# OVERTIME - Business English vocabulary lesson about working extra hours

An episode of [Breakout Business English - Improve your vocabulary and confidence using English at work.](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1616739393), 17 Sep 2025, 23 min.

Audio: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2022761/episodes/17859357-overtime-business-english-vocabulary-lesson-about-working-extra-hours.mp3

Send us Fan Mail Deciding whether to work overtime is often a challenging decision to make, and speaking in English about it can make it harder! Today let's talk about overtime, the vocabulary that we can use to discuss it, how we get paid for overtime, and the phrases and grammar structures that we use at work, in English when discussing overtime. If you're a non-native English speaker and you want to sound more native and natural when you're speaking English with your colleagues, managers, customers and clients then this podcast is for you. 🔗 Book a one-to-one coaching or tutoring session with me at breakoutbusinessenglish.com 🎁 Use code PODCAST30 for 30% off your first coaching session Do you want me to analyse your English on YouTube? Contact me here: https://www.breakoutbusinessenglish.com/contact Do you want to see what I do? Click here: https://youtu.be/1jpP2nCQDi0?si=GcFRHMZqCLPg5Dr- Also, if you're studying for the IELTS, TOEFL, or Cambridge English tests and exams then you might find some of the vocabulary in this episode really useful. This podcast is all about helping you to communicate better, in English, at work. I work with international English speakers from around the world who use English, at work, as a second or third language and I hope that I can bring some of the ideas, vocabulary, and grammar, from those sessions, to you in this podcast. Don’t forget that my full time job is helping international professionals who use English at work to improve their communication skills. So, if you need English to do your job but don’t speak it natively then maybe we can work together to help you to achieve your language goals. 👉 Don’t forget to subscribe, leave a review, and request future topics! 📅 New episodes released every Wednesday 📺 Watch vocabulary breakdowns and coaching analysis on the Breakout Business English YouTube channel Today's examples: If you can stay behind for a couple of hours this evening then I can pay you time and a half. I really need someone to come in this weekend. If you can help me out then I'll make sure that you get paid double time. Jane is on vacation this week and I'll need someone to cover for her. Is anyone interested in the overtime? I can't pay you but you'll get time off in lieu. I would love to do some overtime tonight but unfortunately I have a prior commitment. I'm usually more than happy to do overtime given enough notice, but tonight I really need to get away on time. #businessenglish #englishtips #englishlesson #englishclass Support the show Book a coaching session with me at: https://www.breakoutbusinessenglish.com

## Transcript

Welcome to the Breakout Business English podcast, where I help you to communicate better at work in English. Hi everyone, my name is Chris and I have personally worked with over 1,000 international professionals just like you to improve the way that they communicate at work in English. Thank you so much for listening. And... Today's topic is: is Over time. Over time.So conversations about overtime. Almost always become conversations about work-life balance. Your work-life balance is the division between the amount of time that you spend working and the amount of time that you spend on the rest of your life. We can talk about your work-life balance as being good, or bad. If you have a good work-life balance, then you likely have lots of things that you do outside of work. Maybe you play sports or have hobbies or spend a lot of time with your family and friends. Maybe you don't do too much overtime. If you have a bad work-life balance, then maybe it feels like you're always in the office. You're always doing overtime. I recently worked with a young lawyer who worked from 8am to 10pm seven days a week. I would consider that a pretty bad work-life balance, but from what I understand, this is a Common way to establish yourself in that industry and in that profession, especially in the part of the world in which this gentleman lived. Hopefully it's something that he doesn't need to continue doing for very long. I'm interested to know how listeners to this podcast feel about overtime. I know that in a lot of careers, people are asked to work a lot of unpaid overtime. In other fields, however, employers are far better at offering compensation for any extra work that you do. In my previous career, where I worked in IT at three different British universities over around six years, overtime was often available. However, we were always paid for it. I used to always say yes whenever I was offered overtime and then worry about my work-life balance later. I just knew that I

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