2021, Business, Uncategorized, Words, work

Buzz Words?

53 Comments

Going back to work hasn’t been as traumatic as I was worried it would be.  The new software isn’t as daunting as I anticipated, although I shake my head that we’ve made things so complicated in trying to make them easier.  The steps to set up your various screens so you can “share” during an online presentation make my head hurt – luckily I don’t see that I will have to personally worry about this for quite some time. 

There is a new phrase that I’m hearing a lot since I came back (a whooping three weeks) … “socializing the idea”.  I don’t know if this is a Corporate America thing or just my company but I’ve heard at least 4 people use the phrase in various meetings/calls.  It basically means floating an idea by someone (usually a client) in a casual way.  As if you’re softening someone up to an idea before hitting on it hard.  The first time I heard it, I knew immediately what it meant – not sure if I’ve just been in the business-speak world too long or it’s a great phrase that needed inventing. 

But now that I’ve heard it four times, it’s beginning to grate a bit, so I’m wondering if this is just the new catch phrase of the month and it will be gone by fall.  There are so many buzz words in the business world that have disappeared off the horizon.  I haven’t heard anybody talk about paradigms recently and nobody seems to say “think outside the box” anymore.  Of course, “collaborate” is still going strong despite my prayers every night that it fly right off the world’s radar screen.

What words or phrases would you like to be retired?  Or kept on but at only 20 hours a week?

53 thoughts on “Buzz Words?”

  1. i cringe when someone wants to share something with me , just saying , right?

    right as a complete sentence drives me nuts
    i appreciate you is a new one the is used in a flippant way that lacks sincerity and context when thrown in

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  2. There are several new work buzz words I could do without. One is “emergent” used to describe a client who is having a crisis. “Do we have any emergent clients to staff this morning?” The other word us “dosing”, used to refer to the number of hours of services a client gets per week.

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  3. A new phrase (new to me) that I actually welcome is “inflection point.” Its meaning comes from the world of mathematics, which means it arises from a language I don’t even speak badly. So you shouldn’t trust my definition of it.

    In math or graphing the inflection point is that moment when something already changing does a more significant or reverse sort of movement.

    In modern communications, the inflection point is that moment when something that is already changing might be influenced to change more or in a different way. When California Sen. Kamala Harris kicked off her campaign for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination with a rally in Oakland last month, she told the crowd, “We are at an inflection point in the history of our nation.” In a tweet before the current president’s recent State of the Union address, she invoked the same idea but called it an “inflection moment.”

    At one level, this phrase is just the hot new buzzword. But as such things go, I find it more likable than usual. It presumes a world in which change is the norm, which I find true to life. Somewhat optimistically, it proposes that there are special moments when intelligent intervention can make a positive change in a problem. No wonder the phrase appealed to Barack Obama.

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  5. OT: I recently mentioned Mary Chapin Carpenter’s daily Songs From Home. Today I spotted this quote, and I like it enough to mention it here:

    “At the end of your time here, the world will either be more or less kind, compassionate, generous, funny, creative, and loving because of your presence in it. And you get to choose.”

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  6. “Socializing ideas” has been around my workplace for awhile. Definitely a Corporate America thing. Sorry it spread to your workplace, VS. Hopefully it does not bring its brethren, “circling back” and “business agility.” (There is a type of project management used especially in software development that goes by the moniker Agile – it is very useful, and is, in fact, a good way to be small-A agile and flexible in how you do work… but it has become shorthand for too many things and may lose its core meaning as being nimble and quick to respond, in a good way – and become yet one more buzzword to roll my eyes at.)

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      1. And I meant to say that “circling back” kind of bothers me because we have to say it so much. If people would just do what they’re supposed to do, we wouldn’t have to circle back so much would we??

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  7. I still cringe when the winter holidays roll around and everybody starts “gifting” things. Gifting is appropriate when one is bequeathing something, like real property or a large estate. Giving, that good old verb, is much more appropriate for normal holiday use. I vaguely remember discussing the “verbing” of nouns here in the past. It just rubs me the wrong way.

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  8. RIse and Shine Baboons (unless you are weary of the phrase, then stay in bed),

    This is an out-of-the-box question from VS. LOCK HER UP.

    Retire both of those please.

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      2. Ditto “social distancing.” For one thing, it feels vague – am I standing a physical distance away from you but still engaging with you or am I purposefully not interacting with you socially? If it’s the former (which seems to most often be how people intend this), than why not just “physical distancing?” Or maybe even explicitly, “safe physical distancing?” “Social distancing” feels like something you might do at a party or on the dance floor to avoid someone who is pestering you or who you don’t like.

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  9. Happy birthday, tim. Hope your recovery is in full swing and that you’re feeling stronger every day. Have a wonderful day.

    Happily, I’m so out of the loop that corporate jargon hardly ever reaches my ears, though I do see it in print occasionally. What I’d really like to rid us of, is all of the partisan bullshit that gets in the way of getting anything done in an organized and systematic way.

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    1. Irregardless, You are so out of the loop we will have to circle back and socialize you to office-speak befor you become….non-emergent and irrelevant. ☺️😉

      A fine and meaningless sentence.

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  17. I’ve watched a couple of cooking shows tonight which reminds me that the word “deliciousness” can leave as far as I am concerned. I’m not even sure when they started saying “deliciousness” but good grief nobody on a cooking show seems to be able to go more than 10 minutes without using it.

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    1. Except Jacque Peppin, I have never heard him say that. He usually presents the finished dish and declares: “That’s it. Happy cooking.”

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  19. Not all buzzwords are bad, even if they pop up with such frequency that you want to scream. Years ago I made my peace with “going forward” as the new preferred way to say “in the future.” Now I’m grumbling a bit over “pivot” when used to describe a change of policy or direction. Pivot is especially popular with the motormouths who comment on pro football games, but many political and business types are now proud of pivoting.

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