Ep8. How to ask for help and support at work in English - Business English lesson

It can be difficult to ask for help or support at work in English, especially if English is your second language. However, we all need advice and assistance sometimes, so let's practice speaking about this difficult topic.  In this Business English class and lesson we'll look at how to ask your colleagues and your managers for help, how to thank people for their help, and how to decide who is the best person to ask for help. We'll hear some natural and native vocabulary that you can use in these situations, including some phrasal verbs and idioms, and we'll finish off with a quiz and a challenge to get you speaking.

The international English speakers I coach and tutor every day tell me that it can be difficult to ask for help at work. If you're new to a job, role, or position, then you might need more help than someone who is a little more experienced. Learning about and understanding the best ways to talk to your colleagues about things that you find difficult, the challenges you have at work, and how they can help you to overcome them is an important skill in growing as a professional. After today's podcast I hope you will be a little more confident in doing this.

#businessEnglish #learnEnglish #EnglishVocabulary #EnglishGrammar

Transcript

Welcome back to the Breakout Business English podcast where we help you to communicate better at work. Hi everyone, my name is Chris and I’m a business English coach and tutor. Thank you so much for listening and today’s topic is how to ask for help and support at work.

If you’re new to a job, or you’re working in an English language environment then eventually you’re probably going to need a little help. And if we’re honest, we all need help now and then, no matter how experienced we are! 

Today we’re going to look at some great tips and techniques that we can use when asking for advice at work and remind ourselves that everyone needs help from time to time. Then we’ll look at some vocabulary and phrases that we can use to make our requests for support sound really natural and native.

At the end we’ll have a quiz to see how much of this vocabulary you’ve remembered. Don’t forget that the key to remembering new vocabulary is using it, so if you hear something that you think you might like to use in real life then make a note of it and remind yourself to look for opportunities to use it the next time you need to ask for help. 

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OK, let’s get started today with our first tip and that is to let people know that you’ve tried to solve the problem on your own. One of the biggest concerns that people have when asking for help at work is that your colleagues or your boss might think that you can’t do your job, or you don’t know what you’re doing. The best way to handle this worry is to let them know how much you’ve tried to solve the problem on your own. If you show your colleague the ways that you’ve tried to find the solution on your own then they’ll be much more likely to help you. Let’s take a look at some great ways to do this.

I’ve looked into this and I just can’t seem to come up with the answer.

I’ve been digging through the internet all day and I’ve still come up short.

I’ve spent a couple of hours going through the internet looking for the solution but I can’t for the life of me figure out how to do this.

I’ve been working on this all day and I’m having no luck with it at all.

Of course, with these phrases and ideas the important thing is to add some detail. Going into detail about where you’ve looked and what you’ve tried already is important when asking a question in this way. Now, let’s take a look at some of the great vocabulary from those examples.

To begin, we had a couple of great phrasal verbs there. Remember that phrasal verbs are almost always informal, but they’re a great way to make yourself sound more native so they’re especially important if you’re working with native speakers. Let’s talk about the phrasal verb “to dig through” as in, “I’ve been digging through the internet”. Well, what does the word dig mean? We often think of animals digging holes, maybe a dog or a rabbit. This has a similar meaning for us here. It means to search carefully and thoroughly in a specific place. Maybe you could dig through a cookbook to find something great to cook for dinner, or you could dig through your desk drawers to find a pen that works. So in a similar way that a rabbit would move all of the dirt out of the way to dig a hole, you might move all of the stuff in your drawer out of the way to find what you need. You might also hear the phrasal verb “dig into”, which has a similar meaning. Dig is an irregular verb which means we can’t just as ED to form the past tense, and the past tense of dig is… dug with a U, as in, “She dug through the notes from the last meeting but she couldn’t find what she was looking for”. You’ll also notice that we used “going through” in one of our examples there, as in “I’ve spent a couple of hours going through the internet looking for the solution”. This has a very similar meaning to “dig through” however “go through” feels a little more formal.

Maybe you also noticed the idiom to “come up short”. This is an idiom that means to fail to achieve a goal or a target. If you’re trying to do something and you don’t quite manage to do it, then we can say that you came up short. For instance, “I’ve been digging through the store room for a new desk chair for weeks now but so far I’ve come up short”.

