BEP 376 - Idioms for Describing Challenges (Part 1)

Hello and welcome back to Business English Pod. My name’s Edwin, and I’ll be your
host for today’s lesson on English idioms for describing challenges.

According to an old expression, what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger. The idea is
that life’s challenges and difficulties are good for us. They help us grow. They force
us to learn. And shared challenges have a way of strengthening the bonds between
people.

In your work life, you can probably think of many challenges that have tested you.
There’s a good chance that you’ve talked about these challenges, with your
colleagues or at the dinner table with your family. You’ve also probably listened to
other people describe their challenges. Yes, difficulties at work are a rich topic of
conversation. And for that reason, there are many useful idioms we can use to
describe challenges.

In the dialog, we’ll hear a conversation between two friends and former business
partners. Simon and Allie ran a graphic design business together some years ago.
Now they’re chatting over coffee and recalling some of the challenges they
experienced. In their conversation, they use many idioms to describe these
challenges. Try to pick out these idioms as you listen, and we’ll talk about them
later in the debrief.

As you listen to the dialog, try to answer the following questions:

1. What did Allie think about the idea of keeping their office?
2. What does Simon now think about their idea to rent a big office?
3. How does Allie describe the situation in which they had a team of people they
didn’t know how to manage?

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Vocabulary

Cool: interesting and nice; “If we’re going to appeal to young people, we really
need a fresh and cool website.”

Bagel: a donut-shaped bread; “Can you run and get a dozen bagels for our meeting
from that new bakery on the corner?”

In over your head: involved in something that is too difficult to handle; “Can you
give Sue a bit of help with her big report? I fear she’s in over her head on this one.”

Lease: an agreement to rent an office, building, property, or residence; “We

couldn’t get the price we wanted on our lease, but we negotiated down from a 5-
year to a 3-year term.”

Lousy: terrible; “Sorry team, but I’m feeling really lousy today so I’m going to take
a sick day.”

School of hard knocks: the learning the comes from difficult experience; “One thing
I’ve learned from the school of hard knocks is to always have a solid partnership
agreement.”

Catch-22: a dilemma or difficult situation where you must decide between two bad
options; “I can stay with this terrible job, or leave without a plan. It’s really a
catch-22 situation.”

To agonize over: to worry and talk about something at length; “You’ve been
agonizing over this proposal for too long. Just finish it!”

To jump into: to enter or being an arrangement quickly and with excitement;

“Before we just jump into this new partnership, don’t you think we should find out
more about the other company?”

Without hesitation: without pausing too much to consider; quickly; “Yes, Tanis was
an excellent employee and I would recommend her without hesitation.”

To break a lease: to end a leasing arrangement before its term has finished; “I
called the landlord for clarification, and it looks like there’s a stiff penalty for
breaking out lease.”

No-brainer: a very easy or obvious choice; “Should you take the manager position?
Of course Bill, that’s a no-brainer! You’d be great for it!”

Hindsight: looking back on something that happened in the past; “I thought Rita
was hard to work with at the time, but in hindsight, I realize I wasn’t very easy to
work with either.”

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When the chips are down: when a very difficult situation happens; “When the chips
are down, you can always call Charlie to work your out of the crisis!”

To go all in: to risk everything; “I’ve gone all in on this new start-up, selling my
house and borrowing money to make sure it succeeds.”

To ask for trouble: to do or say things that will probably lead to problems; “If we
don’t pay attention to these new environmental regulations, we’re just asking for
trouble.”

Wet behind the ears: new and inexperienced at something; “I don’t think Mandy
can actually lead this project, since she’s still pretty wet behind the ears.”

Earnest: energetic and excited; “Adam is earnest, for sure, but does he have the
skills to go along with all the energy?”

Decent: quite good; “Yeah, I’d say that the new location is decent, but I still dream
of being located right downtown.”

Bigtime: elite competition; “If we land this deal with these angel investors, I really
think we’ll be ready for the bigtime.”

Dead in the water: not able to function effectively; “Our new development plan will
be dead in the water if we don’t get the city government to approve it.”

A good judge of: a knowledgeable and discerning person; “Sure, Sam says he
doesn’t like the new website, but he’s never been a good judge of design.”

To dodge a bullet: to avoid a big problem; “Looks like we really dodged the bullet
by getting our shipment out just before gas prices went up.”

Toxic: disruptive or harmful; “Our workplace has been so nice since several long-
serving toxic people left for other opportunities.”

Fresh out of: newly released from, especially used with college or a training
program; “I really thought I knew everything when I was fresh out of my MBA
program, but I was really wrong.”

