Stop saying "utilize"!

[Anonymous]

Two of my co-workers are always trying to sound eloquent by using longer words instead of a shorter, more common synonym. Some of this doesn't bother me or anyone in the office, but the overuse of some words makes them actually sound dumb a lot of times.

I am on maternity leave and just had a conversation with one of those co-workers and she said "utilize" 32 times! And we weren't talking about work, we were talking about babies. 32 times! You seriously think its better to say you would never "utilize" cloth diapers because they are a lot of work? What's wrong with just plain ol' "use"?

Vent over, thank you.

[Anonymous]

Well, if you utilize disposable diapers, you have more time to make up pretentious utilizations for big words.

[Anonymous]

Agree OP. I hate the word utilize. I find that IT people use it more than anyone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Two of my co-workers are always trying to sound eloquent by using longer words instead of a shorter, more common synonym. Some of this doesn't bother me or anyone in the office, but the overuse of some words makes them actually sound dumb a lot of times.

I am on maternity leave and just had a conversation with one of those co-workers and she said "utilize" 32 times! And we weren't talking about work, we were talking about babies. 32 times! You seriously think its better to say you would never "utilize" cloth diapers because they are a lot of work? What's wrong with just plain ol' "use"?

Vent over, thank you.

+1. I have a friend with a blog (worst blog ever and very poorly written, I don't even know why I read it) who does this. Utilize is one of her favorites.

[Anonymous]

"Utilize" was the first example that popped into my head when someone mentioned a study on another recent thread that found lower-income people use unnecessarily complicated words to try to sound smarter. (Or something like that.)

[Anonymous]

Can you tell me how to utilize that in a sentence?

[Anonymous]

Well at least she didn't use "task" as a verb. It's governmenteze--"We tasked them to do the project." UGH

[Anonymous]

Another thing people say to try to sound educated is "I" instead of me." As in "please send it to her and I."

I think that bothers me slightly more than utilize.

[Anonymous]

I hate it when people drop "per se" at the end of their sentences to try to sound smart.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hate it when people drop "per se" at the end of their sentences to try to sound smart.

Or, even worse, when they write (email) "per say".

[Anonymous]

At least they weren't leverages their key strengths as part of a holistic approach to providing solutions to their key stakeholders.

[Anonymous]

Um...no. I will utilize any word I so desire. Tough!

[Anonymous]

I never even thought about it, now it's stuck in my mind... Grrr. Utilize.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Agree OP. I hate the word utilize. I find that IT people use it more than anyone.

Actually, faux IT. These are the people that are in IT, but have degrees in social sciences or humanities but took the IT job because it paid more, even though they don't really know what they're doing. Actual engineering majors use shorter words because many of them don't type well, so fewer keystrokes are better.

[Anonymous]

One of the top managers at my office often talks about us "servicing our customers," which I think makes us sound like a prostitution ring. Why not just say serve??