BE 628: Ready to Celebrate at Work? Find Out How!

0:00This is the Business English Podcast Episode 628. Ready to celebrate at work? Find out how! Welcome to the Business English Podcast from all years 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, Aubrey and Michelle. Coming to you from Arizona and New York City, USA. This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think you know a browser, but Gemini and Chrome, that's new. It can help you with practically anything on the web, like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50-page restoration block, or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks. Gemini and Chrome is here for it. Ready to make anything online make sense? There's no place like Chrome. Check responses set up require compatibility and availability very 16+.

1:02Hello, Michelle. How are you today? Hi, Aubrey. I'm doing well. How are you? I'm great. I'm curious. Have you ever had a reason to celebrate at work? Oh, yes, actually. Just recently, we announced on the Allers English podcast that I had some big news that I had a baby and it was probably a big surprise for our listeners because I hadn't announced it and now I have it. And it's because the baby was early. And anyway, toward the end of the episode, we will give you the Allers English episode. That's our other show. And we will give you that episode so you can listen to that where I share more information about that. But one of the cool things was the Lindsay and I were both pregnant at the same time. So we were a reason to celebrate, right? Yes, the true reason to celebrate lots of Allers English, Business English, babies this year.

2:02I know it's so fun that you were both. I got the news from both of you. Pretty similar, pretty close to the same time, which is so exciting. So, yes, stay to the end. Will, if you're not following Allers English, you should be, but you might have missed that episode. We definitely want you to check it out so that you can get all of the fun details about Michelle's exciting news. But yeah, it's fun to celebrate with coworkers, right? It was fun for me to celebrate with you. I'm so excited for you and with Lindsay as well. And whether you work in person or online, this is such an important connection skill to celebrate if someone has a birthday, if someone has a baby, there are all these fun occasions where you want to be celebratory, right? Yeah. So again, this could be career related, but it could also be, you know, holiday celebrations. And we're going to talk about what some of these days are and why they're so special and how we celebrate. So this is obviously different all around the world, depending on the country and the culture.

3:04So we're going to be talking about, if you're working for an American company or with American colleagues or clients. And if we're also going to talk about if you're in the position to say something or sign a card, you're going to have a couple go to phrases for each celebration. So this is going to be really helpful because sometimes you will have somebody come around and say, oh, we're all signing a card for somebody's birthday or for someone's retirement, right? And so it's good to think about writing things as well. That's a good point because you don't want to just sign your name. You want to say something, whether it's at least congratulations or happy birthday, but we're going to give you some great phrases for that. So yeah, be sure to hit follow here, guys. So you never miss an episode. We have three new episodes every week. And yeah, I'm excited to dive into the Sotheumashell. What a fun topic. It is fun party party. So again, this is for talking about work related days. So things you might celebrate after, excuse me, at work.

4:07So meaning you don't get the holiday off, right? Unlike Thanksgiving or Christmas, something like that. So what are some things that we might celebrate at work? Aubrey, what's the first idea we have? First, of course, is birthdays, right? If it is a co-workers birthday in the US, this could be a smaller celebration with your closest friends. Or it might be shared with a team of few colleagues, or it could be the whole office, right? An open celebration, maybe a cake and snacks in the office, maybe a few decorations. If you've seen the show in the office, that you can remember at least one birthday celebration where they have this party planning committee that's like putting up decorations for it, right? And Seinfeld, there's also stuff about. I'm sure. Celebrating too many things at work, it's a hilarious episode. Oh, right. So yeah, so it could be that people may,

5:07like go out to lunch or whatever it may be, but you might have a group card, right? Or a Slack message. So, or if it's shared privately with you, is everyone's in a while, you know, you have somebody who, sometimes it's awkward to be like, it's my birthday. Right. As you might mention it, like just to one person, or I mean, it shouldn't feel awkward, but a lot of times I think that a lot of work places will ask your birthday and maybe have the birthdays up somewhere or something like that. Well, you bring up an excellent point here at Michelle because if it's a big company, there's probably an HR department that might do something, but if it's a smaller company, maybe not. So, like I think it's a really good thing for other coworkers to find out birthdays, remember birthdays so that someone doesn't have to tell you, by the way, it's my birthday, you can be the first one to send them a birthday greeting. And then yes, put it in a Slack message or a group text so that other people know and can also wish them happy birthday.

6:11Exactly. So, I mean, let's talk about things you could say or write. So of course, something like, oh, happy birthday. I hope you have a great day or what else? Or have fun celebrating your birthday or just have a great birthday. Yeah, all of these phrases are perfect. You want to avoid asking their age or any overly personal comments, even if you know them very well, especially in a card on a group text group Slack message, where there are people there who don't know them as well, you don't want to get too personal. You can keep it in general. Right. Yes, exactly. A second thing that might be celebrated would be work anniversaries. So the anniversary of when someone joined the company. And would you say that this is like every year, like as somebody going to have a two year anniversary, like a big deal? No, right. This is not always celebrated. Usually at key milestones, maybe one year, five years, 10 years, you might see like a Slack or Teams shout out

7:12or group message, maybe from a manager or another coworker. It's usually pretty chill. It's not that big of a deal. Just like, oh, exciting. So and so has been here five years. Everyone's like, awesome. Pretty chill. Yeah. Right. So and sometimes there could be small rewards, like a gift card or company swag, something like that. And here, if you know, you're talking about it, you're writing something, you could just say something like happy work anniversary. Or if you could say like, wow, three years already, time flies, you could really write that. Or I think say that. Mm-hmm. Or you might say, great. Having you on the team. Love, I love working with you. Anything like that would work for sure. Mm-hmm. I'm not a huge shopper, but there are certain pieces in my closet that I keep grabbing over and over again. I bet you have those pieces too. The sweater that somehow works with everything, the jeans you know will always fit just right or the bag that you carry everywhere.

