Who taught: Carol

the middle (source: http://en.wikipedia.org)

What a coincidence! Yesterday, I could not believe my ears. Watching an episode of TV show, Middle, I heard the expression that I learned from Carol a few days ago.

The explanation Carol gave me was very good but I wasn’t totally sure how and when I can use the expression.

Here is the conversation that Brick’s mother, Frankie, and Brick’s teacher had on the show.

Teacher: “So, are you saying you are over-parenting?”

Frankie: “Oh no no! We are under-parenting. In fact, we just phone it in.”

So, let me guess! You are little confused now, aren’t you? I mean, honestly, we all know what phone is, like iPhone, right? Then, what is phone it in? Of course, it originally means to make a phone call into a conference call, or something. Carol said, in the context of calling into a conference call, we can say, “I am phoning in now.”

Now, here is what American people have in their mind, when they hear “phone it in.” (Be careful! There is ‘it’ in the middle.)

Someone really need to be physically in a meeting because it is important but he/she did not. Instead, he/she phones in using a telephone. Now, what do you think? That is not a good attitude, right? You can imagine that he/she does not do a good job, can’t you? That’s what it means.

To sum it up, ‘phone it in’ means doing a bad job, which makes the conversation above perfectly sense.

Here is a good usage you can try whenever people you manage do not do a good job.

“Hey stop phoning it in! Work harder!”