Hi and welcome back to Love English we all know how important idioms are when it comes to our
day-to-day english when it comes to sounding a little bit more natural and native and of course
expressing ourselves concisely when it comes to the workplace whether you work at mcdonald's or in
a big corporate company idiomatic expressions are everywhere and these 10 idioms are really going
to help you express yourself clearly at work and well just sound more colorful and interesting in
your language now of course that these 10 idioms are not exclusively used in the workplace you
can use them in your day-to-day english but you will find they are most commonly used in a more
professional environment when discussing work and business so if you want to know what it means to
grab the bull by the horns if you are completely snowed under if someone hits the nail on the
head these expressions are brilliant for the workplace so without further ado let's get started
number one if you take the bull by the horns you are acting decisively in what is quite possibly
a rather tricky and difficult situation you are acting in an assertive manner and showing really
perhaps your leadership skills and ability to deal with difficult situations i decided to take the
bull by the horns and discuss the problem with my boss we really needed to address the issue
it may have been okay for you to turn up to work late in your old job but really that kind of
behavior just isn't going to fly here so in this case we're not talking literally about flying but
we are talking about behavior that is acceptable or in this case not acceptable it's usually used
in the negative form that isn't going to fly so we often use it in the future tense talking about
potential behavior things that you might do in the future and how it's not acceptable she has
a terrible attitude at work and it really isn't going to fly anymore number three is a fantastic
expression and possibly one of my favorite to hit the nail on the head if you tell someone
you've hit the nail on the head there you're basically telling them that they are absolutely
correct that they have identified something and correctly assessed it really often in the case
of identifying a problem so for example i really think you hit the nail on the head there when you
told the boss that we needed to really scale back our spending the company isn't going to survive if
we carry on like this now when it comes to meeting expectations or requirements in the workplace
we can use the idiom cut the mustard to cut the mustard and again this expression is often used in
a negative sense i'm sorry but your report writing just really doesn't cut the mustard essentially
it's not good enough it's not up to standard we're not talking about the condiment mustard
we are referring to your skills your ability to do something so really quite negative if somebody
tells you you don't cut the mustard you're not up to the correct standard you're not able to
do your job essentially the report didn't quite have enough data to cut the mustard i suggest
you go back and see if you can find more facts and figures number five to do something off the cuff
this is your cuff and when you do something off the cuff you are doing it spontaneously without
preparation and this really does take quite a lot of skill when it comes to the workplace
i answered his questions off the cuff i wasn't prepared at all but i think i did okay so off
the cuff to do something without preparation spontaneously now you've all heard the expression
let's get down to business but have you heard let's get down to brass tacts let's get down to
brass attacks essentially let's get to the point let's address the main issues and not really
go around it focus on the essential or basic facts before we go into detail about
everybody's role in this project let's get down to brass tats what really do we need to achieve
now most of us are hard working at least i like to think so and when you talk about working your
fingers to the bone oh sounds a bit disgusting but all it really means is that you're working
incredibly hard and really probably too hard wow i have worked my finger to the
bone for my boss and he still doesn't appreciate me what's wrong with him i think i need a new job
so to work your fingers to the bone now if you decide to go back to the drawing board or indeed
if your boss says look i'm sorry i think we need to go back to the drawing board here
you are starting again from the beginning when a project or proposal is basically not accepted well
the plans for the new hospital were rejected so i guess it's back to the drawing board starting all
over again now have you ever felt that you were completely snowed under and no i am not talking
about an avalanche and being under literal snow when you are snowed under often with something
you have so much to do i was snowed under with emails i just couldn't get the work done
so to be snowed under is to have so much work on top of you putting the pressure on that you just
possibly aren't coping i'm sorry i didn't get back to you sooner i was snowed under reading
the reports but i think i've got through it now and finally number 10 it's a dog eat dog
world a dog eat dog world not a very pretty picture if you think about the literal meaning
but of course idioms are not literal they are figurative so when we talk about it being a dog
eat dog world we're saying it's cruel it's hard it's competitive so for example say for example
i'm so sorry you didn't get the promotion but you know what it is a dog eat dog world out there
better luck next time it really suggests you need to be more aggressive more assertive to
achieve what you want particularly in a business environment and there we have it 10 idioms a
very simple brief lesson but hopefully one that was useful please do comment below share your
favorite idiomatic expression here related to work whether that's one that i've already shared with
you or one that i haven't comment below and let me know and don't forget click that subscribe button
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and don't forget when it comes to learning english you've got to grab the ball by the horns