|
 |
"Corporate Buzzwords" in English | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| IronFist Senior Member United States Joined 6436 days ago 663 posts - 941 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Korean | Message 17 of 34 11 January 2010 at 9:22pm | IP Logged | |||||
|
I have always heard "white elephant."
Or "the elephant in the room." It means the big obvious thing that no one wants to talk about. In my experience, the people who don't use corporate buzzwords have a more difficult time at work. Corporate types like to be identical little clones of each other. Everyone speaks the same way. People who speak normal English instead of corporate speak are "outsiders" and thus not promoted as frequently. That being said, I pissed off some people a few times by, after they finished a long speech full of buzzwords, looking them straight in the eye and saying "What? Not only does that not mean anything, but you didn't even answer my question!" That got me labeled as "difficult to work with" and "not a team player." From that point forward, it no longer mattered how efficient I was, or that I got more work done in less time than my coworkers. I had sealed my own fate. I started getting bad reviews, etc. Then eventually I quit because that job sucked anyway. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
 meramarina Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5966 days ago 1341 posts - 2303 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: German, Italian, French Personal Language Map | Message 18 of 34 11 January 2010 at 9:30pm | IP Logged | |||||
|
Oh I hate "team player" too. And "multitasking." And for some reason, employers always seem to be looking for someone "mature-minded." That sort of disqualifies me.
Maybe the elephant is white. Nobody is looking at it, so who knows? I have heard pink, but there could be a whole spectrum of shades. Anything is possible! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Gusutafu Senior Member Sweden Joined 5520 days ago 655 posts - 1039 votes Speaks: Swedish* | Message 19 of 34 11 January 2010 at 9:46pm | IP Logged | |||||
How did you expect them to react? What would you think if your colleague said something like that to you? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| cordelia0507 Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5837 days ago 1473 posts - 2176 votes Speaks: Swedish* Studies: German, Russian | Message 20 of 34 11 January 2010 at 11:25pm | IP Logged | |||||
Agree, it's probably "Elephant in the room" Haha Ironfist, I'm your "corporate twin sister". I see it exactly the same way. I get on with the great majority of people for the reason that they tend to like me as an individual and because they notice that I usually try to treat them right, and "do the right thing"... Unfortunately these things are not what the world of big business is all about. In fact it's rather irrelevant and a distraction. I can talk the talk and walk the walk if I must, but I strongly dislike it Some people are so wrapped up in their "I'm a corporate hotshot" world that there is just no possibility of a genuine relationship with them. They have read Machiavelli, Sun-Tzu and every super-cheezy career book under the sun until they no longer have a real personality... To some degree I feel like an actress at work. I put on clothes that I would never voluntarily wear (suit, high heels) and behave in a way that has nothing to do with who I really am and what I really value. The trouble with all this act is that it is not psychologically healthy. So I'm looking for a way out of the corporate world... I wonder how common this view really is? How many corporate slaves feel like Ironfist and I do? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
 Fasulye Heptaglot Winner TAC 2012 Moderator Germany fasulyespolyglotblog Joined 5846 days ago 5460 posts - 6006 votes 1 sounds Speaks: German*, DutchC1, EnglishB2, French, Italian, Spanish, Esperanto Studies: Latin, Danish, Norwegian, Turkish Personal Language Map | Message 21 of 34 12 January 2010 at 12:11am | IP Logged | |||||
|
BUZZWORD: "to develop new synergies"
As a regular reader of the German magazine "Business Spotlight" (for German learners of Business English) for several years I got well aquainted with management thinking inclusive all the English buzzwords and tricks to make unfavourable decisions sound positive. The magazine gives on some pages per issue a kind of management training, so I had the chance to look behind the scene on how managers should communicate with their staff. I found this quite interesting because you learn to understand, how your bosses work and what their strategies are. One favourite buzzword of the CEO of a former company of mine was "to develop new synergies". So when could such synergies develop? In fact a hostile takover took place and quite some jobs were "downsized" in our company, even whole production plants were closed down, but the CEO addressed a letter to all staff that the new situation would "develop new synergies" for both companies. Fasulye Edited by Fasulye on 12 January 2010 at 12:49am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Gusutafu Senior Member Sweden Joined 5520 days ago 655 posts - 1039 votes Speaks: Swedish* | Message 22 of 34 12 January 2010 at 12:35am | IP Logged | |||||
I suppose it's about "working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need"? 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| IronFist Senior Member United States Joined 6436 days ago 663 posts - 941 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Korean | Message 23 of 34 12 January 2010 at 2:59am | IP Logged | |||||
It wouldn't be said to me because I wouldn't be speaking like that in the first place. I could say "I made some room on my plate to send a ping up the flagpole to leverage a re-engineering of my mug from a high level perspective vis-a-vis a paradigm shifting transference of coffee," or I could just say "i need to refill my coffee." You sound like one of them :p Edited by IronFist on 12 January 2010 at 3:01am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Siberiano Tetraglot Senior Member Russian Federation one-giant-leap.Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6492 days ago 465 posts - 696 votes Speaks: Russian*, English, ItalianC1, Spanish Studies: Portuguese, Serbian | Message 24 of 34 12 January 2010 at 9:22am | IP Logged | |||||
I had a job in a company that worked for American corporate clients, and the managers could be distinguished by their speech: those who did real stuff spoke clearly. Others, who were occupied with petty scheming or toadying, spoke corporate buzzwords. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
