Manager Lingo

Elixir · 5 Oct 2011 at 09:16

This absolutely drives me up the wall at work...

Going forward
Touch base
Blue-sky thinking
Upskilling

and just generally using larger words during normal conversations to make themselves sound more important.

Anyone got any pet hates? Going forward is the one that annoys me at the moment because I'm starting to notice it in conversations outside work.

Elixir · 5 Oct 2011 at 09:27

Talking about "pushing back" on something when trying to get something done is another one.

Elixir · 5 Oct 2011 at 10:12

Devrij said:
Try using them, you'll be amazed how far it gets you.

Indeed, I have been using them jokingly in the knowledge one day I'll have to swallow my dignity and start speaking like an arse myself.

Elixir · 5 Oct 2011 at 11:59

semi-pro waster said:
A favourite at work currently is that we're trying to avoid just working in "silos" but there are lots more, many of which have already been mentioned.

While I dislike the idea of management speak on principle it is even worse when you realise that sometimes it actually expresses a concept more succinctly than you can do with dozens of "ordinary" words. It's a form of shorthand that once people in the organisation are aware of saves a lot of time, effort and ambiguity in description. That's not to say there's not still lots of times where it's used for the sake of it but sometimes it's actually useful.

Yeah I do agree... it is just when it is overused that it annoys me.

Going forward I will get on board.

Elixir · 5 Oct 2011 at 13:29

Buster2312 said:
Manager at my old job used to use 'sense-check' as in...

'Bob can you sense-check these numbers for me?'

Everytime he said it I wanted to punch him in the face.

That would drive me insane.

We have Energy Champions and Project Sponsors too, those terms annoy me.

Elixir · 5 Oct 2011 at 13:38

Robbie G said:
Not quite, it's people joining forces to achieve a result not equally obtainable by the individuals in the team . More than the sum of its parts etc., so not just doing the same things.

So... "working together"

Elixir · 5 Oct 2011 at 13:43

Robbie G said:
negative synergies
achieve synergies

Elixir · 5 Oct 2011 at 13:46

Maccy said:
'Push back'. I don't even know what it means but it's clearly a euphemism.

It's a way of saying "fight back" without using the word fight.

Robbie G said:
Synergies are real, people! I learnzed about dem @ skool!

I'm still not sure what it is. Is it a team of people? Is it an idea? Is it a refined way of working which you strive for?

Elixir · 5 Oct 2011 at 15:39

I asked what the difference between training and upskilling is, got a blank look and mumbled answer that gave a description of training for both.

Elixir · 5 Oct 2011 at 18:31

Robbie G said:
Training is the process, upskill is the outcome?

But they use "upskilling" as a verb.