In this episode, Gabo y Goyo talk about the language of "employee evaluation" in American English, as well as some of the factors that affect evaluation, such as taking breaks and requesting leave.
episode 66-evaluation
Gabo (2): [00:00:00] Welcome to the No Intermediate English Podcast, home of the TE Intermediate English app.
Goyo: Good afternoon, everyone. As we head towards the end of October, okay, but it's finally starting to get cold here in Atlanta, Georgia, having to wear a sweater and enjoy being outside a little bit more because it's not so hot. How are things up where you live near Asheville?
Gabo (2): Um, well, uh, we've had a kind of a natural disaster, uh, where we had a terrible flood on a inundation, uh, unlike we had seen in, in years, [00:01:00] I live in a place that was not directly affected by it.
Um, but we had, uh, a lot of schools that are having to be closed because, uh, primarily because our water system, the systems that, that, uh, bring water to the people that live in the city. Uh, we're badly damaged. Um, so, uh, thinking about all those people that were affected about that in, in North Carolina and in Tennessee.
Um, but it's, uh, we're having weather right now where it is cold at night and warm during the day.
Goyo: Okay. And what are we talking about today on our show, Gabe?
Gabo (2): Today, we were going to talk about some evaluation or employee evaluation, uh, related vocabulary. We've, uh, we find that our listeners are very interested in hearing some things about working in the United States and, uh, some of the language that's used in, say, if [00:02:00] you work, uh, in an office, uh, como un Godin, as they say in, in Mexico, um, But almost all employees get evaluated here.
Uh, so we were going to talk about that. And I, I thought I would start with some vocabulary. We just have three vocabulary words today. Um, in one of our examples, you're going to hear us talk about an allotment, an allotment, and, uh, este es una asignacion. Uh, we're going to talk about a contract. Car dealership.
A car dealership.
Um, and then of course we're gonna talk about a schedule,
Goyo: intermediate English ti.[00:03:00]
Ahora, oh, bueno, un poco mas tarde, gracias.
All right, so we're going to be using the word exceed here in our first example of employer employee vocabulary or communication regarding evaluation and exceed Exceder is a cognate in Spanish of the word exceder. We've noticed that the word exceder is not very popular in Spanish and that the word superar is much more popular, more common.
And so, uh, please think of the word exceed as like, Superar or supera and know that the word superar in English is not a very good cognate. It does not exist in English in the same way that it [00:04:00] does in Spanish because although we have. Superman, and we may be super busy, or something can be super cool. I'm not aware, Gabe, of any verb, um, that has the word super, unless it's a prefix, like supercharge.
Like I want to supercharge my batteries before Um, I go on a camping trip this weekend or, or something like that.
Gabo (2): Yeah. You hear lawyers and legal documents that talk about something superseding something that may be the closest thing, but that's, that's different than exceeding. So I think exceed is a super word.
Sorry. That was
Goyo: so stupid. Well Gabe's going to give us an example now of using the word exceed, just the word exceed before we start the Employee vocabulary.
Gabo (2): [00:05:00] When Brenda signed her rental agreement for her apartment, she agreed to a limit of two inside pets. Unfortunately, she lost her deposit of 1, 000 because she exceeded her plan. inside pet a lot. Greg, she not only had a cat and a dog inside her apartment, but she also had a donkey and two chickens.
Goyo: Good heavens. All right, so to exceed, to superar, to go beyond, to go past. Now let's talk about Exceeding expectations, a very common expression in the corporate world and the world of education. This means that you do more than what is detailed in the regular description of your job. Gabe's going to give us an example.[00:06:00]
Gabo (2): Fiona was quickly promoted to management because she regularly exceeded expectations on her monthly evaluations.
Goyo: In my line of work, which is education, to exceed expectations means that not only do you teach in the classroom well and do you assess well, give good feedback on exams and things like that, and that you communicate with parents well, but that through a variety of means, you also try to teach well.
What you know about being an excellent teacher to other teachers. So exceeding expectations in my line of work means that you are growing other teachers professionally. In our experience, it is very rare to exceed expectations. It's very rare to exceed expectations. [00:07:00] Um, when I listened to my supervisors speak about the evaluation process, Gabe at my work, they state very frankly, almost no one will exceed expectations.