To grasp at straws: to try anything to resolve a difficult situation; “Cutting all our
employee benefits is just grasping at straws. There must be a better way to solve
this financial mess.”

Victims of your own success: if you have problems or challenges that happen
because you are successful, then you’re a “victim of your own success;” “Of course
you have a big tax bill… you make a ton of money! A victim of your own success, I
guess.”

“Boy:” a simple expression of emphasis, used at the start of a sentence; “Boy, I

don’t think we’ve every been as busy as we are right now!”

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To blow up in your face: to unexpectedly go very wrong; “This whole project blew
up in our face when the client decided they wanted it done three months sooner.”

Caught in the crossfire: to be involved in a problem or conflict between other

people; “One word of advice for you: don’t get caught in the crossfire between
Gavin and Sadie. They hate each other.”

Nasty: very bad or unkind; “Even if Candice’s email was really nasty, you shouldn’t
respond right away or in anger.”

To mediate: to help two sides reach a compromise or agreement; “If we can’t reach
an agreement with the union soon, we’ll need to bring in someone to mediate.”

Control freak: someone who always wants or needs control in groups or projects;
“My last manager was a real control freak, so it’s nice now to work for someone
who’s easy-going and takes a coaching approach.”

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Dialog

Simon: Well, this is certainly a cool little place you’ve found.

Allie: I know right? Kinda reminds me of that place near our old office on 4th.

Simon: Oh yeah. The one with the er… great bagels. And wow, the office on 4th…
Haven’t thought of that in a while. We were in over our head on that one, weren’t we?

Allie: Yeah… Our first big lease. We really took a lousy deal. Though we didn’t
really know it at the time, I guess. School of hard knocks, huh?

Simon: Tell me about it. What a catch-22. We sure agonized over that didn’t we?

Allie: Agonized? I remember jumping into it without hesitation!

Simon: Signing it yeah, but I mean breaking the lease. When we finally realized
what we’d gotten into. Seems like a no-brainer in hindsight. But at the time it
wasn’t. I remember a conversation where I was insisting that when the chips are
down, the only thing to do is go all in.

Allie: You wanted to keep the place… and I thought we were asking for trouble,
considering how wet behind the ears we were. Right?

Simon: That’s right. I was so earnest, wasn’t I? Really glad you didn’t listen to me
on that one. A couple of decent projects and I thought we were ready for the
bigtime. I was so wrong. That whole idea of a big office should have been dead in
the water.

Allie: Well… you were also right about a lot of things.

Simon: Pfff. I was a good judge of bagels. That’s about it.

Allie: No really! Like hiring. Remember… what’s her name… Faye or something? I
wanted to bring her in to do finance and stuff. You convinced me not to. Really
dodged a bullet there, didn’t we? Considering how toxic she turned out to be for
Studio55?

Simon: Oh right. Yikes. That’s right: Faye. That was a close one. That was around
the time we got that big LG contract. And we hired six new designers, fresh out of
college… we were really grasping at straws, weren’t we?

Allie: Well, I don’t know. Victims of our own success in a way. But yeah, we
didn’t quite know how to manage a team… and boy did it blow up in our face.

Simon: Oh man, did it ever. I got caught in the crossfire on some pretty nasty
stuff. I just wanted to do good design, you know. That’s what I wanted to do. And
here I was mediating between two absolute control freaks.

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Debrief

Now let’s go through the dialog again and look at the idioms Simon and Allie used.
They begin by talking about the café where they’re meeting.

Simon: Well, this is certainly a cool little place you’ve found.

Allie: I know right? Kinda reminds me of that place near our old office on 4th.

Simon: Oh yeah. The one with the er… great bagels. And wow, the office on 4th…
Haven’t thought of that in a while. We were in over our head on that one, weren’t we?

Allie remarks that the café is similar to one near the office where they formerly ran
a business together. When reminded of the office, Simon’s very first thought is
about the challenges they faced. As he says, they were “in over their head” with
their office on 4th Street.

To understand this idiom, imagine you can’t swim and you’re in deep water. This
should help you see that being “in over your head” means in a situation that is just
too difficult to handle. Let’s practice using this idiom in a short dialog.

In over your head – to be involved in something that is too difficult to handle.

A: Don’t you think you’re a bit in over your head on this project?
B: Uh, yeah. If I don’t get any help, it’ll be a total disaster.

How does Allie respond to Simon’s comment?

Allie: Yeah… Our first big lease. We really took a lousy deal. Though we didn’t
really know it at the time, I guess. School of hard knocks, huh?

