You might think using the latest catchy business expressions makes sound smart and modern. You’d be wrong. A new survey of thousands of office workers reveals the buzzwords and expressions they hear all the time at work that really irritate them.
Employment site Glassdoor, surveyed 2,000 employees about their most hated examples of office jargon and 12 expressions in particular seem to get under participants’ skin. Glassdoor’s David Whitby said, “No one wants to be the office jargon junkie, but who isn’t guilty of using some of these buzzwords from time to time?”
If you’re one of them, please stop it. Stop it now.
The 12 most annoying business expressions
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1. Touch base (Annoys 24 per cent of people)
2. Blue sky thinking (21 per cent)
3. We’re on a journey (13 per cent)
4. Game changer (13 per cent)
5. No-brainer (13 per cent)
6. Thought shower (11 per cent)
7. Run it up the flagpole (11 per cent)
8. If you don’t like it, get off the bus (10 per cent)
9. Mission statement (10 per cent)
10. Pick it up and run with it (10 per cent)
11. Punch a puppy (Nine per cent)
12. Let’s get our ducks in a row (Nine per cent)
I guess people got bored of saying ‘brainstorming’ when they came up with ‘thought shower.’ It is pretty annoying.
I didn’t actually know the expression to “punch a puppy,” so I had to look it up. Apparently, it means to do something horrible right now, for the long time benefit of the organization. Either way, don’t use it. People will super hate you.
Although, I still get a smile every time I think back to when an early manager of mine said that we needed a meeting to “make sure all of our ducks were on the same page”. A classic.
