 15 Idiomatic Expressions You Can Use At Work From EspressoEnglish.net 1. Put off. Delay or procrastinate a task. I put off writing the report until the last day and now I have to work overtime to finish it. 2. Take off. 3. Increase or become popular very quickly. Sales have really taken off and the company is making record profits. 3. People person. Someone who is extroverted with great social skills and who loves interacting with people. Ashley's been promoted to Director of Human Resources. She'll do a great job. She's a real people person. 4. Crunch the numbers. Do a lot of calculations. After crunching the numbers, the accounting department informed us that we don't have enough money to buy the equipment. 5. Have a lot on your plate. Currently have a lot of work and responsibilities. Sorry I didn't call you back sooner. I have a lot on my plate right now. 6. Selling like hotcakes. A lot of customers are buying the product fast. The new product is selling like hotcakes. We'll need to produce more to keep up with the demand. 7. Think outside the box. Think in a creative way that is different from usual. We need to come up with a really good idea for an advertising campaign. Let's try to think outside the box. 8. Win-win situation. A cooperative arrangement that's good for both sides. This partnership will bring them more publicity and us more customers. It's a win-win situation. 9. Test the waters. Try something new to see if it will be successful or not. We're testing the waters to see if changing the product's packaging will increase sales. 10. Bang for the buck. Value for the money. I think we should run online ads instead of TV commercials. They give more bang for the buck. 11. Learning curve. The time it takes to learn an activity or system. Our database system has an easy learning curve. You'll be able to use it perfectly within a day. 12. Off the top of your head. An estimate in that moment made without checking the information. Off the top of my head, I'd say we spent about $400,000 on training last year. The phrase off the top of my head shows that this number is not exact. It is an estimate. 13. On the back burner. If a project is on the back burner, it means it is less important at the moment. The preliminary market analysis is on the back burner because I have some other more urgent projects. 14. If a company is operating in the red, it means it is operating with debt. If a company is operating in the black, it means it is operating with profit. Our company ended the year in the red with a loss of $5 million. 15. Ramp up. Increase. We need to ramp up our efforts to find new customers. To learn practical phrases and essential vocabulary for your job and career, take the Business English course with 30 lessons that will help you learn the English you need for work. Thanks for watching English Tips from Espresso English. If you liked this video, please share it.