Allie is talking about the “lousy,” or terrible deal they made on their first “lease,” or
rental agreement. In their case, it was a lease agreement to rent an office. Allie calls
the deal lousy now, but at the time they didn’t know they’d gotten a terrible deal.

This basically describes the process of learning through challenges. You have a bad
experience, and you learn from it. Allie calls this process the “school of hard
knocks.” This idiom isn’t about an actual school. It’s saying that life is like a school,
and that we learn through difficult experiences.

What are other ways to use this idiom “school of hard knocks?” Let’s try some more
examples.

School of hard knocks – the learning that comes from difficult experiences.

§ I don’t have a degree, but I’ve gone to the school of hard knocks.
§ The school of hard knocks has taught me to avoid people who lie and cheat.

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Now let’s hear how Simon agrees with Allie.

Simon: Tell me about it. What a catch-22. We sure agonized over that didn’t we?

Simon describes the situation as a “catch-22” that they worried about and talked
about at length – or “agonized over.” This idiom “catch-22” is actually the name of
a novel about a pilot who pretends he’s crazy to avoid combat.

We now use the expression “catch-22” to describe any situation where you are
forced to decide between bad options. Or where there are no options that will lead
to success! Simon uses this idiom to describe the situation with the lease.

Let’s run through some more ways to use the expression “catch-22.”

Catch-22 – a dilemma or difficult situation where you must decide between two
bad options.

§ Quit your job or get fired? I don’t know Susan, sounds like a catch-22 to me.
§ It’s a real catch-22 we’re in: we can’t cancel the project or meet the delivery date.

Now, as we will hear Simon explain, he means that “breaking” the lease, or getting
out of the contract, was a catch-22. Though signing the deal, or “jumping into it,”
was easy.

Allie: Agonized? I remember jumping into it without hesitation!

Simon: Signing it yeah, but I mean breaking the lease. When we finally realized
what we’d gotten into. Seems like a no-brainer in hindsight. But at the time it
wasn’t. I remember a conversation where I was insisting that when the chips are
down, the only thing to do is go all in.

Of course, decisions look different in “hindsight,” or looking back on them in the

past. Allie and Simon can see their mistakes now. But Simon recalls how different
his thinking was at the time.

Back then, Simon believed that it was important to risk everything – or “go all in” –
“when the chips are down.” Both of these idioms come to us from the game of
poker. When you say “the chips are down,” you’re saying that there’s a very
difficult situation. More precisely, you’re at a critical moment in a situation where
everything might change.

Simon used the idiom “when the chips are down” to describe the decision to break
a bad lease. What are some other ways of using this idiom?

When the chips are down – when a very difficult situation happens.

§ When the chips are down, I usually talk to my coach about the best way forward.
§ You can count on Sandy to do her best when the chips are down.

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Let’s listen as Allie describes her memory of the situation.

Allie: You wanted to keep the place… and I thought we were asking for trouble,
considering how wet behind the ears we were. Right?

Allie remembers her hesitation to keep the office. At the time, she thought they
were too “wet behind the ears,” or inexperienced. And for that reason, she believed
that keeping the lease was “asking for trouble.”

Does anyone actually ask for trouble or problems? Well, not directly. But there are
many times when people say or do things that will certainly bring them problems.
For example, if you make a joke with a person you know who doesn’t like jokes,
you’re asking for trouble.

What are some other ways of using this idiom “asking for trouble?” Let’s run
through some more examples.

Asking for trouble – doing or saying things that will create problems or difficulties.

§ I think complaining to the boss is just asking for trouble.

§ You’re asking for trouble if you think you can take on another project this month.

So how does Simon feel now about being so “earnest” or eager to succeed? Let’s
listen.

Simon: That’s right. I was so earnest, wasn’t I? Really glad you didn’t listen to me
on that one. A couple of decent projects and I thought we were ready for the
bigtime. I was so wrong. That whole idea of a big office should have been dead in
the water.

As Simon remembers it, he had too much confidence in their young business. At
the time, he thought that a couple of good projects meant they were ready for the
“bigtime.” In other words, they were ready to act like a large and mature company.

Of course, now Simon understands he was wrong. And he describes the idea of
renting a big office as “dead in the water.” This idiom comes from sailing. Imagine a
sailboat on a day with no wind. It can’t go anywhere! So anything that is “dead in
the water” is basically unable to function effectively. It goes nowhere.

Let’s practice this idiom “dead in the water” with a short dialog.

