Asking for Time Off

Hello, everyone.

Welcome to EnglishPod.

Today I'm here with Erika.

Hi, Marco.

And I'm Marco.

And we're bringing you a great elementary lesson about a situation at an office.

That's true.

Today we're going to learn some phrases for asking for time off.

Right.

Asking for time off.

Or asking for leave.

Asking for leave.

Right.

Right.

So we're going to give you some great phrases and vocabulary for when you want to ask for

leave.

So let's just listen to our dialogue today.

We're at an office where Liv wants some time off.

Mr. McKenna, do you have a second?

I need to talk to you about something.

Sure.

Liv, what can I do for you?

Well, I was just wondering.

You see, I know I've used up all my vacation days this year, but my sister's getting married

and the wedding is overseas and, well...

You want to take some time off.

Is that right?

Well, sir, I was just hoping I might be able to take some unpaid leave this year.

What dates are you planning on taking off?

I'll need at least two months' notice so that I can plan for your absence.

I was thinking of taking off from September 1st until the 30th.

Would you be okay with that?

Well, I guess so.

Well, it sounds like the boss wasn't too happy about Liv's request.

Well, she wanted to take off for 30 days, so...

I guess that is a long time.

That is a long time.

I wish I could do that.

Yeah.

Okay, we have some great words for you today, so let's start with our language takeaway.

Language takeaway.

Four words on our language takeaway today.

Erika, why don't you tell us the first one?

The first word is vacation days.

Vacation days.

Vacation days.

So what are vacation days?

Basically, it's the number of personal leave days.

So the number of days that you can take to go on vacation.

How many vacation days do you have?

Yeah, I think I have not so many.

I only have 10 vacation days.

10 vacation...

Well, in some countries, 10 vacation days is normal.

In another, I guess it's 10, 15, even 20, I've heard.

Yeah, yeah.

Well...

Vacation days.

We can't take too many vacation days or else we won't make any more podcasts.

Why don't we look at our second word?

Overseas.

Overseas.

Overseas.

When you travel overseas, you travel over the ocean.

Over the ocean to another country.

Exactly.

Okay, overseas.

Okay, and our third word for language takeaway, unpaid leave.

Unpaid leave.

Unpaid leave.

So this is time off without pay.

Without pay.

Simple.

Right.

Unpaid leave.

And our last word, notice.

Notice.

Notice.

Notice.

So we have some great examples on how we use notice and from these examples, I'm sure

you'll be able to understand exactly what they mean.

Example one.

If you want to quit your job, make sure you give enough notice.

You'll need to tell us four weeks in advance.

Example two.

You didn't give me enough notice about this project.

I didn't have enough time to finish it.

So when you give someone notice, you give them information in advance.

In advance, right.

So if I want to take time off, I need to give my boss notice, advance information.

Right, 15 day notice or a 20 day notice, etc.

Great, so that's our language takeaway for today.

Now we are ready to listen to our dialogue a second time and this time it's going to

be really slow.

Mr. McKenna, do you have a second?

I need to talk to you about something.

Sure, Liv, what can I do for you?

Well, I was just wondering, you see, I know I've used up all my vacation days this year,

but my sister is getting married and the wedding is overseas and well...

You want to take some time off, is that right?

Well, sir, I was just hoping that I might be able to take some unpaid leave this year.

What dates are you planning on taking off?

I'll need at least two months notice so that I can plan for your absence.

I was thinking of taking off from September 1st until the 30th, would you be okay with

that?

I guess so.

A lot of non-native English speakers sometimes feel quite nervous about asking their boss

for time off, hey?

Yeah, I guess it's a kind of a difficult subject.

Yeah, but today we're going to teach you some great phrases that you can use next time you

need to ask for some time off.

Great, so why don't we take a look at putting it together?

Putting it together.

Okay, so on putting it together today, we're going to talk about some great phrases that

you can use when approaching your boss.

Yes, we heard Liv say this.

Do you have a second?

Do you have a second?

This is a nice way to make sure your boss isn't busy when you want to ask him something.

Right, right, right, but we could also say this in two different ways.

Let's listen.

Do you have a minute?

I want to ask you something.

Do you have a sec?

I need to talk to you.

A great way to approach your boss.

Yeah, I love this phrase, do you have a sec?

Yeah, do you have a sec?

It's really natural.

Okay, so you've asked your boss for leave and you want to make sure that he agrees with

you.

Yes, and this is how Liv did it.

Would you be okay with that?

Would you be okay with that?

This is a great pattern, and we've got two other examples of how you can use it.

Example one.

Are you alright with that?

Example two.

Will you be okay with this?

Example three.

I'm fine with that.

Okay, great examples, great patterns, really useful language.

Yes.

Okay, so now let's listen to our dialogue a third time.

Mr. McKenna, do you have a second?

I need to talk to you about something.

Sure, Liv, what can I do for you?

Well, I was just wondering, you see, I know I've used up all my vacation days this year,

but my sister's getting married and the wedding is over season, well...

You want to take some time off, is that right?

Well, sir, I was just hoping I might be able to take some unpaid leave this year.

What dates are you planning on taking off?

I'll need at least two months' notice so that I can plan for your absence.

I was thinking of taking off from September 1st until the 30th.

Would you be okay with that?

Well, I guess so.

I really noticed how Liv in this dialogue used a lot of really polite language, hey?

Yeah, I guess when you're talking to your boss, you really have to be respectful and

you have to use really polite language.

What sort of things did she do to make herself seem more polite?

Well, she said a couple of interesting phrases, for example, well, I was just wondering.

Yeah, I was just wondering.

Right, it's like, well, she's kind of setting up to ask for a favor or something.

And she also used another phrase that I thought was interesting.

Yeah, she also said, I was just hoping that.

Yes.

Right, I was just hoping that maybe I could take some time off.

Yeah, again, that sort of doesn't sound too strong, so it seems a bit more polite.

Yeah, because if she said, well, I want to take some time off, that's too strong.

Yeah, so I was just hoping.

And then, well, the boss says, okay, well, when do you want to leave?

And she says, well, I was thinking of, right?

I was thinking of.

Yeah.

Again, if she would have said, I want to.

Yes.

Too strong, right?

Yeah.

In English, sometimes we are careful to not be too direct when we're asking for something,

right?

Right, yeah.

Because if you're too direct, you sound a little bit impolite.

Yeah, you sound rude.

Yeah.

Okay, so great tips and great things to take into consideration the next time you're talking

into your boss.

All right, guys, we're out of time, but thanks for listening and be sure to check out our

website EnglishPod.com.

Right, where you can leave all your questions and comments and we'll be there to answer

them.

But I guess until then, it's goodbye.

Bye.