People have finite lives. Therefore, business leaders should not waste their time.
This comes to mind in considering a recent article in the Boston Globe about why "some young workers want to ditch 'corporate-speak.'" As someone who spends hours a week in a classroom with Gen-Z students, there is little mystery to this topic.
The answer is simple: after losing much of the past two years of normal life to the pandemic, young people want to make up for lost time. They are intensely eager to avoid anything that could subtract even more from their quality of life.
Corporate-speak is such a time sink for young workers. Why do companies need to make up meaningless phrases that add nothing and require translation to make them useful?
In my work experiences, a CEO was often the first person to utter these phrases of corporate-speak. Underlings who heard them wanted to appear to have access to power, so they repeated the CEO's buzzwords.
New employees are reluctant to ask for a translation of these phrases because their questions signal that they are outsiders. So they pretend to know their meaning. Sometimes that ignorance does not matter. Other times it does.
Given these power dynamics, I do not see an easy way for companies to rid themselves of such jargon. But in the hope of making people more aware of it, here are nine annoying corporate-speak phrases, and examples of what people might say instead.
1. "Close the loop"
People often meet to discuss a question without reaching a decision. A relatively powerless person might utter the phrase "close the loop" with hopes of concluding the matter.
However, the person with the power may not want others to make that decision, so the meeting does not resolve the matter. Perhaps the real purpose of the discussion was for the manager to listen to opposing views for the benefit of the ultimate decision maker.
Companies could avoid dashing the hopes of those who want to "close the loop" by telling them that the purpose of including them in the meeting is to develop a list of pros and cons for a decision that a more powerful person will make.
2. "Low-hanging fruit"
This phrase refers to a solution or opportunity that is good and relatively easy to capture. I think people should just say that rather than use this agricultural metaphor.
3. "It's on my radar"
People with power will use the phrase "it's on my radar" to indicate that they will not take immediate action on an underling's request. The manager's goal is to create the illusion that she has listened to the subordinate and to reinforce her relative power.
It would be better to be more straightforward and say, "I understand this is important to you, and I will consider your request and give you an answer within a week."
4. "Don't have the bandwidth"
When people say they do not have the bandwidth, it is often in response to a request to do something that they do not consider important.
This phrase is far less insulting than the straightforward approach, which would be to say that the person asking is not powerful enough to alter the speaker's priorities.
5. "Take this offline"
This phrase signals that the person with the power wants to discuss a topic in private, outside of the earshot of others in the meeting. Whoever utters this phrase has the upper hand and should instead say, "Let's discuss this privately."
6. "Get the ball rolling"
Sports analogies abound in business because many business leaders are athletes or sports fans. Those who are not might prefer the phrase, "Let's start solving this problem."
7. "Touch base"
People might replace this sports phrase with something like "Let's talk about this [next Tuesday]."
8. "Just circling back"
A supplicant often uses this phrase to start an email after the recipient has ignored an earlier message about the topic.
The recipient of such an email would create less stress for the sender by responding immediately to the first email with a phrase like, "I received your email and will respond, say, next Thursday."
9. "Reach out"
This expression has always annoyed me. Why not say what you mean -- "call," "text," or "e-mail" -- instead?
I do not expect that this article will change anyone's behavior, but I think many people would be happier if it did.
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