's ultimately your fault, right? Right.

that's the challenge of leadership. Right. Yeah. Yeah. So it's this idea of like saying who oversees something or how, like Lindsay, you said how something happened, maybe an issue that's come up. So there's a lot of times where this

where you could use this idiom. But guys, we want to remind you to hit the follow button wherever you are listening to the Business English podcast. Go ahead and hit that follow button, guys, to get three episodes of Business English every week. And of course, you don't want to miss the bonuses that come out. So hit follow.

Good. Yes. All right. Let's see if our listeners will get this through some examples here. I know examples always help to make it super clear. Right? That's the best. Yeah. All right. All right. So here's one. I feel terrible that this hack happened on my watch. I take full responsibility. Oh, so maybe this person was like the head of the tech IT department and your company got hacked or something.

then you might say that. 'Cause it was kind of on, you were in charge of the virus, antivirus stuff, you were in charge of that. - Yep, yep. Ugh, not good.

um okay or here we go bill got an award for all the improvements that happened on his watch with the team we are so proud of him or since this happened on tracy's watch she should be the one to fix it oh so here we're we're saying okay we have something went wrong and now who's gonna who's gonna

correct things who's going to fix things right yeah not so great or here's one more failure is not an option on my watch we will be working on this all night I'll order us dinner so it's a way of setting the tone uh as a leader it is it's really a leadership phrase right setting the tone it's setting expectations it's saying what's acceptable and what's not

for you as a leader, right? Right, right. That's true. I mean, would you say it's used more for being responsible for something positive or negative, right? Like, is it more when something goes wrong or when something goes right? I think it's when something goes wrong, don't you think? That's what I think.

Yeah, I think I think it's more frequently when something goes wrong, but right, like you wouldn't say, you know, on my watch, our team won seven awards for journalism, integrity and journalism. I don't think that would...

It's more like the hacking or something broke or something didn't happen correctly. Yep, yep, yep, exactly. And as I mentioned before, you could say on my watch, but a lot of times you might hear not on my watch, right? And the intonation is important here, right? This is very strong sounding, so be careful with it. But yeah, not on my watch, right? That's good, yeah. And I think leadership is a good way to talk about this. I do want to make a caveat that it's also important

for caretaking kind of right caretaking or taking like in your personal life if you're in charge of your kids for a day let's say uh that would make sense too right not on your watch your kid's not gonna gonna be on that jungle gym it looks dangerous not on my watch right yep yep exactly so yeah if you say not on my watch you know for like if here's a little role play okay here we go

I'm thinking we should change the policy to account for the changes. Oh, no, not on my watch. It's way too soon to do that. Change the policy to account for the changes. Yeah. Change the policy. Yeah, that was a little. Let's say to account for like shifts in the industry or something. Yeah, there we go. There we go. I like that better. Another? Okay. Oh, here's another one. I really think I might lose my job. Oh, no, you won't. Not on my watch. I have some say in this.

Okay. Yeah. So that person has some influence. Maybe you have like a cert, I have a certain, like I have the ear of the boss or something. Right. And I'll put in a good word for you so you can keep your job. Yes. Interesting. Well, thank you. There we go.

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For example, not if I have anything to do with it. This is quite a mouthful of a phrase, Michelle. It is. Not if I have anything to do with it. Yeah, but you do hear it, but certainly it's wordy. It's quite a declaration, isn't it? Yeah. It's quite a declaration. Yeah.

Yeah, you have to have a lot of energy to say this. For example, I think Tim might be thinking of leaving and not if I have anything to do with it, I'm going to talk with him. Okay. Yeah. So you feel very strongly that you don't want Tim to leave. So you're going to head that off by having a conversation preemptively.

right maybe i'm gonna offer him some more money i don't know right yeah um or there's another one which is um not while i'm in charge or if you're talking about something that did happen while i'm in charge so yeah this all happened when i was in charge blame me

Okay, or when I'm in control, so you could say this too. It's not really a common phrase, but it makes sense, right? Let's see. The mistake happened when Lucy was in control. We should ask her. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. So, um, yeah, all of these are really useful. I definitely love not on my watch or on my watch or, um, when I'm in charge, it's another one I really like. Um, what do you, what do you like the best Lindsay? Yeah. I like on my watch is good.

That's the one I would, I think is good. - Yeah, I like it. It's kind of fun. - It is, it is. So let's do another role play before we head out for the day. So here we are colleagues reviewing a mistake that happened during a presentation. - Okay. - All right, so here we go. I just can't believe this happened while I was in charge. I feel terrible. Michelle, it was a mistake. I'm not gonna let you get upset about this. Not if I have anything to do with it. - Thanks, Lindsay.

Things happen when I'm in control too. I guess. I just hate when things happen like this on my watch. Yeah. So maybe you are left in charge of something and then something happened and then you're feeling bad, right? Hmm.

Too bad. So I said, I just can't believe this happened while I was in charge. I was in charge. Yes. Good. And then I said, oh, I'm not going to let you get upset about it. Not if I have anything to do with it. So it is kind of an enthusiastic phrase, right? Right. It is. You're taking control. I'm going to not going to let you get upset. I'm going to buy you lunch and everything's going to be okay. Right.

it shows you care it definitely it definitely shows you care not if i have anything to do with it exactly exactly and then what did i say after that you said things happen when i'm in control too so you're saying i make mistakes too mm-hmm

And then you said, I guess I just hate when things happen like this on my watch, on my watch. And that is our favorite phrase for the day right there. Our phrase for today. So, Lindsay, what would be another good episode for our listeners to check out after this one? Well, another good one is just a few weeks back, maybe a month or two back, 402, how to respond to change at work in English. And I could see phrases for change at work,

nicely mixing in with talking about things on my watch, right? Maybe leadership is changing and then we have these phrases come together. Yes, exactly. Exactly. Lindsay, what do you want to say before we head out today? Any takeaways? Yeah, I mean, I think it's interesting the phrases that we use to say that we care about what to signal what we care about as a leader.

or as someone who's in charge of something or taking care of something, what do we actually care about? This is a, it's kind of a signaling phrase a little bit. It signals your style, your values. What do you allow to happen and not to happen?

Right. Yeah, it definitely shows you care. And I think that that's really important in business, right? You want to show that you're invested, that it means something to you. Yeah, it can help you retain employees and attract new employees and just set a company culture that matters, that people want to work at, right? Yeah. Yeah, definitely. All right. Well, this was a lot of fun, Linda.

Z. And guys, enjoy using these phrases and we'll see you on the next one. All right, Michelle, you take care. Have a good one. All right. Bye. You too. Bye. Thank you for listening to Business English, a podcast just for you, the high achieving global professional. Want more from All Ears English? Don't miss our biggest and best podcast with 8 million monthly downloads. Just search for the All Ears English podcast and hit

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