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ESL Podcast 808 – Asking for Time Off

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1

GLOSSARY

to take (a day) off – to not go to work on a day when one normally would; to
take a break from one’s regular activities
* Wei Han asked to take next Wednesday off for a doctor’s appointment.

to turn (someone) down – to say “no” to someone’s request; to not allow a
person to do or have what he or she is asking to do or have
* Bryan asked three girls to the high school dance, but they all turned him down.

time off – a period of time when one has permission to not be at work even
though one normally would; leave; vacation
* You seem so stressed out! I think you should take some time off and relax.

messed up – not right, fair, or clear; confusing; unjust
* Laura wasn’t allowed to date until she turned 17, but her younger sister was
allowed to date when she was just 15. That’s messed up!

permission – authorization; agreement from someone in authority that one
should be allowed to have or do something
* We need all of the parents to give their permission before we can take the
students to the museum.

to have it in for (someone) – to want to do things that will make someone’s life
difficult because one dislikes that person; to try to create problems or trouble for
another person
* Lydia has it in for Ahmed, because she wants his job and she’ll do anything to
make him look bad in front of the director.

the case – the way something is; a situation, scenario, or circumstance
* Craig didn’t want to believe his wife when she told him the neighbor was
stealing their tools, but when he saw it happen, he understood that it was really
the case.

in advance – ahead of time; with anticipation; before something else happens
* If you’d told us about your visit in advance, we would have prepared a nice
meal.

seniority – having more power, influence, or rights than another person because
one has been working in a particular organization for a certain period of time
* The schools use a seniority system, so the teachers who have been there the
longest earn more, even if they aren’t the best teachers.

English as a Second Language Podcast

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ESL Podcast 808 – Asking for Time Off

These materials are copyrighted by the Center for Educational Development (2012). Posting of
these materials on another website or distributing them in any way is prohibited.

2

screwed – an informal, vulgar term for being treated unfairly and in an
unpleasant, uncomfortable, or undesirable situation that one is not able to
change
* Shigemi didn’t finish the report on time and now our whole team is screwed.

a chip on (one’s) shoulder – continuing to think about something bad or unfair
that happened in the past, letting it continue to affect oneself in a negative way
* He has had a chip on his shoulder ever since he applied for a job with the
company and didn’t get called for an interview.

to put in (one’s) years – to do something for the period of time needed in order
to receive some benefit, advantage, or recognition; to put in one’s time
* They can’t change the company’s retirement plan now! I’ve put in my years and
I expect to receive my pension!

fair and square – in a truthful, honest, and fair way, without tricking or lying to
anyone
* What do you mean we won’t receive our prize money? We won the contest fair
and square!

priority – something that is most important and must be dealt with or addressed
before anything else
* The manager asked us to make this client’s project our top priority for the next
few weeks.

hire – a person who has been given a job in an organization; an employee,
especially a new employee
* All of the new hires are in the employee orientation this week.

shoot me – a phrase used to ask another person to kill oneself, used jokingly or
sarcastically when one is in a very unpleasant and undesirable situation without
control
* Last week our cat died, I lost my job, and the house caught on fire. Just shoot
me before anything else happens.

English as a Second Language Podcast

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ESL Podcast 808 – Asking for Time Off

These materials are copyrighted by the Center for Educational Development (2012). Posting of
these materials on another website or distributing them in any way is prohibited.

3

COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS

1. What did the manager do when Johnny asked for time off?
a) He yelled at Johnny.
b) He told Johnny “no.”
c) He gave Johnny’s job to someone else.

2. Why does Francesca say, “Don’t get a chip on your shoulder”?
a) She wants him to stop shouting.
b) She wants him to see a counselor.
c) She wants him to forget about what happened.

