Buzz Words, Catch Phrases, and Manager Speak? 162
rivendahl asks: "I have not seen, or perhaps not looked hard enough, to find an article that taps the core of the American business; buzz words. Personally, I hate buzz words, 'clik' words, cliches, catch phrases, and management speak (lingo). One of my favorite pet-peeves is the term, 'going forward'. This whole new concept of 'going forward' grates [on my] nerves. I currently work at a large international company. I have moved departments in the last six months. In my previous department we were made to read books and attend classes on 'positive, forward thinking' and 'action items', as well as classes on 'accepting total accountability'. It made me sick. Please, I ask the Slashdot community to share your displeasure or buzz words along with a few of your most hated management catch phrases."
Re:Leverage (Score:3, Insightful)
I would prefer "leverage" to the more common obfuscation of "use" heard around here: "utilize." Nobody uses anything any more, we utilize things.
Other verbs that I've had about enough of: to empower, to facilitate, to take ownership of.
Industry speak (Score:2, Insightful)
IT industry speak/marketing speak:
"synergy"
"market forces"
"leverage" instead of "use"
"solution" instead of "product" or "suite of products"
"community" for any group, regardless of whether
they have any real commonality besides using a single
vendor's product(s)
"strategy"
Here's one list [kith.org]
and another [jeffgainer.com]
Oh, and try the Web Economy Bullshit Generator [dack.com]
"Proactive", "action items", "accountability" (Score:3, Insightful)
I guarantee that all of you, at some point in your careers, will have the opportunity to work with people who whine, complain about how things are all fucked up, and bemoan how nobody listens to them and everyone is stupid.
Generally these same people have no action items, are the least proactive, have no sense of accountability, and in general, do not execute (yet another term).
Anyone can throw ideas and opinions around. It doesn't take a whole lot of effort to recognize that something is horribly wrong and to point it out. It's quite another to take ownership (yet another one) and do something about it.
If for no other reason, these terms get thrown around alot to remind people that they are ultimately there to contribute, further the company's goals (or actively try to change them) and not just to complain.
No, I'm not a manager but have been around long enough to know talk is cheap.
Re:People are making up words now. (Score:3, Insightful)
It's strange that IT people resent management's jargon so much, when IT workers spend the day talking about "gentoo" and "linux" and "emacs" and "fdisk" and many, many other words which don't even exist in English. What is it, resentment that there is another group of people with a private language they use amongst themselves? Every group has their own dialect, just listen to doctors or lawyers or auto mechanics talking amongst themselves.
"Going forward" means "in the future", but it implies making events unfold rather than just waiting for things to happen. It's a subtle but important difference. "Leverage" is more than just "use", it implies that the thing you are using gives you a disproportionate advantage, like a lever and a pivot. "Synergy" implies emergent properties of a complex system, not just "things working together".
Frankly, when everyone uses a word, then that becomes a real word. And if you refuse to pick up new words and concepts, you risk irrelevance.
Re:People are making up words now. (Score:5, Insightful)
It's OK with me if my surgeon says that he'll "put his foots in gear and locomote" down to the bar for a drink after work, but if he sits in his office and tells me that he's going to "surgify that malignancicity" I'm looking for new doc.
There are no bad words, (Score:5, Insightful)
The problem is not having words or phrases that imply subtle differences in meaning. That is a good thing that enriches the language. The problem is when people use phrases that should imply a meaning other than they intend, in order to sound jazzy. Since they don't actually mean to imply a difference between "leverage" and "use", or "impact" and "affect", gradually these phrases become completely synonymous. The language is robbed of one more means for expressing subtle shades of meaning.
Technical words, such as "Gentoo", or "fdisk" are useful, compact words wtih precise meaning, like "vector" or "matrix" in mathematics. Every field has its jargon, which serves well within the field but are inscrutable from the outside. Management has its own useful jargon: "ROI","balance sheet", "MOU" etc.
Managementspeak, however, is a completely different animal. It isn't shorthand, but more of an elaborately ornamented longhand. It tries to sound like it is saying more than it is. It dresses up the simple to sound profound, the empty to sound substantive. It is inherently deceptive; it is the language of exploitation and chicanery.
People who make words into talismans are in danger of being enfogged in their own linguistic obfuscation. The fetish word "synergy" has lead meany boards into unwise corporate mergers, because it sounded like more than a vague and unfounded wish. People who once held stock in Time Warner probably wish there was no such word in the dictionary now.
OFF-LINE (Score:1, Insightful)
What makes them think they are currently on-line?