职场英语口语(MP3)：Talking to your Subordinate or Direct

If you are a manager, then you will more likely have someone reporting to you. The most common terminology I am used to is a direct. Throughout this lesson, I will use the word direct.

There are many things you have to say to a direct. You have to give them work, explain things, encourage them to do better, and even reprimand them when they are not performing well. We will cover these types of sentences in this lesson.

Status

A common question a manager asks is to find out what the status of a project is.

"What is the status of the marketing documents?"
"How far along are you in your analysis?"
"Are you almost done with the technical report?"
"When are you going to finish the design plans?"

"Can you give me a status on your progress so far?"
"How is the reporting assignment going?"

"When can you give me a working draft by?"

Requesting a weekly status mail from your direct is very common among large companies with many employees. Basically, the status mail will include what has been accomplished the current week, and what will be done next week. If your company has this process, or if you just want to implement it yourself, you can tell your direct something like the following.

"At the end of every week, can you send me a weekly status mail? I'll email you a template you should follow. You should email it to me every Friday."

"I want you to send me a status report at the end of every week. You should include what you did for that week and what you plan on doing for the next week."

"Can you send me a weekly status report? If you haven't done it before, let me know and I will send you a template to use."