Office English

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Office English / Small talk

Episode 260209/ 09 Feb 2026

4.9(30,429 ratings)·36,707 students

Transcript

Note: This is a transcript of a spoken conversation and is not a word-for-word script.

Pippa

Do you ever use small talk at work?

Beth

I might talk about the weather. That's always a good topic.

Neil

And I would use small talk when I'm introduced to new people. Or just someone I know a bit.

Beth

If someone is, if you're up to something after work, if you've got any plans for the weekend or if you had a good weekend if it was Monday.

Phil

In today's episode of Office English, we're talking about small talk, when to use it, and what to talk about.

Pippa

Hello! Welcome to a new series of Office English, your podcast guide to the world of work. I'm Pippa.

Phil

And I'm Phil. Find a transcript for this episode on our website, bbclearningenglish.com.

Pippa

We heard from Neil and Beth at the start of the programme about using small talk at work. So, what is small talk, Phil?

Phil

Um, it's those conversations that you have that are about things, I guess you don't think they're that important, but it's like being friendly. You, when you see someone, maybe you know them, maybe you don't, but you have a chat at the start of the workday or when you meet someone. Or maybe you're waiting for a bus or something and you just make small talk.

Pippa

Mhm. Yes, and we use quite a lot of small talk at work in the UK, because we usually want to be polite with people that we're working with and you're interacting with lots of different people throughout the day usually. And so that's when small talk can be helpful so that it doesn't feel awkward when you meet someone.