Peter Kay's Car Share: management speak cliches. (Hilarious, English lesson)

John is Assistant Manager in a supermarket, where Kayleigh also works. Though he is her boss, they are also friends and share the car journey to and from work every day. The string of middle management power cliches John uses on the phone to HIS boss Dave (while Kayleigh acts them out) is pure comedy gold.
It is also a sweet little study in sociolinguistics. (TLDR: She may take the mickey, but it is precisely because she can't hear, or say, "keep pushing the envelope" or "give 110%" with a straight face, that she is wearing the unisex shop uniform and he is in a suit and tie. )
Note for E2L teachers: Though it is played for laughs, all the cliches John and Dave use are in common use. (Well worth googling the ones you don't know for meaning. Ask your students to guess the origin.)

[Sadly, the best way for your students to get ahead at work is to 'mirror', ie, notice when the boss uses one of these and then use it back to him next time you see him. See: 'Brown-nosing'. ]

Clipped from Peter Kay's Car Share s01e04. If you love the English language, seek it out! The whole series is hilarious and genius.

Property of BBC. Published by me under 'fair use', for educational purposes. No ownership implied.

Jolly quick questions for students:
1. What is a jobsworth?
2. "throw a sickie" - meaning?
3. Why is a "management away-day" funny in this context?
4. What is the hand gesture John gives Kayleigh when she is miming "belt and braces"? Verbal translation? (rude)
5. List the cliches from 1.38 to 2.18. Spot concentrations: which areas of life are they taken from? Why do you think that is? Could you guess how they entered management-speak in the UK?
6. 'Mixed metaphors' are ludicrous and associated with characters, like Shakespeare's clowns, who use language 'above their station' which they really don't understand. Spot any examples?
7. [00.44] "Come on, we've all done it." Done what? (check understanding question).

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