Two weeks ago I gave my cleaning man (yes, I do have a cleaning man) voucher as a present. I bought the voucher at a huge music shop in Antwerp for a certain amount of money - I’m not going to say the amount - but I think it necessary to give my personnel presents, especially on their birthday. Now, Davy, that’s my cleaning man had a hard time accepting it and I said: ‘You deserve it, because you do you work very well and I would be very much offended if you didn’t accept’. This proves that a little manipulation isn’t bad at all sometimes. Davy does his job very well and felt he deserved it. When he’s here we always talk about classical music, which we both like. However to get to my point, should I have said: ‘I’d be very much insulted if you didn’t accept this’? What I think is that ‘insulted’ would seem very strange here. What do you say.
I think it depends on what you mean.
Would you take offense?
Would you be insulted?
Perhaps you would actually be disappointed, which might make more sense for an employer/employee relationship. Or, you could just leave it at “you deserve it because you do your job very well.”
On the other hand, you could express it positively, that ”you’d be delighted if he accepted.
Thank you Arinker for your useful answer. I really appreciate it. You see I studied Germanic languages and one of them was English. Since I’m not a native speaker, but want to be one (I know this is impossible) I would like to learn the finer points of the language. You see, although, I got a university education, the professors were very good at explaining grammar, but they rarely gave us something that is useful, practically speaking. Therefore I’m very happy you’re a member of this forum, because who of all people to learn are the best? Well, native speakers. I’m also happy that Torsten gave this forum a whole new look and that I always get answers from other forum members. Thank you so much. I’ve always found the English language one of the most beautiful ones in the world. And although I like British English better than American, both the British and Americans help me a lot. As you know, it was the British, Canadians and Americans who landed on the Normandy beaches to free us from nazism. I don’t know why I say this, but we have a lot to thank to that alliance. However, nowadays, I like Germany very much and I have a lot of friends there.
You know I love my personnel and I don’t boss them around like: ‘do this, get that for me…etc’, after all they’re part of my family and it would be rude and ungrateful if I did a thing like that. I’m very unlike my father who did boss his personnel around, my mother never did, so I’m happy I take after my mother.
Thanks, Arinker.
P.S.: Did you know that Torsten can speak Dutch very fluently. He’s kind and very intelligent. He’s a very nice guy as you are. x
Combining the sentences used by @Arinker, I’d suggest this: You deserve my gift because you do your job very well. So, I’ll be delighted if you accept it.
(@Masme, please note the difference between personnel and personal)