“But nobody is going to say that because it’s very uncomfortable.” It can be hard to be honest at work.Īnother purpose of corporate jargon is to dress up a boring old recurring phrase with a little tie and briefcase and make it seem new. “That basically means ‘I’m gonna fire a whole bunch of you people so I can invest in areas that I actually want to progress’,” she laughs. Calude references the phrase “cut to grow” as an example of this. “If you and I use the same jargon, then we’re signalling to each other that we have a shared common background.” The other vital use for corporate jargon is to communicate uncomfortable information. “On the one hand, it’s to form alliances and connect interests,” she explains. Why is it that we have come to rely on these buzz phrases at all? Dr Andreea Calude is a senior lecturer in linguistics at the University of Waikato, and says that corporate jargon serves a multitude of purposes. But before we get to the phrases, I just want to “check in” and “find our why”. A survey conducted by OfficeMax of 500 office workers across the country has revealed our most loved and loathed corporate jargon. Thankfully, we are all just as bad as each other. Even as someone who mostly receives emails from enthusiastic overseas businessmen looking to sell factory samples to any sir/madam who will listen, I too have been seduced by the drop dead drama of being “at capacity” or the feigned intimacy of “reaching out”. If you have ever circled back to get on the same page, touched base before moving forward, or got on someone’s radar with something outside the box, you have fallen victim to the allure of corporate jargon. Alex Casey presents some key learnings about our most loved and loathed corporate phrases.
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