VACATIONS and HOLIDAYS - Business English vocabulary lesson

Taking vacations and holidays is a great break from professional life. However, talking about these to your colleagues and agreeing these with your managers in English can be challenging. Especially if you speak English at work as a second language. Today we'll discuss the vocabulary, grammar, and phrases that we need to arrange our holidays. We'll look at the differences between American and British English when speaking about these things, and we'll talk about emails and email etiquette when going on vacation. 

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Today's examples:

I’ve put in for a couple of weeks at the end of June.

I’ve submitted a leave request, I’m just waiting for the management team to sign off on it.

I’ve got a few days of annual leave left for the year but I think I'll just roll them over. 

I’ll be out of the office until the first Monday in April.

I’m on annual leave next week. If you have any urgent requests then Jane will be covering for me so feel free to contact her and I’ll ensure we have a full handover before I go.

Just to give everyone advanced notice, I’ll be unavailable for the next couple of weeks, and will get to any emails when I’m back at my desk.

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Transcript

Welcome back to the Breakout Business English podcast, where I help you to communicate better. That's work in English. Hi everyone, my name is Chris. I am a business English coach and I've personally worked with over 1,000 international professionals just like you to improve the way that they communicate at work in English. Thank you so much for listening and for your time. I know how valuable it is. And today's topic is vacations and holidays. Last week we talked about getting promoted and professional success. At least I think that was last week. Maybe it was the week before.Anyway, it was a positive thing. It was a positive discussion. And I think I want to stick with these positive themes for at least a little while longer. This week... We're going to talk about vacations, And... Holidays. Whether you spend your vacation time at home, relaxing, in your own country exploring. Or you go abroad, overseas and look for adventures. Vacations are often... The highlight. Of anyone's year. They are what we look forward to and often spend months planning and saving up our money for. With that said, Let's take a listen. How you might talk about a request. For vacation. In natural and native sounding professional English. I've put in for a couple of weeks at the end of June. I've put in for a couple of weeks at the end of June. I've submitted a leave request. I'm just waiting for the management team to sign off on it. I've submitted a leave request. I'm just waiting for the management team to sign off on it. I've got a few days of annual leave left for the year. But I think I'll just roll them over. I've got a few days of annual leave left for the year. But I think I'll just roll them over. Let's start with that last phrase, to roll over your vacation days. In the third example, we heard: I think I'll just roll them over. I think I'll just roll them over. Now, when we talk about vacation days... We're usually talking about a specific allocation. A specific amount of days that you are given in your contract. If you're in the United States, then you might find that you don't actually get any of these. They're not compulsory, as far as I'm aware, in contracts in the U.S. However, in Europe, and certainly in the UK, where I live and where I'm based these days. I'm pretty sure that every job comes with a certain number of days that you're allowed off work. However, Let's say that you get: 20 Days of Paid Vacation I think that's a very common number these days. What happens if you don't use them? What happens if you get to the end of the year, and you haven't taken these vacation days that you're entitled to. And that your contract guarantees you.Well, If you're really lucky, then you might be able to roll them off. Over. This means that they will be added onto next year's available vacation days. If you're allowed 20 days off work each year, And in 2024, for instance, you only used 15 of these. Maybe you're able to take 25 days of paid vacation. In 2025, in the next year. I've found in the past that some employers allow you to do this and some don't. Others might even pay you for unused vacation days, but I think that's less common. These days, well, I work for myself, so I don't really have this luxury, but I really do miss the days when I was paid several weeks a year and I didn't have to come in to work.So. You might hear someone use this in a sentence like, "I'm going to roll over some of my vacation days." I'm going to roll over some of my vacation days. Or maybe... I'm going to let some of my vacation days roll over. I'm going to let some of my vacation days roll over. This second example is because there's usually nothing you need to do. It just happens automatically when you don't use your vacation time. But I'd definitely check that one with your manager. I should say while we're here that vacation and holiday are the same thing. But there's a difference in how these words are used between British and American English. In British English, we usually only talk about holidays. I'm going on holiday. And how were your holidays? Are common things to hear in an office that speaks British English. However, In the US, you'll hear vacation used to mean the same thing. In America, holiday is usually used to talk about public holidays. Most often things like Christmas and Thanksgiving. If someone in the United States of America asks you, "What are you doing for the holidays?" What are you doing for the holidays? Then they want to know what you're doing during Christmas. Or maybe Thanksgiving? If you hear that same question in the UK, then they probably want to know if you're traveling somewhere nice in the summer or going to spend some time at the beach. Let's talk about the phrasal verb 'to put in thought'. To put info. In the first example, we heard, "I've put in for a couple of weeks." I've put in for a couple of weeks. 