Hello and welcome back to Daily English! Today’s word is “short-staffed.”One more time — short-staffed. Let’s see if you can guess what it means from these clues:
You walk into a busy coffee shop. There’s a long line, only one barista, and nobody cleaning the tables. After waiting for 15 minutes, the barista says, “Sorry for the wait — we’re short-staffed today.” Or imagine a hospital emergency room where there are many patients, but only two nurses on duty. The doctors are running around, answering phones, and everyone looks stressed.
You hear one doctor whisper, “We’re completely short-staffed this week.”So, what does short-staffed mean? Short-staffed means there are not enough people working in a place.
It’s usually used to describe jobs, offices, or businesses when they don’t have enough workers for the amount of work.
Examples:“In Japan, some convenience stores are now using robots because they’re short-staffed.”
During the summer holidays, many cafés in the Netherlands are short-staffed because students go on vacation.
“Due to budget cuts, the school has been short-staffed all year.”
🎤 Your turn!
Have you ever worked in a place that was short-staffed?
What was the hardest or most stressful part of it?