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9:13And when Quince asks where you heard about them, let them know it was the Business English podcast. It's the best way to support the show. All right, so number three is a company anniversary, right? Maybe the anniversary of when the company was founded. Mm-hmm. Right, exactly. Especially maybe for like a small business that you've watched grow. So yeah, it could be a company wide email or announcement. And yeah, more common if there's a strong company culture. And you might get like some sort of message from the leadership reflecting on the progress. There could be some sort of lunch or event or a little company souvenir. So of course you could say something like, you know, happy anniversary to the team or congratulations everyone or well done everyone. That would be great if it was on a group chat or a Slack channel.

10:14You could say those things. But if you're celebrating altogether, you don't really say something to just like one specific person, you know, right exactly. Because it's meant to be the whole team. This is when we keep it general. And yeah, we're celebrating as a group exactly. So if there is some kind of card, you could just say, let's see, go ahead, Michelle, I've lost my place. Mm-hmm. Yeah, no, I kind of jumped around a little bit in there. But yeah, I think we could, we can move on to the next one. So the next one is celebrating a new promotion or a new role. So again, that could be in meetings or an email or in Slack. Team members congratulate each other or whoever it happened to. There could be a small team lunch or informal celebration. And of course you could say, or write things like, congratulations on the promotion or the new role. What else could you say?

11:14I like this next one. Yeah, you could say well deserved or you've earned it. Because yeah, that is, it's acknowledging that you feel like they deserved that promotion or the new role. Mm-hmm. And if someone is joining your team, you could say something like, oh, looking forward to having you on the team. So that's good. Yes. And then lastly, career specific appreciation days, right? So for example, maybe an administration or professional day, this recognizes admin staff, assistance coordinators, office managers, this is often Wednesday of the last full week in April. So this is the type of thing that not every company would celebrate these or recognize these, but you might work in a company that does. Mm-hmm. Right, exactly. So yeah, there could be a manager or a team appreciation day. That person might get cards or flowers or lunch or a small gift. And you could do that personally or join a group office card.

12:15But yeah, it could be a public acknowledgement. And you could just say something like, thanks for keeping everything running smoothly. Or we really appreciate all your support or we couldn't do it without you. Yes. And then of course, there are also farewells. So if someone is leaving the company, maybe they're retiring, taking along sabbatical, or leaving on good terms, there often could be some kind of celebration of going away a good-bye party for that, or a good-bye card or group message. Mm-hmm. Yes, exactly. So yeah, you would do like a short farewell gathering and person or online. And sometimes a manager may make a speech or a team send off, yeah, I'm definitely thinking here like retirement parties or yeah, somebody's leaving on good terms, right? It has to be on really good terms that you would, maybe it's not retiring, maybe you aren't going to another company. But if you're on good terms,

13:16people should be okay with that. And it was done well, it wasn't sudden, it wasn't for any negative reason. Definitely, right? So you could have maybe just a kind of a farewell gathering, either in person or online. There may be a little bit of a speech or a team send off, something fun. And you could also fill out a card, right? You could write something like, it's been great working with you or wishing you all the best in your next role. Yeah, or your next chapter. That's a good one. I like that when people say, oh, and your next chapter. And like in the chapter of your book, it's nice. Or a best of luck and stay in touch or you'll be missed. And just, you know, I would say avoid asking for, like if you don't, if this person hasn't been very public about why they're leaving, avoid asking detailed reasons for leaving in group settings, right? Or really at all. Like if the person hasn't shared where they're going and sometimes they might not, I wouldn't ask.

14:18You know, they'll tell you if they want to tell you. Exactly. Maybe if you're very close friends, but for most colleagues, most coworkers, I agree, let them tell you if they want to give you any details, right? Yes. Good point. This is really interesting. There are so many, at least in American business culture, there are a lot of reasons to celebrate. We love and excuse to celebrate, right? Whether it's a birthday, a work anniversary. And so you need these great phrases, both for some kind of group message, whether that's a group text or a Slack message or written in a card. So all of these will give you this plethora of things that you could say. Yes, exactly. And I just wanted to remind you that we mentioned that episode of All Year's English, that was episode 2694, we're ahead of schedule with Michelle's exciting news. So listen to that one, because we talk more about my baby. And just like real, and also really good vocabulary. That's what I was just going to say.

15:19It's vocabulary that's great for work, right? Yeah, it's really good. It's good for something to happen before you expected. So yeah. So very good there. But yeah, the takeaway, it just enjoy these celebrations. This is a good thing. And try and use these as ways to connect with your coworkers. And it really can mean a lot to someone to get a card or to get a small gift. This is one of the best ways to connect with coworkers, right? And if you don't acknowledge it at all or ignore someone's birthday, it's not the end of the world when it's a coworker. It's not like it's a family member, right? But it is going above and beyond to show that you care, to show that you want to build a connection. So I think it's worth the effort to build those connections at work, definitely. Agreed, love it. All right, well, I'm glad we talked about this. And guys, I'm wishing you a happy day at work. And maybe you hopefully have something special to celebrate soon. I know, right? Yes. Awesome. Thanks, Michelle.

16:20Bye. 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 podcasts with 8 million monthly downloads. Just search for the All Ears English podcast and hit follow to get four new episodes per week on fluency, American culture, grammar, and so much more. Or tap the link in the show notes. Remember, we believe in connection, not perfection, when it comes to learning English. Follow the All Ears English podcast now. Brussels clean up nicely at Sweet Green. Maple glazed, roasted, and edges perfectly caramelized. Sweet Green's fall harvest is back on the menu. And the season's most overlooked little green vegetable is dressed to be devoured.

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