2. Put something in. Is an informal way. To say that you've submitted a document or A formal request. A request for vacation isn't the only thing that we can put in for in a professional context. We can put in a job application. You might say I've put in for a new job. Or the opposite, we can put in our notice, meaning that we've quit. And we're now completing our notice period, that period between telling our boss that we don't want to work there anymore and actually having our last day. Or if things are going really wrong and you need to tell your insurance company, then you might tell someone that I've put in an insurance claim. I've put in an insurance claim. And if you want to spend some of your vacation time improving your English, then maybe we can work together. My full-time job is helping international professionals who use English at work to improve their communication skills.So, if you need English to do your job, but you don't speak it natively, then I would love to meet you. If you'd like to book some time to meet with me through one-to-one video calls, just you and me, then you can go to breakoutbusinessenglish.com. That's the title of the podcast, BreakoutBusinessEnglish.com, and find out more. Starting on our very first call, we can focus on the specific opportunities that you personally have to improve your English and communication skills. And the mistakes that you make most often or cause the biggest problems with your communication. And right now you can use the code PODCAST30, that's PODCAST30, at checkout to get a 30% discount off your first booking of 30, 45 or 60 minutes, whichever is best for you.Sometimes my calendar gets a little busy, so if you have trouble finding a time that works for you can always send me a message through the contact page on the website and ask if I have any time to fit you in. As I mentioned earlier, I've worked with well over 1,000 non-native English-speaking professionals, from new graduates all the way up to CEOs and even elected government leaders, to help them to achieve their goals, and I look forward to meeting you. Now that you've put in for your holidays and your boss has signed off on them, It's time to tell your colleagues that you're going to be out of the office for a few days. Let's listen now. To some natural and native ways. That you might talk to your colleagues about your upcoming vacation. I'll be out of the office. Until the first Monday in April. I'll be out of the office until the first Monday in April. I'm on annual leave next week. If you have any urgent requests, then Jane will be covering for me, so feel free to contact her and I'll ensure that we have a full handover before I go. I'm on annual leave next week. If you have any urgent requests, then Jane will be covering for me.So feel free to contact her and I'll ensure we have a full handover before I go. Just to give everyone advanced notice. I'll be unavailable for the next couple of weeks, and will get to any emails when I'm back at my desk. Just to give everyone advanced notice, I'll be unavailable for the next couple of weeks and will get to any emails when I'm back at my desk. One piece of vocabulary that I've used repeatedly over the past few minutes has been "leave". Leave. In the second example, we heard: I'm on annual leave next week. I'm on annual leave next week. If you have leave or you are on leave, then this means that you have permission to be away from work. And as you might be able to tell from those grammar structures, leave in this context is a noun. Which is of course slightly different from the verb that we usually understand this word to be.So there are different forms of leave. But if we're talking about vacation, then this is what we call annual leave. Annual leave. We refer to it as annual because you get a specific amount of days her year. That you're allowed to take. Every year.So each year, you get a new allocation of leave. Of days that you're allowed to be away from work. There are, of course, other forms of leave that you might get. Are the reasons that you are allowed to be absent from work. First, we have sick leave. If you're on sick leave, then, well, you're sick. You are ill. You are unwell. I think the name of this one is a little more easy to understand than 'Annual Leave', Now, If you want to get sick leave from work, then you can usually just call up your boss. And tell them that you can't come into work today. However, If you need to take long-term sick leave because something is really wrong and you need more time off work, a lot more time off work, then you'll need a note from your doctor, a doctor's note. That's a document that your doctor gives you that you then pass on to your employer. When I was growing up, they usually called these sick notes. You needed a sick note. However, my recent experience in UK hospitals has told me that these days this document is called a fit note. A fit note. By this they mean a note that says you are not fit enough to work. You're not fit to work. I guess they thought that sick note was a little sad or depressing, so they wanted something more positive.So in the UK, if your doctor tells you to take some time off work, they'll probably give you a fit note. Which... Weirdly enough, is a note that says that you are not fit to work. Okay, so we've had... "Annual leave?" We've had sick leave. Let's talk about Maternity leave next. If they female colleague. Takes maternity leave. Then what has... Just Happened. Or maybe what is going to happen very soon.Well, the word maternity... Is used to talk about many things that are related to pregnancy. Or giving birth to a child. If someone takes maternity leave, It means that they're soon going to have a child, or maybe they just have recently had a child. Let's flip this one around and here's a quiz question for you. I wonder if you can give me a word? That we use to talk about the break from work, the leave, that a man takes immediately after having a child. This one ends in the same way as Maternity. But it