English at work
Workplace English for Clear Professional Communication
Workplace communication styles vary across teams and cultures. The aim is to understand expectations, make your meaning clear and adjust your level of directness to the situation.
Clarify tasks and deadlines
Confirming scope
To confirm, would you like the summary or the full report?
Negotiating time
I can finish the first section today. Could we move the full deadline to Thursday?
Requesting help
Could you show me where the latest figures are stored?
Participate in meetings
Giving an update
The draft is complete. I am waiting for two figures before I send the final version.
Polite disagreement
I see the advantage. My concern is the time required to support it.
Practise across channels
- Give a 30-second spoken progress update.
- Rewrite it as a concise chat message.
- Turn the same information into a short professional email.
- Check whether the request, owner and deadline are clear.