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bostonape's picture

Which office buzzwords do you hate?

I came across this funny article in the Boston Globe a while back about all the annoying buzzwords people throw around the office.

If terms like "value-add" and "thinking outside the box" make you want to jam a laser pointer into your eye, you are not alone in your suffering. Having been asked to "leverage their core competencies" one too many times, workers all across the country are offering up a collective response: Stop the insanity.

What's the worst business jargon you hear around your office?

Average: 5 (1 vote)
am898's picture

busines jargon

worst ive heard is "on a go-forward basis"

somegirlfromcali's picture

color...not what crayola was talking about

can someone give me some "color" on this post?

shoot me.

Anonymous Monkey's picture

vomit

If I could just "piggy back" on what he was saying... or maybe someone else could kind of "unpack that" a little more.

Anonymous Monkey's picture

Modeling

Do we really always need to "crank" or "jam"? There are some additional annoying modeling words, but these are the worst; constantly overused. I can't stand to hear either around the office anymore.

Wall Street Addict's picture

Business Jargon

The worst business jargon I hear on a daily basis is.. caveat.. the only caveat is.. i swear if I hear that one more time, I might have to use that laser pointer.

groan's picture

My worst is "at the end of

My worst is "at the end of the day"

CubeMonkey's picture

I would have to agree that

I would have to agree that "jamming" is the most irritating modeling phrase ever.

Anonymous Monkey's picture

the two worst are

"At the end of the day..."

"It is what it is"....

Kanlap's picture

"talk to that point", "get

"talk to that point", "get our arms around that"

Monkey444's picture

"we are in the business of

"we are in the business of creating synergies mate" "Shift those graphs" "Massage the red dots"

nychimp's picture

my least favorite

"why don't you go ahead and take a stab at that and get back to me" (usually from some lazy-ass associate pawning off his work)

PBrad's picture

re: business jargon

everyday is another attempt at "going forward"

BankerNoMore's picture

We?

What we need to do is ... Why don't we ... And of course Mr. Client, we will work through the night to get this to you first thing in the morning.

Bank_Bang's picture

cranking

cranking

sasm9's picture

Any computer metaphor

"Get a download"

"He has some extra bandwidth"

pstoup's picture

"whats the time line" annoys

"whats the time line" annoys the hell out of me

stupidjob's picture

fruit

-apples to apples
-apples to oranges

zhang18's picture

Ice-cream

Vanilla.

(Vanilla strategy, Vanilla buying, etc.)

Anonymous Monkey's picture

"it is what it is."

"it is what it is."

Anonymous Monkey's picture

touch base, circle up,

touch base, circle up,

generaltao's picture

as if it were a quick task

can you "roll these changes" through the model

stefdog's picture

"drill down" ... used by a

"drill down" ... used by a VP to say that you need to "drill down" on a certain topic - i.e. go away and do hours of pointless research for few tangible results

Anonymous Monkey's picture

"at the end of the

"at the end of the day"
"let's take a stab at it"
"can we circle up"
"deep dive"
"net-net"

And my favorite, "capacity". John, do you have capacity to model this out to year 2329??

boondoggle's picture

Buzzword of Death

EBITDA

wbanker's picture

Ha, I have to agree that

Ha, I have to agree that "capacity" is a pretty bad one.

dixie's picture

re crank

i agree possibly the most annoying office jargon word

Anonymous Monkey's picture

doctor leads

let's not hammer a dead horse
let's not reinvent the wheel

ahhhhh, how bout let's not throw a haymaker at your eye when you're not looking

zonk's picture

hate the term

hate the term ...bandwidth...

dankobe's picture

"shoot me an e-mail"

"shoot me an e-mail"

Youngone13's picture

CC

CC

eawolff99's picture

How about so and so 'pinged

How about so and so 'pinged me' last night...as in sent an email via blackberry....ughhhhh....'pinged me'....shudder

goopty's picture

"adding value"

"adding value"

dhlwww's picture

"On a go-forward basis"

"On a go-forward basis" makes me cringe, too. Is the future tense not sufficient? Also dislike "offsite" used as a noun.

dhlwww's picture

Roadmap is another one I

Roadmap is another one I can't stand. Just tell me the plan.

koko's picture

"low hanging fruit" "pari

"low hanging fruit"
"pari passu"
"ready, fire, aim"
"out of pocket"
"sh*t flows downhill".....

lc's picture

"let's huddle on this one"

"let's huddle on this one"

bankit400's picture

Let's ramp up

ramp up must be my least favorite of them all!

kwebb's picture

capacity

Do you have the "Capacity" to take on another project.

of course they already know what your answer should and will be...

CapIQ's picture

Bankers love to "opine" on

Bankers love to "opine" on the situation. Loosely translated-here is our thoughts but if we are wrong, it was just an opinion, certainly not to be taken as an absolute...

benworkemail's picture

Anything Latin. Para pisu

Anything Latin. Para pisu comes to mind.

DkrCap's picture

Pro active

Isn't everyone pro-active? are there people that are anti-activity?

ccc95's picture

It's not the Buzzwords

It's not so much the buzzwords that I hate, but rather the people that drop them without end.

indojin's picture

DD

generally bad news when someone mentions DD

indojin's picture

capacity

if i hear my staffer say it one more time...

opticalcharge's picture

My fav

"net net"

mkgref's picture

I can't stand the word

I can't stand the word "analyst". Just call me what I am, your bitch.

market man's picture

spade a spade

Yes, they shouldn't be afraid to call a spade a spade. Perhaps more in the UK than US.

PETillIDie's picture

the us is too politically

the us is too politically correct for the spade spade comment

corpfintool's picture

SYNERGY

SYNERGY

livingthedream's picture

"in short order"

one of my VPs favourite expressions is "we need to get this done PDQ"