Dead in the water – not able to function effectively.

A: So are we going ahead with this website project or what?

B: Nope. As far as I know, it’s dead in the water because of cost concerns.

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Simon has been pretty critical of his former ideas and decisions, and Allie wants to
remind him of the positives.

Allie: Well… you were also right about a lot of things.

Simon: Pfff. I was a good judge of bagels. That’s about it.

Allie: No really! Like hiring. Remember… what’s her name… Faye or something? I
wanted to bring her in to do finance and stuff. You convinced me not to. Really
dodged a bullet there, didn’t we? Considering how toxic she turned out to be for
Studio55?

Allie is giving an example of when Simon stopped her from making a bad decision.
She wanted to hire a person who was very “toxic,” or disruptive and harmful.
Simon convinced her not to.

If you almost do something that would harm you, but you don’t, or if you avoid a
big problem, then we say you “dodged a bullet.” A bullet is what we shoot out of a
gun. Dodging means moving quickly out of the way. So clearly, dodging a bullet is a
good thing. And not hiring a toxic person was certainly dodging a bullet.

Let’s practice some more examples of “dodging a bullet.”

To dodge a bullet – to avoid a big problem.

§ The accountants really helped us dodge a bullet on our tax bill.

§ I thought the client would be upset about our report being late, but looks like we
dodged the bullet.

They dodged a bullet by not hiring one particular person. But that doesn’t mean
they didn’t have any staffing problems, as we can hear.

Simon: Oh right. Yikes. That’s right: Faye. That was a close one. That was around
the time we got that big LG contract. And we hired six new designers, fresh out of
college… we were really grasping at straws, weren’t we?

Simon is recalling a time when they got a big contract. To small growing
companies, big contracts can be a challenge. They may not have enough people to
fulfill their obligations.

In this difficult situation, Simon says they were “grasping at straws.” Remember the
first idiom we looked at, about being “in over your head?” Well, if you’re in deep
water and you can’t swim, then what do you do? You might “grasp at straws,” or
try to grab any piece of floating material or reeds that grow at the edge of the
water.

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So grasping at straws means trying anything, no matter how unlikely it is to
succeed, to resolve a difficult situation. In Simon’s case, that meant hiring six
inexperienced college graduates to work on the new project.

Let’s practice this idiom “grasping at straws” with a short dialog.

Grasping at straws – trying anything to resolve a difficult situation.

A: Well, maybe to save a bit of money we can rent our offices out in the evening.
B: Come on Amanda, that’s crazy. Now you’re just grasping at straws.

How does Allie describe their staffing situation? Let’s listen.

Allie: Well, I don’t know. Victims of our own success in a way. But yeah, we
didn’t quite know how to manage a team… and boy did it blow up in our face.

Allie describes the situation as being “victims of their own success.” Basically, their
problems happened because they were successful. They had to hire more people
because of new projects. For many businesses, that’s a good thing!

But as Allie says, they didn’t have great management skills, and so the situation
“blew up in their face.” “Blow up” means “explode.” So saying that something
“blows up in your face” is saying that it went terribly wrong suddenly or
unexpectedly. Just like a bomb exploding in your face!

Let’s run through some more ways to use this expression “to blow up in your face.”

To blow up in your face – to unexpectedly go wrong.

§ I thought our factory was doing great, but then that safety review blew up in our face.
§ The negotiations really blew up in our face when the other side just walked away.

Now let’s get back to the dialog, as Simon gives more detail about the staffing
situation.

Simon: Oh man, did it ever. I got caught in the crossfire on some pretty nasty
stuff. I just wanted to do good design, you know. That’s what I wanted to do. And
here I was mediating between two absolute control freaks.

Simon’s challenge with staff was that he had to “mediate” between difficult people.
When we “mediate,” we try to find a solution or compromise between people in
conflict.

Sometimes, dealing with other people’s problems or arguments can feel like you’re
caught between two sides in a war. People are firing at each other, and you’re stuck
in the middle. This is what Simon means when he uses the idiom “caught in the
crossfire.” He was in a dangerous situation being stuck in the middle of other
people’s problems.

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Let’s try some more ways of using this idiom “caught in the crossfire” to describe
being involved in other people’s arguments.

Caught in the crossfire – to be involved in other people’s arguments or problems.

§ I don’t care if you and Pam have problems. I don’t want to get caught in the
crossfire.
§ I got caught in the crossfire with the marketing team before, but now I don’t get
involved.

