Twitter query results: Least favorite corporate jargon

Last week, after seeing some particularly egregious corporate jargon, I queried my Twitter followers about their least favorite jargon. Here are the responses I got:

• Leveraging low-cost locations (as a euphemism for moving US jobs overseas)
• Class-leading
• Value-added (One of Dave Fleet’s 10 most irritating PR phrases)
• A value-add proposition
• Impact (used as a verb)
• Synergy
• Leveraging synergies
• Working as designed
• Bandwidth (as in “I don’t have the bandwidth to help out)
• Cutting edge (this is another one that made Dave Fleet’s list)
• Leading edge
• Industry leader (see Diana Huff’s comment below)
• Good PR (as in “get me some good PR”)
• Best practices
• Strategic
• Over-arching
• At the end of the day (this one made Oxford University’s list of the 10 most irritating phrases)
• Ear job (the act of passing on juicy gossip verbally, in private. “I’ll give you an ear-job later”)
• Drilling down
• 24/7 (this one also made Oxford University’s list)
• Mission critical
• Granular insights and solutions
• Reaching out
• From a 50,000 (pick your number) foot level
• Working in silos
• Bio-break (time build into your day to breathe, relieve yourself, walk, look out the window, etc.)
• Tell me your net net
• How does that measure to your performance, department and corporate goals?
• Do we have a quorum?

Several of the answers I got via Twitter have to be presented in the context of the entire tweet:

• Mark Meyer: I’m all about leveraging the data to produce quanitfiable, actionable results that we all can use to put the rubber to the road.
• Ben Vear: “compensation” it’s salary, pay, whatever. Pares down the obsceness of the actual pay for CEO’s.
• Trevor Longino: I have worked for a client who “Levereged opportunities to create disruptive technology in emerging markets.” Honest.
• Mary Cullen: “Leveraging actionable best-in-class solutions.” Saw this jargon just yesterday in marketing statement. Ugh.
• Lisa Diig: Do not ping, tap, or circle back with me. I want nothing moving forward, and i have nothing on my plate.
• Sheri Rosen: “Engagement” Heresy? Sorry. I’m sick of hearing about engaged employees when it has nothing to do with marriage.
• Diana Huff: Leading! Every company in the world is a leading company—even small companies in tiny towns. Drives me insane.

I dunno, Sheri. People engage in all kinds of activities that don’t involve marriage!

Melanie Seasons sent me the 20 mosthated business speak phrases from the UK, commissioned by Ramada Encore and conducted by YouGov.co.uk. Many of these are repeats of those listed above, although I must admit I don’t get “all of it.” Here are the results:

• Thinking outside the box
• Touch base
• At the end of the day
• Going forward
• All of it
• Blue sky thinking
• Out of the box
• Credit crunch
• Heads up
• Singing from the same hymn sheet
• Proactive
• Downsizing
• Ducks in a row
• Brainstorming
• Thought shower
• 360-degree thinking
• Flag it up
• Pushing the envelope
• At this moment in time
• In the loop

Melanie also sent along links to a couple of videos Ramada produced in response to the results. They’re based on the new word “buffling,” a combination of “business” and “waffling,” which Melanie suggests may be coming into more common use outside the U.S. (although it’s new to me). In any case, the videos are a hoot:

If your most despised corporate word or phrase doesn’t appear here, let me know.

1. So hilariously true! I may nab one or two from our U.K. friends, like “flag it up” for grins and giggles. After all, there are a few audiences you want to keep guessing.

   Posted by Bonnie Parrish-Kell  on  12/08  at  02:52 PM

2. I am glad to report I have not heard any of those at work… today.

   Posted by Nameless public servant  on  12/08  at  05:05 PM

3. The one I hate the most: “One stop shop.”

   I mean, how many of those can you have??

   Posted by Gwynne Kostin  on  12/08  at  06:11 PM

4. Way too amusing.  As I was reading it I could hear the managers in my office saying them!  Their favourites:  ‘best-in-class’, ‘at the end of the day’, and everything else ‘impacts’ something.

   Posted by Wendy  on  12/08  at  07:35 PM

5. I would describe the phrase “best practices” as terminology rather than jargon. In the world of standards, “best practices” has an actual meaning, although that definition has sent many a standards working group into tears.

   Posted by Alice Marshall  on  12/08  at  07:44 PM

6. ‘Resources’, when what they mean is people e.g. ‘We’re bringing in a resource to work on that’. Usually from project managers.