And my wife has a very similar situation. She teaches at a university and, uh, she does not often exceed expectations even though she is a very accomplished professor. What about you, Gabe?
Gabo (2): Yes, I find the same thing where I work that exceeding expectations is not a common evaluation. And, and it's sort of a, what we call a vicious cycle.
Uh, because if you constantly. Exceed expectations than the person that is expecting those things of you then has higher expectations. And then you must exceed those and exceed those. So it's very hard to do what's called consistently [00:08:00] exceeding expectations, which means to do it. Over and over again, because it would mean that you are having to do more and more.
So, if you don't exceed expectations, uh, what is a more realistic or more common thing?
Goyo: Yes, uh, that would be meets expectations. Meets expectations and meeting expectations. is more sustainable. Uh, the word I would use there is sustainable. It's something that you can continue to do year after year without sort of this inflation that gobble is talking about.
But before we jump into meats expectations, I'd like to talk about this word meat because meat is interesting in this context. You probably have heard the infinitive to meet before and you know that it means to be introduced to someone. Like when we say, Nice to meet you. Mucho gusto. Or, you know that to meet someone means that [00:09:00] you are sitting down with them.
So, for example, I have to meet Carl in the cafeteria at 1. 30 today. Now, in this case, meets expectations. Means that you are at the level of expectations is as if, uh, maybe like they were two pieces of paper. The expectation was here and the meeting is here. And then when you put them together, they exactly are at the same place on each other that they meet.
Together almost like one thick piece of paper. There's no difference between them. That's meeting Expectations and Gabe's going to give us an example
Gabo (2): Although he is not the biggest star on the team Neville regularly meets expectations Of the coaching staff by scoring one or two goals within every five games. Further, [00:10:00] as a veteran player, he is a good influence on the younger players on the team.
Goyo: So Gabe Neville will not be on what we say in English is sports center. He won't be on the highlights or he won't be featured on, uh, on the sports shows because he doesn't. Have that superstar quality, but he is a regular contributor to the team. So he meets expectations.
Gabo (2): Exactly. He doesn't exceed expectations.
He, he meets them. Um, now this takes us down to the next level down. If we start at the top from exceeds expectation, then take a step down to meet expectations. Um, then we have the, the lowest level, uh, which most employees want to avoid. And that is when you are below. Expectations or you did not meet [00:11:00] expectations or sometimes called does not yet meet expectations.
So if you come in below expectations or you don't meet expectations, that means that you are doing less than what is asked of you or expected of you as part of your job.
Goyo: So my first job in college many years ago was to park cars. At a Ford dealership.
And within 30 days of working there, I had three accidents where I hit other cars and this did not meet expectations at the dealership and, and I, and I was fired, Gabe.
Gabo (2): So this is the kind of thing his manager would have said, his boss would have said, Greg, in your first month here at Rally Ford, you've parked [00:12:00] 35 cars and had three accidents.
Sadly, this does not meet our expectations and we're going to have to let you go. Or they might say, we're going to have to cut you loose.
Goyo: So, uh, what does have to let you go or cut you loose mean, Gabe?
Gabo (2): So to have to let someone go or to cut someone loose, those are softer ways of telling a person that works for you, Hey, you're fired. Te despedimos. Right. We have to let you go. It's a softer sounding thing. That means exactly the same thing as you're fired.
You'd no longer have a job with us.
Goyo: Now, as you move from basic towards intermediate and then advanced in your understanding of English, we want to talk about the [00:13:00] concept of speak in, uh, in the corporate world. For example, sometimes, Organizations will use words that are more generic or more, uh, protective of the people speaking than, uh, just saying outright, just saying directly what is true.
So we're going to need to define this for our next segment, and that's the word speak in this context. So if you put speak after an adjective. It means that this is the way that people talk inside that profession. So, football speak is how coaches may talk. Corporate speak is how people may talk in business, etc.
So, all of the language we are teaching you today is an example. Of corporate speak, business [00:14:00] speak or education speak or HR speak like the talk inside of the Department of Human Resources or Recursos Humanos, Gabe. So
Gabo (2): speaking of HR speak or human resources speak, um, we need to talk about kind of a difficult to manage phrase called schedule adherence, okay?
Schedule adherence. Uh, which is literally, uh, adherencia al plan or adherencia al horario. That is corporate speak or manager speak or HR speak for how well an employee sticks to her or his schedule. Uh, and whether or not the employee takes more time than he or she is supposed to on things like breaks and lunches.
