16 USEFUL IDIOMS FOR WORK & BUSINESS!
16 USEFUL IDIOMS FOR WORK & BUSINESS! PART 1 Native English speakers use idioms all the time. So, you need to understand their meaning if you want to follow conversations. In this lesson, you’ll learn 16 really useful idioms to use in business and at work. This is the first part of a new series. Learn these idioms, and use them whenever you can.
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A cash cow
A “cash cow” is a product or service that generates a lot of money for the company: “Drinks and snacks sales in the cinema are our cash cow – they generate even more than movie ticket sales.”
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Scale back your hours
If you “scale back your hours”, you reduce the number of hours that you work: “After Pete had the accident, he decided to scale back his hours and work part-time until he’d fully recovered.”
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At a premium
If you sell something “at a premium”, you sell it at a price that’s higher than its true value: “When this product first came out, it was selling at a premium, but now it’s sold at about 50% of its original price.”
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Crunch time
“Crunch time” is a critical moment when you need to take action or make a decision urgently: “Sales are down, there are lots of bills to pay and our competitors have just brought out a product to rival our own – it’s crunch time!”
3
To bite the bullet
If you “bite the bullet”, you force yourself to make a difficult or painful decision: “Demand for our services is down for the 5th consecutive month, so I think we need to bite the bullet and lay off certain members of staff.”
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A bitter pill (to swallow)
A “bitter pill” is something bad or unpleasant that has happened to you and that is difficult to accept: “Failing to get the contract was a bitter pill to swallow, especially after all the work we had put into it.”
4
Pull your weight
If you “pull your weight” in a team, you do your share of the work: “You can’t expect everyone else to do all the work on the project – you need to pull your weight too.”
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Brownie points
If you get “brownie points”, you get imaginary bonus points for doing something good (such as helping someone). As a result, your boss, manager, supervisor, etc. is happy with you: “I got brownie points for volunteering to work at the conference over the weekend.”
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