Talking About Hard Jobs

Hello Neil.

Hi Georgie. How are you?

I'm very well, thank you. How are you?

I'm excellent, thank you.

Good. Neil, have you ever had a bad or difficult job?

Oh yes. There's one in particular that I remember.

Ooh, that's intriguing. I'm sure we're going to hear about it a bit later because that's what we're talking about today in Real Easy English – bad or difficult jobs we've had.

Yes, and people should remember that they can get a free worksheet for this podcast at bbclearningenglish.com.

That's right. So Neil, tell us all about your bad or difficult job.

Well, what happened was I found a job picking beans on a student holiday while I was in Canada.

Ooh. On a farm?

Yeah, but we had to travel a long way. And when we got there, we discovered that you got paid by the amount that you picked.

OK.

And it cost $10 to get to this place on the coach and we worked really hard all day. And then I got my beans and weighed them. And I got paid $8.

Oh wow. Was it a full day's work?

Oh yeah. Hard, hard work in the heat, in a field.

Was it fun, at least? Were you with friends?

It's a good story now...

OK.

...but at the time, it was very annoying.

Exhausting, it sounds.

It was exhausting.

All day in the heat. I had quite a difficult job – it was just a temporary one. I was working in customer service, so I had to pick up calls from customers who were needing help or were unhappy about the service they had.

OK. That sounds interesting. What didn't you like about this job?

Well, the company was having a difficult time, so many or most of the customers that were calling were unhappy about the service, and so I had to talk to people who were very angry, and it felt like they were angry with me, even though it wasn't my fault. The company changed the warehouse where they kept the products and the delivery company at the same time, so it was just all a big mess and I found it really stressful.

Yeah, you say stressful. How else did it make you feel?

It made me feel very anxious because I took it too personally. Like I said, it felt like they were angry with me, even though I had nothing to do with it.

If you heard somebody else talking about this kind of job, what advice would you give them?

Ooh, I would say, don't take it to heart. As I said, I was taking it too personally, but you need to realise that you can only do your best. And at the end of the day, you can go home and enjoy yourself, relax, and tomorrow is a new day.

That's a very positive attitude.

Yes. What advice would you give to people doing the job that you had in Canada?

I think it's really important to do some research before you say yes to a job, if you're lucky to be able to choose. So, probably find out how much you're going to get paid, what it means, and how much you have to pay to get to the place to do the job.

Yeah, that's very important. And that's some good advice.

OK. So, let's recap the vocabulary that we used in the conversation.

Good idea.

We had a few adjectives to describe work. You said that your job was stressful.

I did. So, you can describe something as stressful, and the emotion that you feel is stressed. You said that your job was exhausting, so it was very hard work, so you got very tired doing it. That's exhausting and the feeling is exhausted.

Yeah. And I think I also said my job was annoying.

Yes.

And if something is annoying, it makes you feel annoyed.

Yes, that's right. I also used the expression take something personally, which is when you feel that someone is angry with you when they're actually angry at the situation.

Yeah. And you used another expression with a similar meaning – take something to heart. If you take something to heart, just as you explained, you feel bad. You feel someone is attacking you, but it's just the job.

OK. Well, that is the end of this episode of Real Easy English, but Neil we'll be back next week, won't we?

We will. Thank you for listening and goodbye.

Goodbye!