______________


WHAT ELSE DOES IT MEAN?

case
The phrase “the case,” in this podcast, means the way something is, or a
situation, scenario, or circumstance: “It’s going to rain tomorrow. In that case,
let’s change our plans.” A “case” can also refer to a lawsuit, or a decision that is
made in a court of law: “What percentage of his cases has that attorney won in
the past few years?” A “case” is often a small container that can open and close,
used to hold or store and protect something: “Have you seen my eyeglass case
anywhere?” Or, “Make sure you keep your camera in its case, or you might
scratch the lens.” Finally, "case” can describe whether letters are written as
capital letters (uppercase) or small letters (lowercase): “Writing in uppercase in
emails is often considered rude, because readers see it as shouting.”

shoot
In this podcast, the phrase “shoot me” is used to ask another person to kill
oneself, used jokingly or sarcastically when one is in a very unpleasant and
undesirable situation without control: “This conference is so boring and we have
to stay all day! Just shoot me now.” The word “shoot” is used as a command to
ask someone to do or try something, especially to begin speaking: “Can I try to
fix the problem? Yeah, shoot!” The verb “to shoot” can mean to take a
photograph with a camera: “Jaime is looking forward to shooting some scenery
around the Grand Canyon.” Finally, the verb “to shoot” can mean to reach for
something, especially if is difficult or impossible to achieve or obtain: “Shoot for
the moon; even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.”

English as a Second Language Podcast

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ESL Podcast 808 – Asking for Time Off

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these materials on another website or distributing them in any way is prohibited.

4

CULTURE NOTE

Paid Leave

Large companies offer many types of “paid leave,” or permission to not come to
work for a certain amount of time and continue to receive a “paycheck” (money
from one’s employer). Most employers offer holiday leave, vacation leave, and
sick leave, but larger companies have the flexibility to offer additional types of
paid leave.

For example, some companies offer paid leave for “military duty,” so that an
employee can “serve” (work) in the “military” (army, navy, air force, etc.) for a
certain number of weeks, months, or years, and still receive a paycheck and
have a job to return to upon “completion of service” (when one has finished
serving the promised amount of time in the military).

Companies can also offer paid leave for “jury duty,” which is a period of time
when a U.S. citizen is expected to serve on a “jury” (the group of people who
decide whether someone is guilty or innocent in a lawsuit). Normally, jury duty
lasts for only a few days, but depending on the complexity of the lawsuit, it can
last for several weeks or even months.

Employers can also offer “bereavement leave” (time taken off work immediately
after a close family member or friend “passes away” (dies)). More commonly,
employers can choose to offer “generous” (giving more than is expected)
“maternity leave” (time taken off work immediately before, during, and after a
woman gives birth to a child) “beyond” (more than) what is required by law. Some
companies offer generous “paternity leave” (for the father of a new baby), too.

______________

Comprehension Questions Correct Answers: 1 – b; 2 – c

English as a Second Language Podcast

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ESL Podcast 808 – Asking for Time Off

These materials are copyrighted by the Center for Educational Development (2012). Posting of
these materials on another website or distributing them in any way is prohibited.

5

COMPLETE TRANSCRIPT

Welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast number 808: Asking for
Time Off.

This is English as a Second Language Podcast number 808. I’m your host, Dr.
Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in
beautiful Los Angeles, California.

This episode like all of our episodes has a Learning Guide and that Learning
Guide can be found on our website eslpod.com. Go there, become a member,
and download the Learning Guide.

This episode is a dialogue between Johnny and Francesca about asking for time
off, time where you don’t have to work. Let's get started.

[start of dialogue]

Johnny: I just found out that the manager is letting Neal take Friday off. I asked
him two days ago for Friday off and he turned me down!

Francesca: Neal’s wife is pregnant, so maybe he needs time off to go with her to
a doctor’s visit, or something.

Johnny: That’s so messed up! I asked first, so I should have been given
permission instead of Neal. I think the manager has it in for me.

Francesca: I don’t think that’s the case. Maybe next time, if you ask a couple of
weeks in advance, he’ll say “yes.” Neal does have seniority, you know.

Johnny: Neal is always going to have seniority over me and I’m always going to
get screwed.

Francesca: Don’t get a chip on your shoulder about this. Neal put in his years
and earned his seniority fair and square. When you’ve worked here 18 years,
you’ll get priority over newer hires.

Johnny: If I’m still in this job in 17 years, shoot me!

[end of dialogue]

English as a Second Language Podcast

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ESL Podcast 808 – Asking for Time Off

These materials are copyrighted by the Center for Educational Development (2012). Posting of
these materials on another website or distributing them in any way is prohibited.

