Queereaders discussion

Is it just me, or are these words and phrases commonly used in business particularly annoying?


think outside the box
incentivize
let's take it off-line
I'll touch base with you
utilize (when use will do)
reach out (instead of call, e-mail, etc.)
proactive
impact
functionality
issue (instead of problem)
giving 110%
collaborate or partner (when join will do)
team (instead of group)
focus
please cascade to your team (instead of please distribute)

Any others?

reduction in workforce
downsizing
rightsizing

what's wrong with fired, laid off or made redundant?

Ugh, I hate corporate-speak. "Incentivize" and "take it offline" are especially annoying. Some more of my "favorites":

action item
drill down
going forward

There's a comic strip about this:

http://professionalsuperhero.com/

action item and going forward are used so often in my company that I didn't even think of mentioning them. Thankfully, no one uses drill down that I know of.

That's hilarious!

I'm going to print a copy for my office.

Other phrases that make me cringe:

"don't go there"
"my bad" and other Buffyisms like "go with."

And media forced pronunciations, like

UR-an-us instead of ur-AN-us
...

I've never liked the word "deliverable" used as a noun

Second that "action item" instead of TOPIC OF DISCUSSION in meeting.

Current stupid responses from my management when there is no intention to redress problems (oops, should that be opportunites in disguise?) : "It is what it is" and "It's a work in progress".

A phrase from my leadership effectiveness training course: "Thank you for your input. It sounds like you need to own the problem and proceed within your boundaries as an employee."

You guys are hilarious! I haven't worked in the corporate world for a few years, but I think I just figured out what about it annoyed me so much.

Here are some more to add to the list:

- paradigm shifts
incentivise
- loop back
- you don't have problems, you have challenges
- low hanging fruit
- sales and delivery pipeline
- we'd better not let the grass grow too long on this one
- get all my ducks in a row
- at the end of the day
- step up to the plate
- leverage your talents
- in negative territory

"Low hanging fruit."

Bahahahaha. Thats a great one!

low hanging fruit?!

I haven't heard that expression yet. It sounds almost obscene.

I work in a company that handles radioactive materials. It really drives me nuts when people say "nucular" instead of "nuclear".

According to UrbanDictionary, low hanging fruit describes the easiest tasks of the day in your dull, mindless office job.

"I'm gonna need you to go ahead and take care of the low hanging fruit first."

OR

Any gay man or woman under 5'7" in height.

"Your trick last night was totally low hanging fruit."

Wow.

Lol. I'm low hanging fruit then. I'm 5'2'' :/

Also, "circle back".

Oh, "reach out" is sooo annoying. Just say I emailed you! Or even "contact." Ick.

My sister works in sales and she said her boss likes to use the word "penetrate" a lot - "We really need to penetrate that client." And she said they always giggle, as would I.

lol wow that's a good one. I've never heard it in the professional setting.

I hate when someone says "it is my reccomendation" when they really mean, "do it this way, or nothing will happen." Be straight up.

I haven't worked in a sales/marketing environment in years and don't hear "penetrate" anymore. It's always made me cringe, just like "male" and "female" used to refer to plugs and sockets.

Branding. Especially "internal branding."

Ouch!

The snarky "internal" emails really start to fly when corporate sends a message using this one. (And, yeah, I'm sure "snarky" qualifies for this thread too)

If I hear "sphere of influence" one more time, I think I'll scream!

I actually heard someone say "irregardless" today.

Nichole wrote: "Oh, "reach out" is sooo annoying. Just say I emailed you! Or even "contact." Ick..."

My boss said today, "can you reach out to Dale and find out why those charges are still showing up in our cost center?"

I said, "My arm is not long enough to reach Dale, but I'll be happy to call him."

Okay, I would probably never publicly state my opinion on this topic, but when I saw there was actually a forum to do so, I could not resist. What is particularly annoying to me is the exclusive jargon that is used by book reviewers. Sometimes I simply shake my head and go, "WHAT?"

Here are some examples of phrases that you'd hear in a book review that you would never dream of using in conversation.

-Squick(ed)... Judging from context, I've gathered that it means "grossed out"

-Niggle...I have no idea where that one came from, but the use of the word itself is a bit of a niggle to me.

-Protag... Are you just too lazy to type out the entire word protagonist?