starts with the letter P. And this is... Eternity. Hatchanaji. Maybe you know the words 'father' and 'mother' in English.Well, paternity and father have the same root word. And so do maternity and mother. They come from the same place. They have the same origins. There is an interesting change that happened in the history of language, where many P sounds became F sounds. We see this in the way that many European languages use either words beginning with P sounds or words beginning with F sounds for father. Maybe you've heard papa or padre for father. In different languages. There are other places in English where we can see this. If you look at the history of the word Fudge. For instance. Foot or feet the things on the ends of your legs or and the word 'pedal' As in... Pedal on a bicycle. Then you can follow both of these words back to the same ancient Latin word. However, pedal kept its ancient Latin sound, that P sound, the same in papa or padre, and Well, Foote took on this new F sound, so some But words diverged and got this F sound and some kept going. That original P sound. Just an interesting change in linguistic history there. Okay, let's do one more. How about compassionate. Leave. If I tell you that a colleague is out on compassionate leave, then what has just happened?Well, let's take a look at that adjective, compassionate, or the noun, compassion. What do these mean? Compassion is a feeling of sadness because of the suffering or bad luck of other people. If you give to a charity, then this can likely be called a compassionate act. What is? Compact. Nice. Leave. This one means that someone has recently died.Someone close to you. So, if a member of your close or immediate family dies, then you usually get compassionate leave to attend the funeral and to make the necessary arrangements. Let's talk about being out of the office. In the first example, we heard 'I'll be out of the office until the first Monday in April'. I'll be out of the office until the first Monday in April. I don't think that this phrase takes much explaining, it literally means that you'll be unavailable because you won't be in the office. However, the reason I've included it here is because 'out of office' is commonly used as the technical term for being on some sort of leave. Just not being in the office. If you want to communicate clearly, that you're not going to be work. Then you can tell people that you'll be "out of the office". Or even just out of office. Here's another question for you. If I remind you to set your out-of-office, What do I mean? You should set your out of office. What does that mean?Well, your out of office usually refers to the automated email response that people will get when they try to contact you. It's an email that just says when you will be back. And maybe what people should do if they need something urgently. We often hear this abbreviated to Three letters. For instance, you might send an email saying: I contacted the colleague you mentioned in your OOO. I contacted the colleague you mentioned in your OOO. This is, of course, something that we would write, but not really say. No one would say, I got your 0-0-0. If we need to say it, then we just use the words out of office. And if we need to write it, then we can use O-O-O. Those three letters, the same letter, in a row three times. Don't forget that if you'd like to discuss any of the ideas, vocabulary or grammar, etc. In today's episode, or indeed if you'd just like to discuss your vacation plans, then you can book a session with me to work on your English communication skills by going to www.breakoutbusinessenglish.com. That's Breakout Business English, the title of the podcast, dot com. Or you can click the link down in the show notes. And you can use the code PODCAST30. That's podcast30 at checkout to get a 30% discount off your first booking. I've worked with over 1,000 non-native English-speaking professionals. I've done this for a few years now, starting in... 2019, yeah, I first started coaching people to improve their English back in 2019. And I've worked with everyone from new graduates up to CEOs and government leaders, maybe even some people from companies that you've heard of. In fact, likely people from companies that you've heard of. I've worked with them to help them achieve their goals and I look forward to meeting you. And helping you to achieve yours. Between episodes of the podcast, you can get videos every couple of days on Instagram, TikTok, and longer videos, usually about once a week over on YouTube. Just search for Breakout Business English. If there's a topic that you'd like to hear me talk about on the podcast, then I'd be excited to hear your ideas. Leave me a message or a comment on one of my YouTube videos and I look forward to hearing from you. If you want a free example of the kind of work that we can do together, then I'm looking for podcast listeners who want to be featured on the Breakout Business English YouTube channel. If you'd be interested in taking part, then you can go to breakoutbusinessenglish.com/contact. That's breakoutbusinessenglish.com/contact. And send me a message letting me know that you are interested in that. If you're listening on Apple podcasts, then I invite you to leave a review. Every review really does help me out and helps to push the podcast to new listeners and to grow the show. If you found this podcast useful, and you think there are some valuable things in here, then maybe feel free to write a couple of kind words too. This podcast gets around 2,000 downloads every week, and I've still only got a handful of reviews. I think maybe five or six.So if a couple more people left a couple of good reviews, then that would really help me out. A review is another great place to request a topic for a future podcast. That is it for today. Thank you so much for listening and thank you for your time. I know how important it is and I really do appreciate you spending these 20 or 30 minutes with me once a week. And I'll talk to you again next time on the Breakout Business English podcast. Thanks a lot everyone. See you soon.