All right, so sticks to is another way of saying [00:15:00] adhere and adhere, of course, is a cognate. Adherirse. He sticks to the plan would mean, uh, say adhiere al plan. So Greg will give us an example of how schedule adherence might be used in a sentence.
Although Josh
Goyo: received high service ratings from customers, he frequently took twice as much break time. As he was supposed to. So his schedule adherence was very poor. Now
Gabo (2): where I work employees who have good schedule adherence are mindful of the time they take on assigned lunches and breaks. So for example, at my work, we get two 10 minute breaks and one 30 minute lunch each day.
So an employee that often took. 35 minutes instead of 30 for lunch would have [00:16:00] bad schedule adherence. And what, what in manager speak, we would usually say they have poor schedule adherence. So that's just another way of saying bad, bad schedule adherence means this person does not pay attention to how long they've been gone from the job.
Goyo: So from the standpoint of the employer, Poor schedule adherence means that they're paying you to take breaks, in a sense, for a few extra minutes.
Gabo (2): Exactly, exactly. And that can add up over time. Um, and to, to be fair, I don't want people to think that I work for a horrible company. Uh, Employees also get an additional 10 minutes that they can take as they need to for things like bathroom breaks.
So we get 30 minutes total a day of break and 30 minutes total a day of lunch. If we work an eight hour day. Just wanted to clarify that.
Goyo: It's good to know that you work [00:17:00] for a company that gives you breaks. Gave it, that makes me very happy.
Gabo (2): I've never, never worked someplace that didn't give me breaks.
But, um, this is actually the first place I've worked because I work in a call center where, uh, breaks and lunches were very carefully monitored. Um, at, at, at some jobs you can get away with taking longer, uh, and nobody notices, but in a call center, it tends to be noticed.
Goyo: Right. Cause you're all together there and, uh, being listened to on the phones, uh, and such as that, I guess. Right. Right.
All right. Our next topic is called a time off request or someone is asking to schedule leave, to schedule leave. Leave. So sometimes we need to ask for time off from our job. For example, I'm going to the [00:18:00] dentist in a few days and so I've asked for time off from my job. Many American companies give their employees between one and three weeks of paid vacation time every year.
So there's different kinds of leave or time off requests and we're going to focus today on vacation or Uh, time away from work so that you can go on a trip or relax or be with your family. When employees want to take time off from work, they normally have to schedule leave, also known as requesting time off.
This just means that they go through some formal process where they let their boss know that they want to take time off from work and the boss can then approve or deny. Approbar o negar the leave request. The leave request. The amount of time given off is sometimes referred to as PTO. Or [00:19:00] paid time off.
Gabe's going to give us an example.
Gabo (2): Um, I need to schedule some leave. I want to take a trip to Colorado in November, and will need a week off from work.
Goyo: No problem, just submit a time off request, and I'll approve it for you. Oh, thanks. Thanks.
Gabo (2): Later that day Hey! Why did my request for leave get denied?
Goyo: Well, you um, you requested time off for November of 2014, Gobble, and not 2024.
If you'll resubmit your request for November of this year And not 10 years ago, I'll be happy to approve it.
I know that I have made leave requests and accidentally asked for way more time than I needed to, because you don't ask for leave very [00:20:00] often. And so. The system that you use to make the request is unfamiliar to you. It's new and it's not friendly. It's not a, it's not a, an intuitive or, or easy to use process.
And so you end up making what we'd call stupid mistakes. I've made stupid mistakes, making leave requests more than one time.
All right. It's time for our quiz case. They get on El Coco sticks in your brain after one listening to our show. Question number one, Gabe, there is a word in English that means be introduced to someone as well as get together with someone at a specific time and place. It is also used to say that an employee is at the level of expectation or productivity, et cetera, [00:21:00] of their employer.
So on your evaluation, Gabe, would it read greets expectations? Um, knows expectations or meets expectations.
Gabo (2): Hmm. Okay. So greets expectations, greets and knows both do have to do with, uh, with being introduced to someone. But in this case, neither of those make sense. Uh, we would say if there was on an evaluation, we would say someone meets expectations.
