Hello everyone,
The situation is as follows:
A person haven’t gone to work because he is not very well. And he talks to his friend on the phone about his job.
What construction should be used here: we should be having or we are having? Or maybe “we have” (because this is a habitual action).
Thank you.
‘At this point, we should be having…’ is correct and indicates that because he is not there, the briefing is not taking place. It’s not related to a habitual action. It is just as plausible that the briefing was planned as a one-off event. However, because he is not where he had planned to be, due to sickness, it is not taking place.
If the briefing were taking place even though he is absent, a possible sentence would be ‘At this point I should be in a briefing.’ However, we would not be clear from this whether the briefing is going ahead or not. An alternative which makes it clearer is ‘At this point my colleagues are having a briefing, and I should be (or ‘have been’ which also works) part of it.’
Thank you, Beeesneees.
Just to let you know, you can also use “we would be having” for something that is not required of the person.
For instance, “I got sick a couple days ago so my wife and I had to cancel our vacation. At this time we would be having fun on the beach instead of being stuck here at home.”
Thank you, Luschen.