Phrases Execs Use That Make You Cringe

[Anonymous]

I worked in an overseas office and my staff was completely befuddled whenever US business people (I'm sure other nationalitie are the same but we're a US company) and they used phrases like "elephant in the room," etc. I watched a guy have an entire conversation in jargon and had no clue that my colleagues had no idea what he was talking about. After that, I had an intern collect US business phrases and translate them into the local language and include the origin story, which is often sports as it turns out.

I had a US gov official come to give a talk and she said "lift the kimono" and "one ring to rule them all" and "peel the onion" in the span of 10 minutes. I was, like, really? Really????

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"you don't sell the steak, you sell the sizzle"... "low hanging fruit"... referring to things as "bespoke" ...

Uhhh...what would you prefer over "bespoke"? It's an actual word with a meaning, not stupid jargon.

Probably the PP doesn't work at a tailor on Savile Row in London.

Definition of bespoke
1a : CUSTOM-MADE (a bespoke suit)
b : dealing in or producing custom-made articles (a bespoke tailor)

[Anonymous]

down the rabbit hole

[Anonymous]

Fire Dept personnel when asked if they help get animals out of trees " Did you ever see a cat skeleton in a tree"?
Its so stupid sounding.
Im not saying they need to help get cats out of trees or not, but that phrase just makes me cringe.

[Anonymous]

This book is used as “unique” in my office as well.

Ones that are common in my office:

Lean in (meaning do extra work, said over and over again by some execs and meant as a compliment)

Don’t build the church for Easter Sunday

Need to align on that. (Find agreement)

Don’t even get me started on the words that they say incorrectly. They say simplistic when they mean simple. They pronounce it “lie BERRY”, I kid you not. College graduate too.

[Anonymous]

This book = bespoke. Damn you autocorrect.

[Anonymous]

So and so is "out of pocket"

I always wonder how they are ever *in* one's pocket

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This book is used as “unique” in my office as well.

Ones that are common in my office:

Lean in (meaning do extra work, said over and over again by some execs and meant as a compliment)

Don’t build the church for Easter Sunday

Need to align on that. (Find agreement)

Don’t even get me started on the words that they say incorrectly. They say simplistic when they mean simple. They pronounce it “lie BERRY”, I kid you not. College graduate too.

this is my husband. four degrees. still effs up the english language. american born.

[Anonymous]

"Parking lot" as a verb.

Ex.: "Let's parking lot this issue and we can call another meeting to talk more about it."

[Anonymous]

Collaborate is the only action word used in our Corporation comprised of 7k introverts. They think its the wave of the future.

[Anonymous]

Corporate jargon literally makes my skin crawl and there is plenty at my company. BUT! I haven't heard of majority of the terms on this thread and I am so grateful for that. Do I even want to know what "open the kimono" means?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"you don't sell the steak, you sell the sizzle"... "low hanging fruit"... referring to things as "bespoke" ...

Uhhh...what would you prefer over "bespoke"? It's an actual word with a meaning, not stupid jargon.

Right, if you're from the U.K., "bespoke" is a word in common usage. Not jargon at all.

[Anonymous]

My boss said “on a go forward” FOUR times in a conference call last week

[Anonymous]

"this space"

We want to be leaders in this space.

There will be so much growth in this space.

This space will take off and we want to be ready.

[Anonymous]

We don't have enough bandwidth
We need to strategize
We need to circle the wagons on this one.