One thing you’ll notice is that those ideas are mostly in the present perfect tense, I have been looking into this, I have been digging, I have spent. And then of course we use our contractions and turn that into I’ve. We use the present perfect tense when we talk about the past and the present at the same time. When we need to include the past in our sentence, but the focus is still on the present. Although these sentences can often be made using the past simple tense, it’s sometimes a grammar mistake to do so, and this is a great opportunity to practice this challenging but important tense. I would say that most of the grammar mistakes that I notice when working with international English speakers are related to the present perfect tense. So you can use this opportunity to get some practice!

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Our second tip today is to find the best person, at the best time, in the best place. Once you’ve decided that you definitely need to ask someone for assistance, we need to ask ourselves a couple of questions first. These are “Who is the best person to ask?”, “When is the best time for me to ask them?” and finally, “Where would be the best place for me to do this?”. Once you’ve answered all of these questions for yourself then it can be great to mention one or two of these ideas when you make your request for support. Here are a couple of native and natural ways to do that.

You’re probably the person here who knows this stuff best, and I didn’t want to bother you earlier. Do you have a second?

I know you’re really up on how this works, could you spare a minute to show me where I’m going wrong?

I hope you don’t mind me asking but, you always know the best way to go about things like this, and I wonder if you could spare a moment could help me out with something?

There were some really nice ways to double check whether someone is available in those examples, for instance, “do you have a second?”. You can also use “could you spare a moment?” which feels a little more formal. You’ll often also hear, “do you have a minute”. These all really mean the same thing and are generally polite ways to ask if someone has time right now to speak to you.

In that second example we used the phrase, to be “up on” something. If someone is “up on” something then they are always well informed and know a lot about something. You might ask a colleague, “are you up on what’s going on in HR?” Which means do you know what’s going on in the human resources department? Do you might say, “I like to stay up on new ideas that could help me out at work”.

And there’s that phrasal verb “help out” again. We heard that in our third example, “I wonder if you could help me out with something?”. This really means the same thing as, “help me with something”. However, adding “out” makes this a phrasal verb which, as we mentioned earlier, makes this less formal.

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Almost as important as asking someone for their help is thanking them for their help. Saying thank you as soon as someone agrees to help you is key to getting more out of this interaction than just their help. Any interaction at work is an opportunity to build professional relationships and this one is no exception. Besides, if you show how grateful you are before they’ve even helped you then they’re more likely to want to go the extra mile for you.

Thanks for doing me this favor

I really appreciate your time, I know you’re busy.

I’m really grateful for your help

Thanks for lending a hand, I’ve been stuck on this for hours.

OK, I put an idiom in just before our examples there so… what does it mean to “go the extra mile”. If someone goes the extra mile then they do more than is expected of them or they make a special effort to achieve something. For instance, your boss might say, “you really went the extra mile for that customer and they wanted me to thank you for them”. Or you might suggest in a meeting, “the client expects us to go the extra mile on this since it’s a really important project for them”.

Thanking people for their help is really great, but a common professional idea is to thank people for their time. If you’re anything like the professionals I coach every day then your time is one of the most valuable things that you have. It’s the only thing that we can never get more of. So thanking people for giving you their time is a great way to show that you understand this. We can do this by saying things like, “I know your time is valuable, thanks for your help”. Or maybe “thanks for taking time out of your day to show me how this works.” Using slightly more formal language with people who you might usually be informal with is a great way to show how grateful you really are.

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OK, let’s take a look at what to say if someone tells you no. Even if we choose the best person, at the best time, in the best place, we might still get rejected. One of the most common concerns that people have when asking for help at work is what to do or say if someone says no. The best way to deal with this concern is to know what you’re going to say if this happens. Having a response ready to go for this kind of situation can help you to feel more relaxed when asking for help. Let’s hear a couple of ways that you might respond to someone saying no when you ask them for help. 

That’s OK, thanks anyway.

Not a problem, I’ll find another way to approach this.

I understand, I’m sure I’ll manage

No worries, I’ll see if I can find some other way to come at this.

Of course, I’ll do a bit more digging and see if I can get my head around it.

“Not a problem” is a natural and native phrase to put here. It’s a slightly more formal way to say, “no problem”. In different parts of the English speaking world you might also hear “no worries” as in our forth example. You also heard the word “approach” in there. What do I mean by approach in this context? There are a couple of definitions for the word “approach” but at work we usually use this to mean a way of doing something, or of dealing with a situation or problem. For instance, “our team has a relaxed approach to meetings so feel free to speak up whenever you have something to say”. Or your manager might say, “Well done solving that problem, I really like the approach you took”.

