外教口语—如何与“落后”同事相处

Hello listeners! In this album, we'll discuss how to respond to those people at our place of employment that are so difficult to work with. Our first episode is entitled: "How to tell your coworkers their work is sloppy and get them to change their ways."Now there are times when our colleague isn't working hard enough and we need to find a way to let them know, so in this lesson, we can go over a few expressions that might help. Are you ready begin? Alright, let's get right into our first episode!The first expression helps your coworkers understand the results of the sloppy work. You can mention: "Because your work has slipped down a few notches, it's affecting the team's results." A "notch" can be a few things. It can be a hole or a groove in a hard surface to attach another object. For example, often when you buy a bookcase, you assemble it by placing the shelves in the notches of the wood. Most belts that hold our pants up will also have notches, the small holes in the leather, in order to place the belt buckle in and fasten it. Also, a "notch" can be a measure of something. As for the quality of work, the higher the notch or level, the better it is. So if we say that someone "slipped a notch", that means the quality of their work dropped down. Now you try practicing the sentence: "Because your work has slipped down a few notches, it's affecting the team's results." Well, said! That will let your coworkers realize they need to make more effort! Now, let's go on to the next expression.Our second expression lets your colleague know that his or her work isn't quite where it should be. You can say: "I think you need to improve on your less-than-stellar performance." The word "stellar" means relating to the stars. The stars in the sky at night are bright, beautiful and high above everything else, so the adjective "stellar" is now used to describe something we think is outstanding. Often, we will say that an actor gave a "stellar" performance in a movie, meaning he did an excellent job. So too in our work environment,someone's work can be "stellar." By contrast, the expression less-than-stellar is a kind way to say that the work was not good. The wording suggests that the work was just down a notch from being stellar,even if the work was awful. Now try saying yourself: "I think you need to improve on your less-than-stellar performance." Very good! That should be easier for your coworker to accept! Let's get to the next one right now.The next sentence indicates the poor quality of work seems to be consistent. You could say: "We should do something to help you out because your mistakes don't seem to be a fluke." "A fluke" is basically something that happens accidentally or something that occurs by chance. Often in sports we describe certain points scored as a "fluke". For example, in soccer if the player kicks the ball in one direction, but it unintentionally bounces off other players in another direction and the ball still goes in the net, then we would say that is "a fluke" goal. It's not the way the player planned to score, but it went in the net anyways. So, something that is not "a fluke," happens by design or for a specific reason. So, if your coworker is making many mistakes because his work is sloppy, then there is a reason and it's not by accident, therefore not "a fluke!" Now try practicing the expression: "We should do something to help you out because your mistakes don't seem to be a fluke." Good job! Sounds like you are being very helpful. OK, on to the last expression.The next sentence is said also with the aim to helping your coworkers improve. You could tell your coworkers: "Let's sift through your work to see where we can get it up to speed." To "sift through" something means to isolate what is most important from what is not important. For example, people will "sift through" sand on the beach to find seashells. Likewise, to "sift through" someone's work means to look for what is important or needed from what is not. The second expression we can highlight is "up to speed." This means to bring something that is behind and making it up-to-date or up to the required level. So, if a co-worker's work is not as far along as the rest of the team's work, then you can offer to help the coworker catch up to everyone else. Perhaps, that person is stuck on a problem or can't find a certain piece of information. In that case you can use our expression. Try saying it now: "Let's sift through your work to see where we can get it up to speed." Good! Hopefully that will work! Alright, let's get to our review.If you want to express that the quality of your colleague's work is not as high as it should be, you can say: "Because your work has slipped down a few notches, it's affecting the team's results." If you want to use a kinder manner to tell your coworkers that their work is not really good, you could say: "I think you need to improve on your less-than-stellar performance." If you want to tell you coworkers that the mistakes are happening for a reason, you could tell that person: "We should do something to help you out because your mistakes don't seem to be a fluke." And finally, if you want to offer some assistance to improve your colleague's work, you could say: "Let's sift through your work to see where we can get it up to speed." Excellent job with the review!So next time you have to deal with a sloppy coworker and need to offer assistance, you can try out some of these expressions. Do you remember the sloppiest coworker that you've ever had to work with? What was it like to work with that person? We'd love to hear from you and any comments you may have on the subject.