Using English at Work：43 Meeting with the Boss(2)（在线收听）

Before you start on a trip, for example, you might want to get an update on the weather; if the weather is bad, you may change your trip.

"Progress" is how quickly something is moving forward toward completion, or how quickly it is getting better or getting finished.

If someone asks about your progress in learning English, they want to know if your English is getting better.

I hope it is, after listening to this course!

I go to my boss's office to give him an update on my progress, meaning that I want to tell him the latest news about how the report is coming along - how it is developing, how it is going.

I know my boss is expecting the report on Monday and I want to let him know that it will be finished on schedule.

"On schedule" means on time or as we originally planned.

My boss tells me he needs the report on Monday.

Fortunately, I am going to be able to give it to him that day, so the report is on schedule.

If we say something isn't on schedule, then we mean we have to find more time to work on it, or else it won't be finished by the date when it's needed.

We may say, "Are the trains running on schedule?" meaning are they arriving to the stations - the train stations at the time that was originally planned.

If they're not on schedule, we would say, also, they are "behind schedule."

"Behind schedule" would mean, in this case, they are late.

If I'm behind schedule on my project that means that it will not be finished when I planned it to be finished.

Before I can go into my boss's office, however, he calls me into his office.

"To call someone into your office" means to ask someone to come into your office, usually for a private conversation that wasn't scheduled or planned.

Sometimes when a boss calls an employee into his or her office, the person gets nervous and scared because the boss may be mad or angry about something.

But in this case, I find there's nothing to worry about.

I go into my boss's office and he tells me to sit down.

My boss tells me that the regional manager is impressed with my work.