6

Johnny begins by saying to Francesca, “I just found out (I just learned) that the
manager is letting or allowing Neal to take Friday off.” “To take a day off” or to
take a week off or a month off here is phrasal verb meaning not to go to work on
that day or for that week or for that month. I'm going to take the afternoon off.
That means I'm not going to work after lunch. Maybe I won't work before lunch
either. I don’t know. That’s what we mean by to take something off. That same
phrasal verb to take off can also mean to remove your clothing. “I'm going to take
off my shirt” – not really, not in front of the microphone here! So, to take off
means to remove something you are wearing. To take off can also be used for a
plane that leaves the ground. “What time does the plane take off?” What time
does it leave? In this dialogue, though, “to take off” means simply to not go to
work.

Johnny says, “I asked him (the manager) two days ago for Friday off and he
turned me down.” To “turn down someone” or to “turn someone down” is another
phrasal verb that means to say “no” to something someone has asked you to do,
or that someone has asked you for. “I'm going to turn down his request for a
vacation next week.” I'm going to say no. To turn down is usually a verb we use
when someone has authority over you, when they're higher up, have a higher
position than you, and usually in a somewhat more formal situation. But you
could have a parent turn down their son’s request for the car on Friday night. It's
possible to say that as well.

Francesca says, “Neal’s wife” – Neal is the one who is getting Friday off – “is
pregnant, so maybe he needs time off to go with her to a doctor’s visit, or
something.” “Time off” is a period of time when you are not working, when you do
not have to go to work. So, you could say to your boss, “I need some time off this
afternoon” and your boss might say, “Okay, take this afternoon off.” “Time off” is
a noun and “to take off,” of course, is a verb.

Johnny says, “That’s so messed up!” The expression to be “messed” (messed)
up is sort of an informal expression to mean it's not fair or it's not right.
Sometimes perhaps it's just simply confusing. Here Johnny means it's not fair. It's
not right. He says, “I asked first, so I should have been given permission instead
of Neal.” “I should have been given permission.” When we say you should have
been something that means that it didn’t actually happen, but you think that in a
perfect world, it should have happened. “Permission” is authorization. It's when
someone in authority, your boss, a parent, a teacher says, “Okay, you can do
that.” It is saying it's all right for you to do something. Johnny says, “I think the
manager has it in for me.” “To have it in for” someone means you want to do
something to someone that will make their life miserable or difficult because you
dislike this person. Students often think their teachers are mean, are not nice,

English as a Second Language Podcast

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ESL Podcast 808 – Asking for Time Off

These materials are copyrighted by the Center for Educational Development (2012). Posting of
these materials on another website or distributing them in any way is prohibited.

7

that they have it in for them, that they're trying to purposely make their life
difficult.

Francesca says, “I don’t think that’s the case.” The “case” (case) here means the
situation or the circumstances, the way something is: “I don’t think that’s the
case.” It means I don’t think that’s what is actually going on here, I don’t think that
is really the situation. Francesca says, “Maybe next time, if you ask a couple of
weeks in advance, he’ll say yes.” To do something “in advance” means before
something else happens, ahead of time, before perhaps other people do it or
before something else is supposed to happen. For example, nowadays in the
United States, you can buy your movie tickets in advance. So, let's say I want to
go see a movie this Friday night with my wife and I decide, hmm, it might be very
busy. Sometimes it's so busy you go to the movie theater and there are no more
tickets left. So, I'm going to buy them in advance. I'm going to go on the Internet
and I'm going to buy the tickets today for a movie we're going to see on Friday.
That’s just an example. I'm not actually taking my wife to a movie on Friday. I
really don’t like going to see movies in movie theaters. I don’t know if I've ever
told you that, but just all the people and they're talking on their cellphones and…
just, I would rather just watch a movie on my television honestly. So, that’s me.

Anyway, Francesca says, “Neal does have seniority, you know.” “Seniority”
(seniority) means you usually have been at the company for a longer time. I've
been working for the company for 10 years. You’ve been working for the
company for one year. I have seniority over you, we might say. I have been with
the company longer. And usually at a company or an organization that means
that you have perhaps more power or more influence than people who are
younger than you or, not younger in age, but have been at the company fewer
years than you have.

