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Corporate buzzwords are how workers pretend to be adults

theatlantic.com

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Re: Corporate buzzwords are how workers pretend to be adults

#31

Post by skytreader »

czzr wrote: post #17

All areas of practice have their own jargon, words that superficially sound similar to regular English but actually have specific insider meaning that promotes faster in-group communication (and a degree of in-group signalling) - this is true for scientists, software engineers, yoga instructors and yes, business people.

> that promotes faster in-group communication

I think the reason that business jargon gets more flak than usual jargon is because it does not really facilitate faster communication. At least not to everyone involved. Maybe salesman to salesman, business dev to business dev, it would make sense. But then they use that jargon with everyone else (i.e., when it is not appropriate to) and it sounds just as ridiculous as when they hear a dev say "We can't do that without considerable infrastructure overhaul. The current LTS is still a year away from EOL but the vendor has decided to use incompatible dependencies anyway".

If that were me, I'd just say "There's a lot of work involved to make that happen. We're talking 60-hour work weeks if you want that deadline." Or something like that. And if you hear me use the former wording in a meeting with non-technical people involved, you can bet it's just me trying to sound relevant to the meeting (because the next question would be "Could you elaborate?" and I will use more jargon, which will cause a cycle of explanation and boy won't I look important?)

It's ridiculous for me to hear "We need to get this done because we want to capture this market and turn this vertical into a core competency. This will make our portfolio more attractive to investors." when you can just say "Our client really needs/wants these features. We risk losing them if we don't deliver by the deadline."

There's also something to be said about weird turns of phrase that make communications sound less personal. Whereas I would just say "As I already told you," business-speak will make me use "As per my last email...". I don't know about others but the first time I encountered "As per my last email", it did feel foreign to me, like it's not English anymore. Modesty aside, I've read a lot, fiction and nonfiction, but only in my work inbox will I find "As per my last email".

Re: Corporate buzzwords are how workers pretend to be adults

#32

Post by Droobfest »

MatekCopatek wrote: post #16

I sometimes use business talk as a tool to make countering my points unattractive when having public discussions inside the company. For example - let's say your boss decides to introduce some mandatory meeting that everyone agrees is useless. Rather then complaining about it in normal language, I would say things like "well, one of our core values is delighting clients, which I would be able to do much more efficien…

This is just effective communication though?

I don't understand why your post is phrased so negatively. Some buzzwords have a sort of standardised meaning across a company so everyone knows what you're talking about.

"We agreed that delighting clients is important and I argue that I can better optimize it by not attending" There is nothing wrong with this?

Sure I'd agree customer satisfaction is a much better word for it.

Re: Corporate buzzwords are how workers pretend to be adults

#33

Post by dntbnmpls »

MatekCopatek wrote: post #16

I sometimes use business talk as a tool to make countering my points unattractive when having public discussions inside the company. For example - let's say your boss decides to introduce some mandatory meeting that everyone agrees is useless. Rather then complaining about it in normal language, I would say things like "well, one of our core values is delighting clients, which I would be able to do much more efficien…

Oh "values". This meaningless buzzword has creeped into every facet of modern life. From politicians and their "western values" to CEOs and their "values" to baseball teams and their "values", everyone uses "values" to justify their evil or to defend or excuse their evil. And of course there is the "alignment" of "values".

Oh, stealing signs doesn't align with your team's values. We benefited from it greatly for years, but it doesn't align with our values since we got caught.

It's like an amoral organization's PR version of "my mamma taught me better than that". Some juvenile delinquent gets caught stealing from the store and he says, "I don't know why I did that. That's not me, that's not who I am, I'm not a thief. My momma taught me better than that." If he incorporated himself, he could've said, his actions did not align with his values. Problem solved.

Re: Corporate buzzwords are how workers pretend to be adults

#34

Post by kilroy_jones »

hyperpallium wrote: post #27
jmnicolas wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It sounds like a cult !

That sounds unaligned. Please report to the Alignment Center at your earliest convenience. Escorts will be available for your use in 20 seconds.

This may not sound the way you intended.

Re: Corporate buzzwords are how workers pretend to be adults

#35

Post by phkahler »

antiterra wrote: post #22
MatekCopatek wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you give an example of some words you feel are being unfairly criticized? I.e. words that actually carry more meaning then their "plain" alternatives.