Goyo: That is correct. Question number two. If someone is expected to take only 30 minutes for their lunch break and they often take 40 minutes, 45 minutes, an hour for lunch, we would say that this person, A, exceeds expectations regarding schedule [00:22:00] adherence. B meets expectations regarding schedule adherence or C does not meet expectations regarding schedule adherence.
Gabo (2): Okay. So if someone is expected to take 30 minutes and they often take 40 minutes or more, we would say that, uh, C, this person does not meet expectations regarding schedule adherence.
Goyo: Yes, they are playing with fire. Or as they say, they're going to. They're going to get shown the door or they're going to get fired.
Los van, los van a despedir.
Gabo (2): They're going to end up on what we call an action plan, which is something we put employees on before they get fired. Action plan. Give them a chance to try to straighten up.
Goyo: An action plan is, um, is never good. It's never good. All right. Your last question. Ollentes. [00:23:00] Gabe, if an employer wants to take a vacation and needs to miss some work, she should, right?
Now in this one there are going to be two correct answers. Two correct answers. A. Submit an expectation of vacation. B. Submit a time off request. C. Submit a request for leave. Or D. Submit an employee evaluation.
Gabo (2): Hmm. Two of those are correct. I okay. You're right. I think two of them are correct. So we wouldn't submit an expectation that that doesn't make a lot of sense. And if we want to take vacation, we wouldn't turn in our evaluation. So I'm going to say the two correct answers are B submit a time off request and C submit a request for leave.[00:24:00]
Very well done. Very well done. Three for three. Ha ha ha. Ha ha. Yes. Loser.
Ha ha ha.
Goyo: We want to thank our patrons. If you would like to become a patron of this show, please visit www. patreon. com forward slash no te rindas podcast. We also wanna shout out some cities today. These are listeners that we've noticed in our most recent episodes.
We wanna thank them. We've had several listeners in Uba Salu to you guys. We also want to give a saludo fuerte, uh, to We Manco in Mexico where I once had the most delicious pineapples, um, I've ever tasted Gabe. Uh, I'm going to ask you to pronounce this next word. Go ahead. Utsunomiya. [00:25:00] Utsunomiya, on the island of Honshu, Japan, uh, Isfahan in Iran, Lewisham, which is part of London, England, and finally, a new listener in Patna, India.
India. Greetings to everyone.
Gabo (2): Greetings, guys. Now, have you already left our show a review on Apple Podcasts or on your podcast player? Have you? Have you already left us a review? If you have not, please take just a minute and And help us out by leaving a review. We would so appreciate it. And it really helps us reach more and more English learners.
Goyo: Uh, I've left seven reviews myself. I know you've left like 12. So
Gabo (2): yes. And that, that gives us a total of 19 reviews.
Goyo: That's right. And they're all very good reviews too. We're doing a great job. [00:26:00] If you would like to learn more about us, you can go to notarindospodcast. us and you can find, uh, our biographies. You can find other resources like our blog, uh, video and audio resources.
And of course you can find our links. To the Google Play Store for TANAS Intermediate English, our app.
Gabe, last night, my team, the Georgia Bulldogs, defeated the number one team in the nation, the University of Texas, in SEC college football, in NCAA football. So, I was yelling and screaming and acting like a fool in my house. My younger son, Nicholas, was laughing at how foolish I was acting. But, uh, it was It was a wonderful night for University of Georgia fans.
Gabo (2): Well, the, my school that I went to, the University of Tennessee, uh, [00:27:00] they play this team, uh, called the, from the college in Alabama called the University of Alabama. Uh, and they play them every year on the third week in October. And they have every year since like, except for World War II, since the 1920s.
So, um, and unfortunately, Alabama usually beats us and this year, uh, the University of Tennessee beat Alabama,
Goyo: so we can say very confidently, Gabe, that both the University of Tennessee and the University of Georgia exceeded expectations.
Gabo (2): Oh, absolutely. That's a good, that's a good point. So they're, uh, They're both, uh, super good football teams right now.
Uh, I wish my professional team, the Tennessee Titans were, but we've only won one game and I'm afraid we're about to lose again.
Goyo: They are not meeting your expectations.
Gabo (2): They're performing below expectations. We need to [00:28:00] put them on an action plan.
Goyo: That's right. Put them on an action plan. Well, enjoy your week, bro.
Thanks for the time. Love you.
Gabo (2): All right. Love you too. See you soon. Bye bye.