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"Corporate Buzzwords" in English

  Tags: Slang | Business | English
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34 messages over 5 pages: 1 2 3 4
kmart
Senior Member
Australia
Joined 6123 days ago

194 posts - 400 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Italian

 
 Message 33 of 34
16 January 2010 at 11:21am | IP Logged 
Ari wrote:
I think a lot of the bile thrown at "corporate buzzwords" is misdirected. Most of this stuff is simply synonyms and the claim that they "don't mean anything" is just not true. ...

Synonyms, yes, but in most cases, synonyms meant to disguise the truth, divert attention from mistakes, incompetence etc.
"We've had some slippage on the project" sounds minor rather than "we're behind schedule" which automatically calls for a response of "why? who's responsible for this?".
"Teething problems" sound minor, but was applied in my organisation when 7,000 people failed to get their paychecks on time - "these sorts of teething problems happen every time we merge a payroll" - (you mean this has happened before? repeatedly? and you've never tried to figure out if there was a better way to do it?).
"We don't play the blame game around here" means we don't take responsibility for anything either.
And my pet hate - "inappropriate". Such a useful word. It means "what you said/did was not illegal/against company policy/rude/dangerous/anything I can define, but I don't like it and I want to discipline you over it."
All I know is, every superior I've respected and admired, was a straight talker, and all the ones who trot out the weasel words are the ones I've hated/would hate working for...
;-)
1 person has voted this message useful



boon
Diglot
Groupie
Ireland
Joined 6158 days ago

91 posts - 177 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish
Studies: German, Mandarin, Latin

 
 Message 34 of 34
16 January 2010 at 11:42am | IP Logged 
It's a big ask.

It's even worse when some of these expressions find their way into politics and journalism. It's such a disconnect from good English.
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