If you’ve ever worked in an office setting, you’ve likely heard and potentially said words and phrases that have become part of the somewhat unofficial corporate jargon. Such a form of speak becomes second nature to many individuals, and suddenly they’re saying that they will “circle back” to a topic, asking if a coworker has the “bandwidth” to take on a new task, taking a “30,000-foot view” of a client issue, describing how the team should “leverage” another department’s knowledge for a project, letting everyone in the meeting know that he or she has a “hard stop” at 2 p.m., and bringing together multiple teams to create “synergy” within the company.
For many professionals, talking in such a way simply becomes a habit after being around it so often and hearing certain terms and lingo used in various situations. Dallas resident and attorney Damon Yousefy said he uses corporate speak at work and is guilty of doing so during meetings.
“We have to be more politically correct versions of ourselves at work, and corporate jargon is a way to do that and mirror the behavior of our colleagues,” he said.
Similar to Yousefy, Dallas-area resident Katy Flynn, principal regulatory operations in financial services, said she tends to use corporate jargon frequently at the office, as it is part of the culture of her workplace.
“You hear people using it all of the time, and you almost can’t help yourself,” she said. “However, to keep it balanced, I also throw in some current lingo, such as ‘let’s pull up and review that together.’”
Dallas-area resident Brice Pearce, a senior program manager, said his main reason for using well-known corporate words and phrases is because it feels necessary to gain or retain legitimacy with senior leaders. Pearce also said that he sometimes even finds himself using such terminology outside of the workplace.
“Every once in a while, I’ll use that language, especially things like bandwidth or invested,” he said. “It happens particularly with our kids as we talk about schoolwork or things around the house (chores, schedule of events, etc.).”
Yousefy, on the other hand, said he doesn’t typically use corporate lingo outside of work unless he is joking around with friends.
“If a friend of mine is in my field, I’ll ask if we can put some time on the calendar to circle back on a few topics,” he said. “If my friends like my photographs of them, I’ll say that I added value.”
And when he does hear such terminology or use it himself at work, Yousefy said it’s not particularly bothersome to him.
“I think we have to be able to laugh at the silliness of these things while understanding that we do it for some valid reasons,” he said.
Such reasoning can be different for different individuals, and Flynn said she thinks there are certain situations in which such words and phrases get thrown around a bit superfluously.
“I think when it’s excessive, it’s usually people who aren’t good at articulating themselves, and they think it makes them look better to use it,” she said. “It’s not always a bad thing to use it, though. Sometimes it makes sense and can be a uniform way for someone to get their point across without confusion for others.”
Out of curiosity, one company conducted a study to determine how often corporate lingo was used on LinkedIn, and after examining more than 6.6 million U.S. job postings on the site, it discovered that 43 percent contain such language. Another study found that though many people use corporate jargon, it can create barriers and limit authentic conversations.
Pearce said he tends to find such a way of speaking a bit frustrating in certain circumstances.
“It really bothers me when the use of lingo completely overshadows the actual content or when it makes the content longer and less clear,” he said. “The other piece is then feeling compelled to respond with jargon when talking with someone like that.”
But Pearce also knows that people will still continue to do so in an effort to fit in with the culture of the workplace and the terminology being used by their coworkers at all levels of the organization.
“I think it’s also to show that they understand things at some sort of elevated level,” he said. “Many times, coming from an academic background, I feel like these jargon terms are a stand-in for never having developed an advanced vocabulary of scientific or sociopolitical terminology.”
Whether one chooses to talk about how he or she will “ping” you later to follow up on a conversation or whether or not a particular skill is within that person’s “wheelhouse,” it’s not likely that corporate jargon is going to disappear anytime soon. Yousefy said he is OK with that, though.
“Some of the sayings are catchy,” he said. “And some become filler words that we use in our jobs while trying to think of the next sentence (instead of using words such as ‘like’ and ‘umm’).”
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NatNews staff and some dear readers recently enjoyed celebrating the new home of dear reader Alexis Derrow (photo credit: Damon Yousefy)