Sunday 9 July 2023

Office Talk For The Terminally Twonky

As i am a Generation X'er i joined the workplace alongside the Baby Boomers and now we are wheeling through the Millennials and now the Generation Z'ers who are filtering through to take their place at the desks and water fountains and although their office etiquette may not be of the highest order, something i do agree with is the office jargon which some people pollute conversations and meetings with.
I shudder when i hear the phrases 'blue sky thinking', 'move the needle' or 'touch base' and a recent report has said that i am not the only one as 69% of Gen Z and Millennials are fed up with it also, 54% have had to ask a colleague what they are saying in plain English and 46% of them don't even know what they mean and amusingly have used it themselves despite not fully understanding what it means which must have been quite amusing.
I fully support ending such useless phrases such as 'baked in' or 'Close of Play' mostly because it makes the speaker sound like a complete twonk and secondly because people who say things like that are usually complete twonk's so i refuse to join their twonk fiefdom and would never utter anything about a deep dive or picking the low hanging fruit or circling back.
The top most misunderstood workplace phrases of the Twonkerrati is Close Of Play (end of a time period such as day, week, month), Move the needle (a noticeable change), Baked in (something which has to be included as it is inseparable), Blue Sky thinking (no idea is beyond reason), Run up the flagpole (See if an idea receives a favorable reaction), Low-hanging fruit (the most easily achievable), Deep dive (Look at more closely) and Circle back (to come back to).
The Gen Z'ers and Millennials should take it as a early warning system that if anyone you come into contact with at work who says any of the above then they are to be avoided whenever possible and should be engaged in the absolute minimum amount of conversation with and under no circumstances should any invitation to do anything outside of work be accepted.

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