Using English at Work

Lesson 8 - Meeting with the Boss

Next, my boss praises me for my hard work. "To praise" someone means to say good things about what that person has done, to compliment him or her. It's nice to hear someone praise us, because it lets us know that our hard work has been noticed and is being appreciated. It's always a good idea to praise employees when they do something very well. In fact, there's some research to suggest that praising employees will give you better performance than criticizing employees.

After my boss praises me for my hard work, he encourages me to keep my head down and to keep plugging away. There are a couple of interesting expressions there. First, "to keep your head down" means to concentrate on what you are doing, not saying or doing things that will draw attention from other people or create problems. To keep your head down means to be working seriously and hard. If you're at the office and other people are fighting about something that doesn't involve you, you might decide to keep your head down and continue working so that you don't get involved in the argument. To keep your head down means to be focused on your work. If your wife is having a bad day, it might be good idea to keep your head down. I know it is, if that happens to me; that's just a little advice!

"To keep plugging away" means to continue working very hard at something. For example, if you're learning how to cook, but you're having problems making good dishes, you decide to keep trying, however, you keep plugging away in order to become a better cook. My boss wants me to keep my head down and to keep plugging away - keep working hard until I get my promotion.

I'm so surprised by all of this that I don't know what to say. I've never thought of myself as a corporate climber. A "corporate climber" is a person who wants to move up within a company or organization, getting better jobs, better pay, perhaps more power and responsibilities. A corporate climber is usually someone who is very ambitious, someone who is very focused on their work. I've never thought of myself as one of these corporate climbers. I don't think that my work is a standout from my coworkers' work. A "standout" (one word) is something that is the best, better than anything else. You might be a standout on the soccer team you play on; you score more goals or points than anyone else. You are the best player - you're a standout. Apparently the boss and the regional manager think that my work is a standout, because they're offering the promotion to me instead of to my poor coworkers.

Even though I don't think of myself as a corporate climber and I don't think that my work is a standout, I thank my boss, of course, and shake hands with him. "To shake hands" with someone means you turn to the other person, you put out your usually right hand (in the United States), you hold the other person's right

64