Unless you are in an industry like retail or the restaurant business, which tends to require weekend hours, the typical work week for full time workers in the United States and many other countries is Monday through Friday. The following are 3 business English phrases you might hear and use at the end of a long work week:
Thank goodness it’s Friday!
This phrase is so common place that there’s even a chain restaurant inspired by it. After all the meetings, the scheduling, the tasks and project deadlines, you’ve made it to the end of the week! You’ve walked into the office or logged onto your laptop on a Friday morning, and you have a full day ahead of you, but the weekend is on the way. Thank goodness it’s Friday! (there’s even a variation for you grumpy folks out there, myself included: Thank god…!) I recommend saying this to yourself, colleagues and associates to start your day off positive.
Any plans for the weekend?
This is a question that you can pose to a colleague. You are asking if they are doing anything exciting, unique or special during their time off from work. In some cases, it’s a precursor to asking a colleague to join you somewhere at some point during the weekend or for a coworker to invite you to an event/a dinner party/etc. One caveat for customer service reps: I do not recommend you ask this to customers over the phone; they want you to fix the problem that they’ve come to you with, not share with you their weekend plans. In short, keep this one between staff and friends.
I hope you get a chance/find time to relax.
I once had a superintendent who would send a weekly email before the weekend to celebrate staff birthdays, make district announcements, and offer strategies and suggestions to attain success in the classroom. He would always sign off or close the email with the advice to “relax and recharge” for the following work week. It was kind of like a drill sergeant’s version of this phrase: I hope you get a chance (OR) I hope you find time to relax. What you are doing when saying this to a colleague, even a manager, is acknowledging the hard work that the person has put in over the course of the last 5 days, and that you recognize that they deserve a break, and hope that they take some time to sit back and enjoy the weekend, instead of worrying about work.
What are your favorite phrases to use at the end of the week? Are there any that you’ve heard, yet don’t quite fully understand?
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