‘Root cause’ is neither redundant nor simply a ‘corporate buzzword.’ It represents a clear concept of a causal chain with an underlying factor that gates all other contributing causes. The term has been around for a century and ‘root cause analysis’ is a formal construct in a number of professional contexts, including analysis of aviation incidents.

Except when people use it as a verb as in "we need to root cause this".

Re: Corporate buzzwords are how workers pretend to be adults

#36

Post by MatekCopatek »

Droobfest wrote: post #32
MatekCopatek wrote: post #16

I sometimes use business talk as a tool to make countering my points unattractive when having public discussions inside the company. For example - let's say your boss decides to introduce some mandatory meeting that everyone agrees is useless. Rather then complaining about it in normal language, I would say things like "well, one of our core values is delighting clients, which I would be able to do much more efficien…

This is just effective communication though? I don't understand why your post is phrased so negatively. Some buzzwords have a sort of standardised meaning across a company so everyone knows what you're talking about. "We agreed that delighting clients is important and I argue that I can better optimize it by not attending" There is nothing wrong with this? Sure I'd agree customer satisfaction is a much better word fo…

I disagree, what I would want to say in such a situation is simply "this meeting is useless, let me get back to work", but I would be percieved as a grumpy developer with an attitude.

I wouldn't call all the sugarcoating effective communication as I expect everyone in the company to understand that not wasting people's time will let them do more work and benefit the customer in the end.

Re: Corporate buzzwords are how workers pretend to be adults

#37

Post by RaceWon »

Is it really word play: Car Insurance is sold via a talking "cartoonesque lizard", medications that may help your dry skin (or possibly kill you--depending on your particular physiology) are also sold at times via similar talking animated creatures--or implied peer pressure... I could go on and on. So I often ask: how mature or advanced are we really? I personally, am not Impressed.

Re: Corporate buzzwords are how workers pretend to be adults

#38

Post by friendlybus »

MatekCopatek wrote: post #9
friendlybus wrote: post #5

Well this is a mean spirited attempt at destroying words that have meaning. Some people use them incorrectly and the nature of business moves on making them ineffective. Attacking them on multiple levels without describing when they are used in a positive sense seems unnecessary.

Can you give an example of some words you feel are being unfairly criticized? I.e. words that actually carry more meaning then their "plain" alternatives.

You don't need 'more' meaning. These words are windows into a world of thinking about problems in a different light. I spoke to a developer who brought up the idea of disrupting Steam. I don't think that's going to happen this decade, the discussion around the idea was a good place to integrate some thoughts about gaming networks and game sales platforms. That is a productive outcome.

The author of this article is nearly vindictive in her complete portrayal that these words are vapid buzzwords that children use to appear adult and bewilder and fake their way through a paltry corporate existence.

You take away these words and people stop thinking out loud and with each other about productive ideas, analyses, directions and workflows that come from using all of the English language and not just what The Atlantic deems is above fakery.

Articles and corporate minded speech crimes like this make being your own boss mandatory, given you want to own your own mind and speech.

Re: Corporate buzzwords are how workers pretend to be adults

#39

Post by tomatocracy »

czzr wrote: post #17

All areas of practice have their own jargon, words that superficially sound similar to regular English but actually have specific insider meaning that promotes faster in-group communication (and a degree of in-group signalling) - this is true for scientists, software engineers, yoga instructors and yes, business people.

I suppose youre talking about terms of art. That's true for business too, I agree, but I'd argue that this is words/phrases like "EBITDA", "division", "tier 1 client". There's also useful shorthand like using the CEOs first name only, which happens even in Megacorps where few people have ever even met the CEO.

Corporate-speak is something different though to me - it's purpose is not to convey any specific meaning but simply to posture, which is why it's so widely hated.

Re: Corporate buzzwords are how workers pretend to be adults

#40

Post by tomatocracy »

taejo wrote: post #24
jon-wood wrote: post #14

I’m curious when people swapped the word reply with revert. I keep seeing people use phrases like “I’ll revert” when what they mean is “I’ll look into that and get back to you”. Particularly working in software I always have to stop myself when the initial reaction is that they’ve just said they’ll undo what I’ve requested.

I believe that this usage is archaic in British business English rather than an innovation! However, it was conserved in business English in India and some other countries, and perhaps the increased interaction between Americans and Indians and in the software industry means you're just exposed to it more often?

The word revert, with this meaning, is still in widespread use in business in Britain too, in my experience.
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