Well, it certainly sounds like Simon and Allie had some big challenges at their
previous business. From leasing a new office to managing difficult staff, they’ve got
lots to talk about. And they’ve used lots of interesting idioms to talk about it.

Now let’s practice some of the idioms from this lesson. In a moment, you’ll hear a
series of sentences. Each sentence will be followed by a beep. After the beep, you
need to restate or rephrase the sentence using one of the idioms we learned today.
When you listen to the sentence, think about which idea can be replaced by one of
the idioms.

For example, if you hear:

Example Cue: Looks like we really avoided a big problem on our tax bill.

You can say:

Example Answer: Looks like we really dodged a bullet on our tax bill.

After each response, we’ll provide the correct answer. Ready? Let’s give it a go.

Cue 1: I think you’re just creating problems by bringing Juan onto the team.
Answer:

Cue 2: I can thank learning from difficult experiences for teaching me about business.
Answer:

Cue 3: Negotiations were going okay, until they unexpectedly went wrong.
Answer:

Cue 4: When the executive team is arguing, it’s best not to be involved in the problem.
Answer:

Cue 5: I’m happy to help out if you think you’re involved in something too difficult.
Answer:

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Answer 1: I think you’re just asking for trouble by bringing Juan onto the team.
Answer 2: I can thank the school of hard knocks for teaching me about business.
Answer 3: Negotiations were going okay, until they blew up in our face.
Answer 4: When the executive team is arguing, it’s best not to get caught in the crossfire.
Answer 5: I’m happy to help out if you think you’re in over your head.

We’ve reached the end of this lesson, the first in our two-part series on idioms we
use to describe challenges. In the next lesson, we’ll learn more about the
challenges Allie and Simon faced and lot’s more idioms!

Thanks for listening. And see again soon!

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Language Review

A. Identifying Idioms

Make idioms from this lesson by matching words from each column.

1 To dodge A in the crossfire

2 Caught B in the water
3 Dead C in your face
4 To grasp D the bullet
5 To ask E at straws
6 To blow up F of hard knocks
7 School G your head
8 In over H for trouble

B. Idioms in Use

Fill in the blanks with the words below. Make sure you put verbs in the correct tense.

down knocks face caught

ask bullet head water

1. Looks like we really dodged the ______________ on that last safety inspection.
2. The whole project blew up in our ______________ when we went way
overbudget.
3. Sorry Ryan, but I’m really tired of getting ______________ in the crossfire in
your arguments with Jacob.
4. Everyone needs a trusted mentor they can call for advice when the chips are
______________.
5. Don’t put more things on Quinn’s desk when he’s so busy. That’s just
______________ for trouble.
6. The committee we put together to look at HR policies is dead in the
______________. We haven’t met in months.
7. I don’t have an MBA, but the school of hard ______________ has helped me
become a great negotiator.
8. Do you think you could help with this client? I’m really feeling I’m in over my
______________ on this one.

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Study Strategy

Challenges, setbacks, and problems are a part of everyone’s life and work. You can’t
avoid them. But you can learn from them. In fact some people say there is no “failure,”
just “learning.” In any case, we can all look back at our professional lives and identify
challenges along the way.

Imagine you are talking with a younger colleague whom you have been mentoring. This
colleague has asked you to talk about some of the challenges you’ve faced in your
career. Start by making a list of challenges. You might choose both big and small
challenges for variety. Now, how might you use the idioms you’ve learned in this lesson
in this kind of discussion? With a partner, try writing a dialog in which you talk about
your challenges. You can draw from both your lists of challenges to write the dialog. Try
to use as many of today’s idioms as possible.

Answers

Listening Questions

1. Allie thought keeping their office was just asking for trouble.
2. Simon thinks the idea of renting a big office should have been dead in the
water.
3. Allie says the situation blew up in their face.

Language Review

A. Identifying Idioms

1. D; 2. A; 3. B; 4. E; 5. H; 6. C; 7. F; 8. G

B. Idioms in Use

1. Looks like we really dodged the bullet on that last safety inspection.
2. The whole project blew up in our face when we went way overbudget.
3. Sorry Ryan, but I’m really tired of getting caught in the crossfire in your
arguments with Jacob.
4. Everyone needs a trusted mentor they can call for advice when the chips are
down.
5. Don’t put more things on Quinn’s desk when he’s so busy. That’s just asking
for trouble.
6. The committee we put together to look at HR policies is dead in the water We
haven’t met in months.
7. I don’t have an MBA, but the school of hard knocks has helped me become a
great negotiator.
8. Do you think you could help with this client? I’m really feeling I’m in over my
head on this one.

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