06 April 2012

What are you saying?

I spend a lot of time in meetings and there's nothing like a meeting to bring out the jargon, metaphors, and cliches.  These all make me cringe, but nothing is more painful to me than when these things are misspoken.  So, I thought I would share the joy with a few of my recent favorites:


  • When the devil gets into the details
  • Follow on
  • I'm being tongue in cheek
  • Planful (this is an actual word, but it is an awful word)
  • The Ask is that your team... (what they mean is "request")
  • Moving the bar
  • On-boarding
  • On a go-forward basis
  • Collab (because it is hard to say collaboration)
  • Dial in (used in place of phone number)
I know I am not the only one who suffers actual pain from these kinds of things.  After all there are many, many websites dedicated to corporate bingo.  Please share some of your favorites.

5 comments:

Courtney said...

Nails. On. Chalkboard..so many of these are nails on chalkboard for me but most especially "the ask." Around here we hear "operationalize" a lot and make fun of it...is it a real word? Yes. Does that make it okay? No. And then there is "the fire..." substituted for saying "the current crisis."

ZoesMom said...

Ooh! Operationalize is really awful. Nails on chalkboard indeed.

tracie valentino said...

No need to suffer alone anymore! I have heard some of these (I can't tell you how many "collab" documents I come across) and they are all definitely cringe-worthy.

Emily Barton said...

Oh-so-glad I am out of the corporate world. Were you around at our old publishing company in the days when we all made fun of "bounderiyessness" (a word my spellcheck, for a change, is right in not recognize)?

ZoesMom said...

Tracie - I am sorry you're suffering in the "collab" world. At least it is only temporary.

Emily - Oh yes, I do remember boundarylessness. How could anyone forget that???!!