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  • Hi.

  • I'm Rebecca from engVid.

  • In today's lesson you'll have a chance to learn 10 expressions that are used to describe

  • people at work.

  • Now, these are quite commonly used expressions by native English speakers, so if you work

  • in an English-speaking business environment, then it's quite likely that you will hear

  • some of these expressions.

  • Okay?

  • Let's get started.

  • So, I've kind of divided them up for you.

  • So, some of them are positive, some are negative, and some are neutral.

  • What do I mean by that?

  • It means: These people we are happy to meet, these people we are really not very happy

  • to meet, and these people we just...

  • Where it's okay, we're just using these expressions to describe them.

  • Okay?

  • We have no feelings, positive or negative.

  • Okay.

  • So let's look at the people we are happy to meet.

  • So, the first one is a "whiz kid".

  • What's a whiz kid?

  • A "whiz kid" is a term that we use to describe usually a young person who's quite brilliant,

  • very intelligent, very successful, very talented, and you know that he's on a path to a lot

  • of success.

  • So, often we talk about like a computer whiz kid, a young person who's got lots and lots

  • of talent.

  • You probably know people like that.

  • Okay?

  • So that's a whiz kid.

  • Next.

  • Next one is called an "eager beaver".

  • An "eager beaver" is kind of a very hardworking, enthusiastic person.

  • Maybe this person comes to work early and stays late, and they're always smiling and

  • they're happy to do their work.

  • That person is called an eager beaver.

  • Now, I put that as a positive.

  • Maybe some people don't like them, but generally speaking, people like them.

  • Okay.

  • The next one is an "angel investor".

  • What's an angel investor?

  • Well, if you have a startup company or a new company that you want to start, you would

  • love to meet an angel investor because this "business angel", as they're also known as,

  • is someone who's usually rich and they're like a sponsor and they

  • put money into your business.

  • They are ready to invest money into your ideas, into starting your company, and so on.

  • So these are called "angel investors".

  • So if you want to start a business, you're probably going to be very happy if you meet

  • one of these people.

  • Okay?

  • Next, let's move over here to the people that we're usually not very happy to meet at work.

  • The first one is called a "smart alec(k)".

  • Who's a smart aleck?

  • A "smart aleck" is somebody who thinks he or she knows everything.

  • Have you ever met such a person?

  • They are just so extra confident, and they tell you everything as if they know everything.

  • And usually people aren't very happy to meet those kind of people too much.

  • Okay?

  • And they called them "smart alecks".

  • Sometimes it's written: "alec" and sometimes "aleck", doesn't matter.

  • Usually we don't write this word.

  • We usually say it.

  • Okay? "Oh, he's a smart aleck.

  • He thinks he knows everything."

  • Okay?

  • That kind of thing.

  • Next one: "rotten apple".

  • So, what's a rotten apple?

  • If you can imagine a bag of apples and in the middle there's one that's not good.

  • "Rotten" means bad, spoiled.

  • So what will happen to all the other apples around that bad apple?

  • Well, after some time all of them will start to go bad a little faster.

  • Right?

  • So when we call someone a rotten apple, we're trying to suggest that this person has some

  • rather unpopular, not very honest, is kind of dishonest, he's bad, he's corrupt, and

  • he's also influencing people around him, his colleagues or workers to think or act in the

  • same way.

  • So this person is usually quite a troublemaker as far as the organization is concerned.

  • Okay?

  • So that's a rotten apple, a person who is kind of corrupt and has bad ideas, and is

  • also influencing people around him or her in a negative way.

  • Okay?

  • You might know some people like that.

  • Okay, what's a "fast talker"?

  • Well, it's not somebody who talks...

  • Speaks very fast, no.

  • When we say: "fast talker", we mean somebody who is very good at convincing people and

  • persuading people, but he's not always...

  • He or she is not always very honest or moral about it.

  • He doesn't really care...

  • This person doesn't really care if they're selling you something which is not good, or

  • which is actually bad.

  • They don't care.

  • They may lie, they may present it as very good.

  • They're very good at that, but they're not necessarily selling you something in your

  • interest.

  • It doesn't have to be a salesperson, but often we refer to salespeople like that because

  • sometimes they're trying to sell us something which is not good, although many salespeople

  • are selling us good things.

  • Okay.

  • So that's a fast talker.

  • Now let's come to some which are kind of neutral, they just describe different people.

  • All right?

  • The first one is: "head honcho".

  • So the word "head" gives you an idea.

  • The head honcho is like the main guy at the top of the company, a top executive, the person

  • in charge, and this person has a lot of authority, responsibility, and influence.

  • Okay?

  • "Head honcho", that's the name for that person.

  • Okay.

  • Next one, the "number cruncher".

  • Who's a number cruncher?

  • You probably have some people like that in your company.

  • You have to have, because "number crunchers" are people who work with numbers a lot,

  • finance people. Right?

  • They are number crunchers, and they're...

  • They don't just work with numbers, they're really good with numbers.

  • They know how to analyze numbers and understand numbers, and not everybody does, but they do.

  • So these guys are called number crunchers.

  • Okay.

  • Another one here: "pen pusher".

  • Sometimes also known as a "pencil pusher".

  • So, this is just a regular employee, maybe a clerk who has a rather boring job just filling

  • out forms, doing ordinary clerical administrative work.

  • Not very interesting, but of course it's necessary in organizations to have a lot of people who

  • are pen pushers.

  • So sometimes a pen pusher is also used to refer to someone who just has a boring job.

  • Okay?

  • All right.

  • And the last one we have here is: "whistle blower".

  • So, what's a whistle blower?

  • Well, I put it in the neutral column.

  • Some people think whistle blowers are very good, and some people think whistle blowers

  • are really bad.

  • It depends who you are and who's looking at the whistle blower, because a whistle blower

  • is a person on the inside of a company who becomes aware, he starts to know that there

  • is something illegal or improper or immoral or something wrong that the company is doing

  • or that is going on within the company, and then that person informs the police or the

  • authorities that such activity is going on inside the company.

  • So, he blows the whistle on these activities.

  • Okay?

  • Just like a referee will stop a game if something is wrong.

  • Okay?

  • So that person is a whistle blower.

  • Now, I know we did a lot of them, but let's see if you remember some of them.

  • So, what's a rotten apple?

  • What's a rotten apple?

  • Is it something good?

  • No, we know that.

  • So this is someone who influences people around them in a bad way.

  • Okay?

  • If you have a business, if you have a new business, who would you be very happy to meet,

  • especially if you need money to start your business, to launch your business?

  • That would be an angel investor.

  • Okay?

  • Good.

  • Now, if you need to understand some statements and analyze numbers, who are you going to

  • go to in your company?

  • Probably a number cruncher.

  • Right, really good.

  • Who's that very smart, young person who just joined the company, he's so brilliant, everybody's

  • talking about him, he's so talented?

  • That's the whiz kid.

  • Okay?

  • Good.

  • What about somebody who's trying to sell you something and he doesn't care if it's actually

  • true or not, and he's really good at convincing people?

  • Who's that?

  • That's the fast talker.

  • Okay?

  • Who's the person who informs the police that something improper is happening within the company?

  • Who's that?