{"id":75533,"date":"2025-07-05T13:17:38","date_gmt":"2025-07-05T13:17:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.allearsenglish.com\/?p=75533"},"modified":"2025-07-05T13:17:40","modified_gmt":"2025-07-05T13:17:40","slug":"divvy-up-tasks-at-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.allearsenglish.com\/divvy-up-tasks-at-work\/","title":{"rendered":"Business English 426: How to Divvy Up Tasks at Work Without Sounding Bossy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Do you usually have to delegate or assign tasks or projects at work?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Listen in today as Lindsay and Aubrey share with you different ways to divvy up tasks at work without sounding bossy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Are you bossy at work?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Aubrey asks Lindsay to imagine she\u2019s on a team with several coworkers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this hypothetical situation, she has to figure out who will do which tasks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She asks Lindsay what she would say to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lindsay responds that this is a really tough situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She would ask them if they want to do certain tasks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It reminds her of graduate school where people just collaboratively agree on which parts of the task to work on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it can be tricky when not everyone is on the same level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re not leading a team and you need to assign tasks, you need the vocabulary to not sound pushy or bossy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today\u2019s episode is inspired by Mai from Japan, a listener of All Ears English.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Hello, everyone. I’m Mai from Japan. Thank you always for the informative episodes.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have a question. I recently learned that \u201cwant to\u201d has several usages. For example, it can be used instead of should, or when inviting or offering. We don’t learn about those usages at school in Japan, so up until now, I might have sometimes misunderstood what native speakers said.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you often use “want to” instead of “should”? And, when I use “want to” to ask someone for something, do I always have to give a reason? For example, “do you want to wash the dishes while I cook?”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I would like to try using “want to” in different situations, but I’m not yet confident. Could you tell me in what situations in your daily life do you use “want to”?<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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Communication with co-workers<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

This is extremely common at work among coworkers wherein you will need to ask someone to do something.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You don\u2019t want to break the connection by saying the wrong thing or giving the wrong impression<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you need to ask someone to take on a task but you are not their supervisor, there are a lot of things you might feel uncomfortable saying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can start by asking them to do something using the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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#1: Want to<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

You begin by saying, \u201cDo you want to\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In some situations, the \u2018want to\u2019 becomes \u2018wanna\u2019 when speaking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Examples:<\/p>\n\n\n\n