Soldato
- Joined
- 9 Nov 2003
- Posts
- 9,516
- Location
- The Motor City
Does anyone find these phrases popping up more frequently in the workplace? I mean, I know there are corporate "power words", but these are getting out of hand.
It's not bad enough we have the memorise 120 different definitions for the acronym "ATM", or that acronym-speak is becoming part of our standard conversation, but the over-use of dumb phrases completely irritates me.
In the words of Inigio Montoya, "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."
"Moving forward", for example. It has replaced "In the future" and is equally as dumb as "Down the road" or "Going ahead". First, you will never move backward unless you are an Alien Ducati Lizard reverse-UFO-engineer, and even then you are progressing as far as information gathering. As a corporation, it would seem to me that "moving forward" would insinuate that you were and currently are absolutely stagnant. It would also imply that you don't plan on making this change now, but sometime later. Everyone is entitled to change, especially if it means additional profit and efficiency, and it should be assumed that a corporation will change constantly. From now on, we should cease to use this phrase.
"Due Diligence" has a number of definitions, most of them referring to finances or property. In the context it is frequently used now, however, they are trying to say that one should look at the situation from any possible angle: "We need to be performing due diligence on the root cause" or "These questions must be answered during the due diligence effort..." Can't we just use standard words for this? Shouldn't it be expected for employees to give it maximum effort from the start? Coming from management, "We need root cause," or "Answer the questions" should be sufficient. No, they have to throw in the power words, otherwise the effort will not be made.
Does anyone else know of any corporate speak that just drive you batty? Actually, I kind of find these two phrases insulting.
It's not bad enough we have the memorise 120 different definitions for the acronym "ATM", or that acronym-speak is becoming part of our standard conversation, but the over-use of dumb phrases completely irritates me.
In the words of Inigio Montoya, "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."
"Moving forward", for example. It has replaced "In the future" and is equally as dumb as "Down the road" or "Going ahead". First, you will never move backward unless you are an Alien Ducati Lizard reverse-UFO-engineer, and even then you are progressing as far as information gathering. As a corporation, it would seem to me that "moving forward" would insinuate that you were and currently are absolutely stagnant. It would also imply that you don't plan on making this change now, but sometime later. Everyone is entitled to change, especially if it means additional profit and efficiency, and it should be assumed that a corporation will change constantly. From now on, we should cease to use this phrase.
"Due Diligence" has a number of definitions, most of them referring to finances or property. In the context it is frequently used now, however, they are trying to say that one should look at the situation from any possible angle: "We need to be performing due diligence on the root cause" or "These questions must be answered during the due diligence effort..." Can't we just use standard words for this? Shouldn't it be expected for employees to give it maximum effort from the start? Coming from management, "We need root cause," or "Answer the questions" should be sufficient. No, they have to throw in the power words, otherwise the effort will not be made.
Does anyone else know of any corporate speak that just drive you batty? Actually, I kind of find these two phrases insulting.