-DNF...If you didn't finish reading the book, why the hell are you writing a review on it?

-basically all abbreviations...Why assume that others will know what they stand for? After all, you're writing a review, not a text message.

Jeff, I totally agree! Even the more common acronomys like POV, HEA, and D/s that are common in romance readers' reviews can be baffling to other readers.

I'll admit I've written two reviews for unfinished books. In one case, only the last 50 pages were unread. In the other, I read about 2/3 of the book. In both reviews, it was mentioned that the books were unfinished.

I've always felt that you didn't have to finish an entire sandwich to know it's crap. So why should it be any different with a book?

But now you've got me thinking...is it fair to write a review at all of an unfinished book?

I certainly would never write one if I had read less than half. But I would, in some cases, give it a rating. Sometimes, though, a book is not really bad, it's just not something I'm in the mood for at the time. Those I just return to my shelf and file as "unfinished" without review or rating.

I hat the word "Explain". Always saw that on my english tests and it annoyed the hell out of me.

I hate "tho" for though.

Threw up a little in my mouth is stupid.

Does anyone else think panties is just icky?

Whart year is this?????????? What language?????? Even the Great Jerry Falwell (sorry about the foul talk) evangelized against politically correct speech.

I agree with everybody. Is anybody else suffering with the overuse of the word "like"? I mean, I know that I can occasionally be caught, simply because it's a bad habit, but using it 7 or 8 times in one sentecne?! That's overdoing it a bit.

Words and phrases are the tools we use to create, discuss & disseminate ideas.

Overuse or rampant misuse robs words of their power.

Robbing words of their power is not always a bad thing as when Queernation attempts to take back the word Queer to rob the epithet of its ability to injure.


Often, when one wants to influence the masses, words of power are more important than they should be.

I think that most literate folk (and who else frequents goodreads.com?) object to shortcuts in speech that suggest shortcuts in thinking.

The presence of overused words and cliched phrases is something that folk feel the need to rail about and where better than in this thread?

The one I hated most from my corporate days was dropping the ball. "Who dropped the ball? Did she drop the ball? Somebody really dropped the ball!" THERE IS NO BALL! The word organic was constantly misused too.

And while it isn't the phrase that bugs me, I used to have a boss that would always say, "Why didn't anyone tell me?" right after you would tell her something. What do want, time travel?

on the same page
win-win
core competencies
living the values

Jay, I'll bet you don't miss those corporate days!

Nancy wrote: "
Jay, I'll bet you don't miss those corporate days!"

I certainly don't, although I still have the occasional nightmare. ;)

It is what it is is really starting to annoy me.

Wow, I was just taking a quick glance on the topics and this one really got me.

I live in Brazil and there is a real problem here. People just don't seem to be able to find Portuguese words on their vocabulary for corporate use, then they start to use English words instead of our own language. This really annoys me to the bones. I feel like killing half of my bosses when I'm on a meeting.

I really hate all of this boss talk.

Feedback
Follow up
Customer satisfaction
Deadline
Workaround

All of them actually used in English instead of their correspondent Portuguese words. Argh... I could kick everyone's ass during a meeting if I didn't depend on my salary for a living. =P

English "corporate speak" is actually used in other countries? I guess that shouldn't really surprise me, since English is the language of business. Lucas, it's probably just as well that your language is not cluttered up with all these meaningless words and cliches.

It's bad enough that these words are used in the business world. What really annoys me is reading them in books and hearing them in everyday conversation.

For me the bottom line is that when all is said and done my least favorite phrase is at the end of the day .

I am always curious to know exactly when it is that the day ends.

According to my boss, there are more than 8 hours in a day .

I don't like the word "product". It is used for everything.

It's not corporate, but I just got done reading a book that had the phrase "steaming ass" in it. Boy, did that throw me right the heck out of the scene. And it was used seven more times, too. {sheesh}

I'm pretty much the youngest person of the family. I'm sooooo sick of hearing "When I was young..." or "When I was in school...". It drives me up a wall. Not only that, but I'm sick of everybody telling me that times haven't changed since like the 60's or 70's. They most certainly have.

I'm probably going to add a real downer here, but I hate it when news reporters use the phrase 'Ethnic cleansing' - it's obscene, insensitive and totally inaccurate. There's nothing cleansing about murder.

On a lighter note, I hate 'instore'.