   Posted by Al Shaw  on  12/09  at  01:21 AM

7. Hey, Shel! Thanks for giving me a laugh for this morning. But I missed seeing my personal favorite for most irritating phrase, and it seems to be specific to a certain financial institution headquartered in a major North Carolina city…

   At this company, people don’t send something around to their colleagues for approval, they “socialize” it. As in, “After we get the first draft of the news release finished, we’ll socialize it to the team.”

   UGH!

   Posted by Steven Lubetkin  on  12/09  at  01:24 AM

8. Agree, Alice, however it has BECOME jargon, as do many perfectly good words and phrases that are abused. “Paradigm” is another example. There really are paradigms and there really are paradigm shifts, but most times the terms are used, they’re not really paradigms or shifts. “World class” is another phrase that had real meaning but was perverted into jargon through misuse.

   Posted by Shel Holtz  on  12/09  at  02:12 AM

9. Let’s not forget the UK-speak “make redundant” or “the company announced 200 redundancies” when they mean they fired 200 people.

   Posted by Steven Lubetkin  on  12/09  at  03:15 AM

10. Rightsizing.

    Fortunately I haven’t heard this one myself yet. If I do hear it I may have to punch the speaker.

    Posted by Dave Fleet  on  12/09  at  05:57 AM

11. Shel,

    Thanks for using my favorite, “leading.” Great list!

    Posted by Dianna Huff  on  12/09  at  08:23 AM

12. “Soup to nuts”—I worked in PR and this was used a lot, along with many others on the list.

    And I want to reiterate the annoyance of the term “rightsizing” (used when referencing lay-offs). I was at a company whose leaders used this term a dozen times in a state-of-the-business meeting, talking about recent, painful layoffs made at the company: “Now that we’ve rightsized we’re in a better position to…” Very annoying.

    Posted by Kim  on  12/09  at  10:02 AM

13. Hi! See failed, the picture all the time stops.

    Posted by Arrows  on  12/10  at  05:55 AM

14. I think any word or phrase can become irritating when it is used incessantly. Here are phrases that grate on my nerves:

    Dog and pony show

    That being said - redundancy at its finest.

    POD (points of differentiation) - this was an official company acronym at a former job. A few of us thought it meant “pretty old data”.

    Posted by Bonnie Dean  on  12/10  at  06:21 AM

15. An impressive list, but missing several of my favorites:
    “seamless” as in “the parts work together”
    “end-to-end solution” as in “it works”

    These can be easily combined in the nonsensical (and very commonly used) phrase “seamless end-to-end solution”

    Last but not least, variants on “at the table,” as in “PR needs to be at the table” or “what does he or she bring to the table.”

    Posted by Paul Vetter  on  12/11  at  05:35 AM

16. I post on this same issue occasionally, as someone who’s spent years writing for companies, its amazing what they think is clear language.

    My hands-down favorite place to create more meaningless drivel: http://www.dack.com/web/bullshit.html

    Though the bullshit generator hasn’t been updated for Web 2.0, most of the bullshit is still in use. Enjoy!

    Posted by Robin Seidner  on  12/16  at  10:13 AM

17. “Move the Needle”

    Our annual performance review forms actually ask “How did you move the needle this past year?”

    (as my sister points out, a needle (gauge) can be moved in more than one direction…)

    I’m also really beginning to loath “reaching out”.

    As to socialize, a co-worker recently said “I’d like to come by today and socialize a deck with you.” (translation: review some PowerPoint slides)

    Posted by Vicki  on  12/16  at  02:16 PM

18. I agree with all of these, but am shocked that no one has yet replied with.

    “drinking the kool-aid”

    or the ever present

    “low hanging fruit”

    Posted by Miranda Abernathy  on  12/17  at  02:18 PM

19. Operationalize
    Any noun with “ize” added to make it a verb.
    Bottom-line (used as an adjective)
    First-in-class
    enhanced capabilities (what?)

    And by the way, “actionable” means they can pick your pocket in court over it. Right?

    Posted by Diane Lennox  on  12/17  at  03:13 PM

20. I’ll be thinking outside the box when I brainstorm new phrases to incorporate in my personal branding efforts by pushing the envelope with an end-to-end focus leveraging leading-edge social media and web 2.0 synergy.  It’s not rocket science; your vocabulary reflects who you talk to. 

    Posted by Jame  on  12/18  at  02:52 PM

21. Like Miranda Abernathy said, “low hanging fruit” is kinda despicable.

    Posted by Bryan R. Adams  on  12/28  at  06:22 PM