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    Worst corporate buzzword competition?

    Too late someone already did it

    ​​https://www.theatlantic.com/business...zzword/610183/

    Wonder if these kind of things are going to be a memorable feature of the great covid19 crisis of 2020

    Anyway the winner is a phrase - "lean in" - that I've never heard

    #2
    “Circle back” is probably my personal pet hate off there. And “deep dive”. But no nomination for “low hanging fruit” which was disappointing.

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      #3
      getting "looped in" is the worst

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        #4
        “Reached out to” is the worst kind of passive aggressive bullshit.

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          #5
          Originally posted by Sits View Post
          And “deep dive”.
          "Deep dive" is a bad one and it has escaped into the wider environment too. There are lots of deep dives on the arts pages now, AKA listicles that feature album tracks or films that are more than ten years old.

          "Deep dive" at least took out "robust" in the first round. The latter must be the Hungary of corporate bullshit, a faint shadow of the dominant force that it once was.

          Having once worked for a manager who was hopelessly addicted to "quick and dirty", from a personal perspective I'm sorry to see it fail to qualify.

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            #6
            "reach out" is ridiculous, but I find it comical, still, rather than outright skin-crawling. Also, every time I hear it, I get a slight mental chuckle at a memory of a decision flowchart I saw somewhere once with the heading "Is it acceptable for me to use the expression 'reach out' at work?", to which there was one answer determining question box "Are you a member of the Four Tops?"

            I don't agree with all the results of that Atlantic knock-out buzzword tournament, but "lean in" is a worthy winner in my view. Utterly loathsome.

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              #7
              I'm surprised that ad hoc has never heard "lean in", as virtually all of Sheryl Sandberg's notoriety is based on it.



              That said, "tech titans" thankfully have a much smaller role in his world than they do in US discourse even outside of Silicon Valley.

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                #8
                I find "pivot" really annoying, and also the new usage of "space" as in "in the publishing space" or "in the manufacturing space", etc.

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                  #9
                  Sheryl Sandberg has barely registered on my radar. Having just read her wikipedia page and that of LeanIn.org, I confess to having no more idea of what "Lean in " is supposed to mean.

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                    #10
                    A colleague of mine uses (in fact, misuses) the word "holistic" all the time.

                    It's still not as bad as "synergy".

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                      #11
                      Contribute to the discussion
                      Be more assertive
                      Get involved

                      Something like one of these I think. Doesn't really strike me as a terrible buzzword, mostly because it's at least literally descriptive and not some made up word or crap metaphor. Still, there we go.

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                        #12
                        All of those things

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                          #13
                          Lean In is a useful rallying cry for women in corporate environments. I would prefer if the rallying cry was more to do with changing the approach and language of what corporate life could be if inclusivity was valued rather than a box to tick but it is a helpful book for ambitious women (and men).

                          It isn't going to rebel against the status quo though. It's very much written in terms of how to survive and prosper as a woman in a patriarchal society.

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                            #14
                            (Though I can imagine people beginning their contributions with "I'm just going to lean in here..." would quickly get extremely annoying)

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                              #15
                              I thought leaning in connoted resistance, at a minimum to the voice in one's head saying don't lean in. Or is it just Try Harder. I'm not going to investigate it.

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                                #16
                                I must admit I've never heard it used in that context. Is that a common phrase in meetings?

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                                  #17
                                  I understand it to be a reminder to push yourself forward, don't pass up opportunities, take a seat at the table, awareness of imposter syndrome, assertiveness. It's not about being the resistance in the room but could be construed as resisting your urge to keep a low profile or not speak out or stand back and let someone else go ahead.

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                                    #18
                                    Okay, don't be a wallflower or doormat, but don't look at it as manning up.

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                                      #19
                                      Originally posted by Jimski View Post
                                      I find "pivot" really annoying, and also the new usage of "space" as in "in the publishing space" or "in the manufacturing space", etc.
                                      Lots of “spaces” in academic jargon. At least it’s less wanky than “discourses.”

                                      ”Low hanging fruit” is a cliche but it does describe a real phenomenon in the abstract and I don’t know of a better metaphor.

                                      I’ve also heard “lean in” to describe how to cope with difficulty. “Embrace the suck” is how soldiers describe it.

                                      The Sheryl Sandberg thing is just an illustration of a kind of disappointing, mostly white feminism. It’s not trying to radically change anything about the structure of society or how people generally treat each other. It’s just trying to make sure that more of the self-interested assholes at the top are women. That would be an improvement, to be sure, so I don’t want to be completely dismissive of it, but it won’t save our species from more misery in the medium term or eventual oblivion in the long term. It also won’t do much to help the majority of women on the planet who don’t have a secondary education.
                                      Last edited by Hot Pepsi; 17-05-2020, 16:00.

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                                        #20
                                        See, now, for me, "listicles" is at least as bad as some of these.

                                        But yeah my real big objection is to the vacuous posing as insightful or radical. All that "pushing the envelope" crap. You aren't test pilots. You're corporate marketing clones.

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                                          #21
                                          Granular (-ity) is one that didn't seem to make it into the competition, and one that gets my goat at that. Often accompanied by deep dive.

                                          I think my most hated may be 'reach out', though it's a crowded field, in large part because it doesn't convey anything more than regular simple English words do (I would say except for the key information that the user is a twat, but I know some non-twats who use it, maybe they've been infected by too much contact with twats).

                                          Looking at the ones in the competition, is 'holistic approach' meant to actually convey any information? Because it sure seems like just words being used as deflectors. Thankfully not one I've ever had to deal with.

                                          After reading on it a bit, I'm still unclear on what 'lean in' is actually supposed to mean. Are the pieces in bold in the wikipedia synopsis the chapter titles (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lean_In)? if so the book sounds awful.

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                                            #22
                                            i don;t want to be accused of "retrofitting" but I submit the following for consideration.

                                            "Rationalisation",

                                            "Going Forward"

                                            "Customer-centric business"

                                            "Blue Sky Thinking"

                                            I've found "The Corporate B.S. Generator"





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                                              #23
                                              "Right sizing" is worse than "rationalisation"

                                              They both are designed to obfuscate the reality of firing hundreds or thousands of employees

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                                                #24
                                                "Right-size" as a euphemism for a euphemism is pretty filthy, yeah.

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                                                  #25
                                                  I agree, I'd never heard of right-sizing until now.

                                                  I remember hearing someone in the Question Time audience speak of "the much needed rationalisation of companies like BT" because "Overmanning" was bad for "UK PLC".. My Dad was part of the overmanning problem until voluntary redundancy became attractive.

                                                  On a related point he used to become increasingly bemused at the use of corporate language in the monthly BT company magazine "What's wrong with plain English?" he'd plaintively enquire.

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