{"id":2294,"date":"2017-07-19T10:31:23","date_gmt":"2017-07-19T17:31:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/re-tales.net\/?p=2294"},"modified":"2017-07-19T10:31:23","modified_gmt":"2017-07-19T17:31:23","slug":"12-ridiculous-phrases-smart-people-avoid-at-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/re-tales.net\/?p=2294","title":{"rendered":"12 ridiculous phrases smart people avoid at work"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u00a0 The article below is from theladders.com<\/a> and I couldn’t agree more–people are inventing more and more crazy terms to describe things that are very simple.<\/div>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0Years ago I interviewed a guy for Management Trainee at Longs and he had been in finance his entire life. \u00a0He really had no clue what working in retail was like, he thought he was going to sit in the office all day next to the manager and watch him manage. \u00a0At some point I explained “Your time will be 90% on the sales floor–cashiering, getting carts, stocking shelves and so on.” \u00a0Instead of saying “I enjoy working with people” he came back with “That’s cool, I’m all about interfacing with the end user.” \u00a0Needless to say, he didn’t get the job.<\/div>\n
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\u00a0 \u00a0 I could add a bunch of terms to this list from my current job:<\/div>\n
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\u00a0 “Huddle with the team<\/strong><\/em>“–instead of meet with your employees. \u00a0Especially funny because usually there’s only 2 people there, a huddle implies football which would imply 11 people or so.<\/div>\n
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\u00a0 “Engage the customer”<\/strong><\/em>— Are you getting married? \u00a0How about “Talk to the customer.”<\/div>\n
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\u00a0“I’m going to bubble this down”<\/strong><\/em>—Are you taking a bath? \u00a0Just say “I’ll communicate this to everyone.”<\/div>\n
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\u201cDatafication.\u201d \u201cOperationalize.\u201d \u201cLet\u2019s parking lot this.\u201d<\/em>These are just a few of the workplace phrases and words that people found \u201cmost ridiculous,\u201d according to recent research.<\/em><\/p>\n

The American Express OPEN \u2018Get Business Done\u2019 Survey,\u00a0released\u00a0<\/a>recently, shows that some employees are just spewing words in the office without really grasping what they mean.<\/em><\/p>\n

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\u201cHave you ever heard a coworker say something like, \u2018It ladders up to our overarching framework and optimizes the impactfulness of our deliverables,\u2019 and wondered, \u2018HUH?\u2019\u00a0You\u2019re not alone,\u201d American Express says, comfortingly.<\/em><\/p>\n

We are all part of the problem: the research found that 88% of respondents said they use jargon without understanding it, and 64% reported using words and terms like this \u201cmultiple times\u201d weekly.<\/em><\/p>\n

Make no mistake: you do have to break the habit. These words make you look silly.<\/em><\/p>\n

Lynn Taylor, a workplace expert and author who has partnered with American Express to give insight on productivity, told\u00a0Ladders\u00a0about how we can perform better at work, based on the research.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIf you want to engender trust from not only team members, but your boss, be yourself and you\u2019ll attract so much more commitment and loyalty from people,\u201d Taylor said.<\/em><\/p>\n

She later added that you can use this\u00a0concept as \u201ca litmus test,\u201d saying, \u201cif you catch yourself using this sort of cringeworthy jargon, think about if you transport yourself into a comfortable setting in your home or a party\u2014 would people look at you and roll their eyes?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the worst office jargon.<\/em><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t say this\u00a0at work<\/h2>\n

For the research, Morar Consulting\u00a0surveyed<\/a>\u00a01,061 US employees working in offices with at least 5 people. They got \u201ca small monetary incentive\u201d for participating.<\/em><\/p>\n

Curious about what other jargon the respondents identified really didn\u2019t like?\u00a0Take these from the survey. We provided the translations.<\/em><\/p>\n

Blue-sky thinking<\/em><\/h2>\n

Thinking creatively.<\/em><\/p>\n

In the weeds<\/em><\/h2>\n

Too detailed.<\/em><\/p>\n

Net-net<\/em><\/h2>\n

When you add up the pros and cons, this is the answer.<\/em><\/p>\n

Synergize<\/em><\/h2>\n

Collaborate.<\/em><\/p>\n

Datafication<\/em><\/h2>\n

Add numbers to improve the analysis.<\/em><\/p>\n

Operationalize<\/em><\/h2>\n

Put into action.<\/em><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s parking lot this<\/em><\/h2>\n

Wait.<\/em><\/p>\n

Siloed thinking<\/em><\/h2>\n

Forgetting to consider the impact on other teams or parts of the company.<\/em><\/p>\n

Recontextualize<\/em><\/h2>\n

Let\u2019s stop thinking of it this way and think about it this other way.<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s time to eat a reality sandwich<\/em><\/h2>\n

Back to the real world for a second.<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s time to put the soup through the strainer<\/em><\/h2>\n

There\u2019s a lot of junk here we don\u2019t need.<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s like trying to put a horn on a donkey and call it a unicorn<\/em><\/h2>\n

A variation on the old standby \u201ctrying to make a silk purse out of a sow\u2019s ear.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Those aren\u2019t the only ones. American Express also provided other examples of irritating office jargon, like \u201crun it up the flagpole and see who salutes,\u201d which sounds a little militaristic for our tastes.<\/em><\/p>\n

Why we talk like this even though we know better<\/em><\/h2>\n

American Express asked respondents why they use jargon at work, even if it only obscures what they mean.<\/em><\/p>\n

Twenty-eight percent of respondents said they drop \u201cindustry jargon\u201d every day at work, compared to 36% who do two to three times weekly, 16% who do once weekly, 7% every 2-3 weeks, 4% who don\u2019t even use it once per month, and 10% who don\u2019t at all.<\/em><\/p>\n

There are different reasons why people put jargon to use. Forty percent surveyed said they\u2019re unaware that they use it because it\u2019s a habit, 35% do \u201cfor fun\/to secretly test people,\u201d 25% do for assimilation purposes, 24% do to\u00a0come off as intelligent, and 19% do so to\u00a0avoid questions.<\/em><\/p>\n

When they use jargon, 48% said it\u2019s enjoyable, 45% said they are \u201camused,\u201d 14% don\u2019t like it, 11% said they stop paying attention and 11% are puzzled by it.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 The article below is from theladders.com and I couldn’t agree more–people are inventing more and more crazy terms to describe things that are very simple. \u00a0 \u00a0Years ago I interviewed a guy for Management Trainee at Longs and he had been in finance his entire life. \u00a0He really had no clue what working in Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-retail-humor","category-retail-trends"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2294"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2294\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2296,"href":"https:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2294\/revisions\/2296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}