#01-011: TGIF! Office Culture Slang and Idioms

Logo for the TGI Fridays restaurant
(Wikipedia)

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Note: English has lots of "initialisms": things that look like words, but are usually pronounced as separate letters: UK, FBI, and today's expression: TGIF!

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Get Ready: What day is the end of the work (or school) week in your country? Do people think that day is special? Are there any customs associated with it?

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Roy and Dale are co-workers in an American office. They're chatting on a Friday.

Roy: Man, this was a tough week!

Dale: Yeah, TGIF!

Roy: I guess. But on Monday, it's back to the old 9-to-5.

Dale: At least the dress code has loosened up a little. Look at us: no ties, comfortable clothes... 

Roy: Yeah. Thank God it's Casual Friday!

Every big office has its own "corporate culture," the environment around the workers. In some cases, corporate employees even have their own special vocabulary, and a certain way of dressing. In Roy and Dale's office, this includes something called "casual Fridays."

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Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organizational_culture

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Practice: Match the terms to their meaning. There's more information about each word given below.

1. 9-to-5
2. casual Fridays
3. dress code
4. TGIF
5. tough
6. man
7. yeah

1. a required clothing style
2. appreciation of the end of the work week
3. difficult
4. a reference to the boring work day
5. a way to agree
6. a planned weekly relaxation of the rules
7. a meaningless opening expression like "Gee" or "Oh"

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Explanation of the Answers: After you check your answers in the first comment below, read on for more information on these words.

• 9-to-5: If you work from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, that would make a standard (in the U.S.) forty-hour week. Of course, different offices have different hours; you might work 8 to 6 with a two-hour lunch, and still call it "a 9-to-5 job." (By the way, Roy says, "It's back to the old nine-to-five." That phrase, "it's back to," is a common idiomatic expression meaning "[someone] will return to [something]." For example, with school starting again, a student might say, "I'm going to play this week, but next week it's back to the books for me.")
• casual Fridays: Some companies with more formal dress codes allow their workers to dress more casually on Fridays. While a few started in the 1950s, it didn't really become popular until the 1970s. (When a school allows students to wear "street clothes" instead of the uniform, it might be called "free dress day.")
• dress code: Most companies require their workers to dress in a certain way. For some, it's a uniform; in others, it's coats and ties for men, dressy for women. Others are more relaxed, with open shirts allowed for men, jeans for men and women, etc.
• TGIF: an abbreviation generally well known inside and outside of corporate culture. It means "Thank God It's Friday," and indicates that the weekend is almost here. There's even a restaurant chain called "T.G.I. Friday's," with locations in around 60 countries.
• tough: a "tough" week would be one with a lot of work, more stress than usual, etc.
• man: We sometimes begin sentences with a word to express emotion (called an "interjection"); "man" is one of those words.
• yeah: a short form of "yes," often used to agree with the other speaker

Answers are in the first comment below.

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Submitted to the Shenzhen Daily for August 24, 2007

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