Similar to “approach” is the phrasal verb to “come at” something. This is just a little less formal as it’s a phrasal verb. To come at something means to examine, or deal with something, usually a problem, in a particular way. You might say, “we’ve come at this from so many different angles already. I really don’t think we’re going to find the solution today”. Or someone giving you advice might say, “take a break and try coming at this again after lunch”.

We also had the fantastic idiom there, “to get your head around something”. To get your head around something means to understand something. You might tell someone that, “I’ve been trying to get my head around this all day”. Or “It took me a while but I’ve finally got my head around this new system”.

Of course, depending on the response you might like to try something more specific. If someone responds with “I just don’t have the time right now”, or, “I’m really busy right now I’m afraid”. Then it might be a good idea to respond with something like, “absolutely, I understand. Would there be a better time that I could maybe come back and go over it with you?” Or maybe, “do you think you’ll have any time in the next couple of days to chat about this?”

Or perhaps you get a response closer to, “I don’t think I’m the right person to ask about this”, or maybe, “I really don’t think I can help you out with this one”. In which case you might want to go with a follow up question like, “that’s OK. Do you think you could point me in the direction of someone who might be able to help?” or maybe, “Is there anyone in the office that you think would know how to tackle this?”

The reason I include so many phrasal verbs in these podcasts, often some idioms, is that they are usually some of the last and most challenging vocabulary that international English speakers learn and they can help you to sound really native and natural so I’d encourage you to choose one or two from today’s podcast and try to use them in your next English language interactions. 

OK, let’s move on now to some challenges for you! First, I want to give you a speaking challenge. As we mention on every podcast, the best approach to improving your speaking is to actually speak. You might be surprised to hear that lots of people who contact me to help them with their speaking rarely actually speak. Or maybe that sounds exactly like you! Finding opportunities to speak is going to be one of the best ways to come at the challenge of improving your spoken English. So right now I’m going to give you a question. When you’re finished listening to this podcast I’d like you to speak for two minutes and answer it. If you want you can record your answer and listen back to it. Maybe you can spot some mistakes that you don’t notice while you’re speaking? Often we can hear mistakes in our spoken English when we’re listening to recordings that we don’t notice in the moment. So here’s our question for this podcast: “How can employers and managers make it easier for people to ask for help at work?” If you want to really challenge yourself here, try to include a story from your own personal experience. You’ll be speaking about the past which is always difficult in English and at the same time this is great practice for any job interviews that you might have in the future. 

OK, let’s finish with a quiz today and see how much of the vocabulary we’ve talked about you can remember.

We had a few phrasal verbs in this episode but one in particular can be used to talk about the way that you deal with or handle a particular situation or problem. Maybe you deal with something in a different way to someone else on your team. If you have different ideas about how to do something then maybe we could say that you “come at” something differently. 

OK, now let’s make this phrasal verb into something slightly more formal. What is a more formal word, beginning with the letter A that we could use to talk about the way that you come at something. The way that you think about or deal with a problem or situation. If you have a new idea for how to do something then we might say that you’ve thought of a new approach. An approach is a way to do something. 

Another phrasal verb now and, which preposition can we add to the word “help” to make it a little less formal. If you’re asking for someone to help you and you want to make it a little less formal then you could ask them to help you out. For instance, “do you have a minute to help me out with something please?” or maybe. “We’ve got some new people joining the team this week so they might need you to help them out a little.”

Following on from that phrasal verb let’s find an idiom that means exactly the same thing, to help someone. This is an idiom that starts with a synonym for the word “borrow” and then a part of the body. That synonym for borrow is “lend” and that part of the body is “hand”, so the idiom that we’re looking for is to “lend a hand”. For instance, “could you lend me a hand with something” or maybe “thanks for lending a hand earlier”.

OK, before we go I want to remind you that the best way to improve using the information that you’ve learned in today’s podcast is to choose something specific that you would like to add to your English vocabulary, maybe that’s a word, a phrase, or a sentence structure, and look for opportunities to use it in your real life.

That’s about all we have time for today, thank you so much for listening. If you’re using Apple podcasts then please feel free to leave a review. It really helps me out and helps the podcast to find more people.

Until next time, my name is Chris, thank you so much for listening, and I’ll see you next time on the Breakout Business English podcast.