Johnny says, “Neal is always going to have seniority over me and I'm always
going to get screwed.” To get “screwed” (screwed) means that someone treats
you unfairly, that you get a bad result, that someone does something bad to you.
“Screwed” is a very strong word. It's an informal term – many people would
probably consider it still a little vulgar, a little dirty, so you definitely don’t want to
use this with anyone other than your family. I usually don’t use this word. It's a
pretty strong word. It's definitely not something to use with your children or with
your boss or with anyone that you're not very close friends with.

Francesca says, “Don’t get a chip on your shoulder about this.” To get or have a
“chip” (chip) on your “shoulder” (shoulder) means to continue to think about
something bad or unfair that has happened to you in the past and it still affects
you in a negative way. Someone was not nice to you two months ago and so

English as a Second Language Podcast

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ESL Podcast 808 – Asking for Time Off

These materials are copyrighted by the Center for Educational Development (2012). Posting of
these materials on another website or distributing them in any way is prohibited.

8

every time you see that person, you're sort of angry with them. You're not very
nice with them. Some people might say you have a chip on your shoulder
because that person wasn’t nice to you.

Francesca says, “Neal put in his years and earned his seniority fair and square.”
“To put in your years” means to do something for a long period of time in order to
get some sort of benefit, some sort of advantage. “Fair and square” means in an
honest, fair way, in a truthful way, not trying to trick anyone, not trying to do
anything that would be considered cheating or untruthful. Francesca says, “When
you’ve worked here 18 years, you'll get priority over new hires.” “Priority” means
that something is more important than other things or than something else. If you
say this has priority over that, you mean that this is more important than that. So,
when Francesca says that Johnny will have priority over someone, she means
that just like Neal, he will have seniority over them and therefore get things
before they do. Francesca says Johnny will have priority over new “hires” (hires).
A hire is a person who is given a job. So, a new hire is someone who has
recently been given a job in your company or organization.

Johnny says, “If I'm still in this job in 17 years, shoot me!” “If I'm still in this job”
means if I'm still working here at this same job in 17 years, Johnny says, “shoot
me.” “Shoot me” literally means you're asking someone to kill you, to take a gun
and point it at you and shoot you. But we use this expression jokingly,
sarcastically perhaps, when there's some very unpleasant situation that you are
in, something very undesirable. So, let's say I lose my job and my cat died. Well,
that’s not a bad thing, but let's say my cat died and I'm sad and I lost my job and I
don’t have any money and I'm telling all this to a friend of mine and I say to my
friend, “Oh, just shoot me!” meaning just kill me because my life is so difficult. But
we don’t mean it seriously.

Now let’s listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.

[start of dialogue]

Johnny: I just found out that the manager is letting Neal take Friday off. I asked
him two days ago for Friday off and he turned me down!

Francesca: Neal’s wife is pregnant, so maybe he needs time off to go with her to
a doctor’s visit, or something.

Johnny: That’s so messed up! I asked first, so I should have been given
permission instead of Neal. I think the manager has it in for me.

English as a Second Language Podcast

www.eslpod.com

ESL Podcast 808 – Asking for Time Off

These materials are copyrighted by the Center for Educational Development (2012). Posting of
these materials on another website or distributing them in any way is prohibited.

9

Francesca: I don’t think that’s the case. Maybe next time, if you ask a couple of
weeks in advance, he’ll say “yes.” Neal does have seniority, you know.

Johnny: Neal is always going to have seniority over me and I’m always going to
get screwed.

Francesca: Don’t get a chip on your shoulder about this. Neal put in his years
and earned his seniority fair and square. When you’ve worked here 18 years,
you’ll get priority over newer hires.

Johnny: If I’m still in this job in 17 years, shoot me!

[end of dialogue]

I don’t invent or make up these scripts as I'm recording. They're all written in
advance by our wonderful scriptwriter, Dr. Lucy Tse.

From Los Angeles, California, I’m Jeff McQuillan. Thank you for listening. Come
back and listen to us again here on ESL Podcast.

English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr. Lucy Tse,
hosted by Dr. Jeff McQuillan, copyright 2012 by the Center for Educational
Development.