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Introduction

When do rules need to be followed and when are they just guidelines? In this episode of Office English, Pippa and Phil talk about the language of rules at work and how to tell how serious a rule is from the way people talk about it.

TRANSCRIPT

Note: This is a transcript of a spoken conversation and is not a word-for-word script.

Pippa
How important is it to follow the rules at work?

Georgie
Um, usually there are systems in place for a reason. And, uh, you also don't want to get in trouble with your bosses.

Neil
But probably because I've been at work for a long time, and I think I'm probably aware of which rules are more important than others.

Phil
In this episode of Office English, we're talking about rules and guidelines.

Pippa
Hello and welcome to a new series of Office English. Your podcast guide to the world of work. I'm Pippa.

Phil
And I'm Phil. Find a transcript for this episode on our website, bbclearningenglish.com.

Pippa
So, we've just heard from some of the BBC Learning English team about rules at work. So Phil, can you explain some of the different kinds of rules that there are at work?

Phil
Yes, and again, this may depend on the kind of place that you work. Some places have lots and lots of rules. Other places may be a little bit more flexible, but most places will have at least some non-negotiables. And when we call something a non-negotiable, it means this is the rule. You can't argue with it. You can't negotiate around it. You just have to do this. It's non-negotiable.

Pippa
Mhm. Yeah. And then by contrast you might have some rules that we would call on-paper rules. And this means that on paper you're supposed to do something. But in reality maybe not everyone does it. It's a bit more flexible. So there might be something written down that people are supposed to do, a certain way of doing something, but it's just not practical. It's not something that actually happens.

Phil
Um, another thing you might have are guidelines or recommendations, which are things they might not be a rule that you absolutely have to stick to, but it might be good advice to use.

Pippa
Mhm. Yeah. And what's difficult with rules at work is sometimes the degree of firmness, how serious the rule is, is not always clear from the way that people talk about rules. And that's certainly the case in the UK. Um, a lot of businesses will have lots of rules, but people don't talk about them, um, in a way that makes them seem as serious as they are.

So today we'll talk about some different rules at work, and we'll talk about how serious they might be based on the way people are talking about them.

OK, let's imagine a scenario. Someone is starting a new job and it's a hybrid job, which means they work sometimes in the office and sometimes at home. Their manager is explaining what that means. So what kind of language might they use to talk about the rules of hybrid working?

Phil
OK, well, of course, when we're looking at hybrid working, there are lots of rules usually about when you need to be in the office, how often you need to be in the office, who needs to be in the office. Um, and in some places that's very strict and in some places people don't necessarily follow those rules. So one way that you might explain to someone what the situation is, you might say 'there's a requirement to be in the office at least two days a week'. Or 'there's a requirement for everyone to be in the office on Wednesdays'.

Pippa
Another way that you might phrase it is to say they ask us to. So 'they ask us to come in every Wednesday', for example.

Phil
A similar expression is we're supposed to. 'We're supposed to leave our cameras on when we have a meeting'.

Pippa
Another phrase that people use when talking about this kind of situation is to say we would normally expect, and this again, is talking about different guidelines. We're using 'we' here again. So if you need to explain rules to someone, saying 'we' instead of 'I' is kind of suggesting that this is a company policy. This is a company guideline rather than something that you're specifically asking for.

Phil
Yes. And then we've got one, one other one here which we could use, um, I think, in this situation. So 'there may be occasions when we need everyone in the office'. It doesn't mean there's a choice. It means that at certain times they might have to change the rule and that you have to be there.

Pippa
Yeah, and with a lot of the phrases that we just used, it might not be that clear whether these are non-negotiable rules or on-paper rules, Phil. So how can people try and understand whether this is something they absolutely have to do?

Phil
Sometimes you might be able to hear from someone's intonation how firm they are. Again, look at the context. Look at the culture in the company that you're working for. Look at who is saying these things. And yeah, look at what everyone does.

OK, let's think about another scenario. Um, if you're explaining to someone what they need to do when they have to buy things for the business. So a company might need to buy some new software or some new equipment. And whenever money is involved, there's usually a lot of rules around that.

Pippa
Yes, so when people are talking about money and different expenses policies, um, which is what we call when you spend money and then you need to kind of claim the money back from the business, they'll often use the passive. So they might say 'there's a process that has to be followed', 'there's a system that needs to be used'. Um, and that's a very common way to talk about these kinds of guidelines and rules.

Phil
Yes, and part of that process is often who's responsible for saying that money can be spent on something. So you might say something like, 'it needs to be signed off by' and you're naming the person who has to sign the form to say that the money can be spent.

Pippa
Yes. Another phrase we'll often hear in this context is it is essential that and using 'essential', that's quite a clear marker that this is a very serious rule that you have to follow. It's not an option.

Phil
And if you see the phrase no exceptions, that's often something that you'd put in an email, maybe in bold with lots of exclamation marks afterwards. Um, to make a rule much stricter.

'No exceptions!!!'

There's no alternative to doing this through the rule.

Pippa
Yeah, and actually finding rules that are written down is often quite helpful if you're not sure about how serious a rule is or whether there's a rule at all.

Another area where there are often rules at work is around confidentiality, and this just means whether you can share the information that you're told at work, or whether you need to kind of keep it secret, keep it within the company. And this is somewhere where we would often see a corporate policy, a written down list of rules around confidentiality. And a lot of the rules around this are expressed as negatives, Phil, right?

Phil
Yes, so you might see when you're looking at a policy, a list of things saying something is forbidden or is prohibited. So it could be 'taking documents home from the office is forbidden' or is prohibited, and it means you're not allowed to do it.

Pippa
Yeah, they might be written a bit more simply these rules, in which case they might say something like you should or you shouldn't in the negative.

Phil
Yeah. And while we often say that should and shouldn't are used for, um, advice, it's definitely not advice here. It's something that you need to follow.

Pippa
Yeah. Another way to talk about rules is to say never. So, for example, 'never disclose private company information to family'. And that's very clear that you must never do it. It's, it's there are no exceptions in that example.

Phil
Yeah. Another expression avoid, 'avoid sharing passwords' or 'staff must avoid sharing their password with anyone else'.

Pippa
And something that you might see written often in rules is 'you must comply with'. And that means you must do what the rules say. You must make sure that what you're doing is within the rules.

Phil
Another way that we can say this is to use the word duty. And a duty is just something that you have to do. So you might see in a policy, 'staff have a duty to follow all policies at all times', for example.

Pippa
Yeah. And you might notice that all of this language sounds a lot more forceful, a lot more serious than some of the examples we talked about earlier. And that's an indication that these are rules that are likely to be more non-negotiable rules than those on-paper rules or flexible guidelines that we talked about at the start of the programme.

That's it for this episode of Office English. We'll be back next week to talk about apologies at work.

Phil
If you're ever worried about speaking at work, why not listen to another podcast we have called Beating Speaking Anxiety, and you'll find that in the Learning English Conversations feed.

Pippa
Or you can find it on our website, bbclearningenglish.com. See you next week.

Phil
No exceptions.

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