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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

#41

Post by Macha »

phkahler wrote: post #35
antiterra wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

‘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".

It's got a clear brevity win over "we need to look into this to find the root cause" or "we need to perform a root cause analysis on this". This isn't the case for "resources" instead of "people", or deliberate obfuscation like the article's example of "we're happy to provide you with the paperwork to provide to your insurance company" instead of "we only take direct payments" or "your feedback is greatly appreciated" for "no" or "we have a new billing model to suit the next few years of sustainable development" for "we're raising prices"

Re: Corporate buzzwords are how workers pretend to be adults

#42

Post by Cthulhu_ »

cosmodisk wrote: post #6

I had a "pleasure" to work briefly for Lionbridge when they acquired the company I worked for. We used to get these company wide emails about various things. You read it,sit and then think how can someone rape the language to a such degree. It was written in English but felt like alien language. The amount of bullshit one manages to squeeze in a sentence is quite astonishing. In my opinion, the main reason behind all…

Or that their true intentions / feelings would be exposed. I mean, "management wanted to curtail redundancies in the human resources area, and so, many workers are no longer viable members of the workforce" sounds much nicer than "yeah we fired a bunch of people".

Re: Corporate buzzwords are how workers pretend to be adults

#43

Post by kjakm »

MatekCopatek wrote: post #36
Droobfest wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

>> 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.

Of course you would be. Why does it have to phrased in some extremely positive or negative way? Why not something like "I'm pretty busy working on x. If anything comes up in the meeting that needs my attention let me know afterwards and I'll arrange a time to chat."

Re: Corporate buzzwords are how workers pretend to be adults

#44

Post by growlist »

tomatocracy wrote: post #40
taejo wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Doubtful. I've worked in the UK for more than 20 years, and the only time I've ever heard this usage is within outsourced IT providers in India.

Re: Corporate buzzwords are how workers pretend to be adults

#45

Post by Cthulhu_ »

SimonSword wrote: post #12

This reminded me of the section about "Clutter" in the book "On writing well": > Clutter is the official language used by corporations to hide their mistakes. When the Digital Equipment Corporation eliminated 3,000 jobs its statement didn’t mention layoffs; those were “involuntary methodologies.” When an Air Force missile crashed, it “impacted with the ground prematurely.”

I like how in Kerbal Space Program, you don't crash, you "lithobrake". Like airbraking only on something with a bit more resistance.

Re: Corporate buzzwords are how workers pretend to be adults

#46

Post by mysterydip »

I saw this in the DoD when I was a contractor. Meetings full of buzzwords and abbreviations, some of which seemed to be tribal knowledge more than an actual thing. Things like "that solution won't work because of ABCD," and everyone nods in agreement. I had written down every abbreviation I heard to ask my supervisor later, and some he (and others) couldn't tell me what they stood for, despite being there for decades.

Re: Corporate buzzwords are how workers pretend to be adults

#47

Post by vector_spaces »

"The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink.

...

A man may take to drink because he feels himself to be a failure, and then fail all the more completely because he drinks. It is rather the same thing that is happening to the English language. It becomes ugly and inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish, but the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts."

https://www.orwell.ru/library/essays/politics/english/e_poli...

Re: Corporate buzzwords are how workers pretend to be adults

#48

Post by crispyambulance »

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…

> ... sometimes use business talk as a tool to ...

I think it's natural to want to speak in a language or style which one might think others approve. However, I have found that while many managers are apt to use biz-speak/buzzwords themselves, it's not necessarily what they want to hear from others.

If you can instead speak in clear, concise, and empathetic sentences that get to the point, most people really appreciate and crave that-- especially when things are critical. Unfortunately that's very hard to do. There's a fine line between getting to the point and coming off as a cold-fish personality. It takes lots of practice.

Re: Corporate buzzwords are how workers pretend to be adults

#49

Post by NoOneNew »

kjakm wrote: post #43
MatekCopatek wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

>> 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. Of course you would be. Why does it have to phrased in some extremely positive or negative way? Why not something like "I'm pretty busy working on x. If anything comes up in the meeting that needs my attention let me know afterwards…

Because the person conducting the meeting has already failed miserably at their job and must be made aware.

A boss that conducts a useless meeting, knowing it's to hear themselves talk while knowing their subordinates are busy with important tasks that actually keep the company afloat is generally considered, and this is the technical term, a dick maneuver. His/her choice to have a time wasting meeting greatly increases the chances of those employees having to work overtime to accomplish a task on schedule, cutting into their family/personal time. Since most of these types of jobs are salary, there's no overtime pay. So yes, negativity is important in this matter. Why cuddle someone who wants to waste other people's time just to hear themselves speak and have some artificial self-important time?

Re: Corporate buzzwords are how workers pretend to be adults

#50

Post by Krasnol »

mysterydip wrote: post #46

I saw this in the DoD when I was a contractor. Meetings full of buzzwords and abbreviations, some of which seemed to be tribal knowledge more than an actual thing. Things like "that solution won't work because of ABCD," and everyone nods in agreement. I had written down every abbreviation I heard to ask my supervisor later, and some he (and others) couldn't tell me what they stood for, despite being there for decades…

I worked once for a big global F500 company whose name is a abbreviation. In a meeting while we've been waiting I asked around if anybody knows what it actually means. Some tried to make up something. Everybody failed to come up with the actual meaning.
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