Every office has them, every office worker uses them (occasionally), every office worker hates them (probably)... yes, they are the infamous office-isms, otherwise known as office jargon, that many of us will be subject to on a daily basis. Going forward in this blog, we will touch base with you and drill down into our top 10 most annoying office-isms:
1. “Let’s take this offline”
Here is a classic example of technology ‘gone mad’, when what we mean by taking something offline is can we chat in person.
2. “It’s on my radar”
This makes someone sound instantly cool and robotic, owing to their ability to mark things onto an internal 'radar' they possess. Maybe they have something on their tablet PC which contains a little radar with things to do on it, or possibly they are partly robotic having bought the new Google Glass.
3. “Aim for the low-hanging fruit”
This office-ism implies of a goal or target that is easy to achieve as the ‘fruit’ requires little effort to reach due to its low proximity to the ground. However, it can seem a bit lazy and ambiguous just to take the easy option... not necessarily befitting of a model employee!
4. “Get the ball rolling”
As you could probably guess, this comes from the sporting world, specifically those which require a ball to be rolled to get a game underway. However it is now present in many boardrooms and refers to simply the beginning of something.
5. “Drill down”
Meaning to look at something in detail, this one can be used both as a verb or a noun, so enabling one to either ‘drill down’ into something or to have already completed a ‘drill-down’. Handy!
6. “Going forward”
Probably one of the most common office-isms, we reckon that pretty much every office worker will have used this phrase at some point to look to the future. We all like going forward after all, it’s much better than retreating backwards!
7. “Touch base”
Here’s another extremely common office-ism borrowed from sports, specifically from baseball this time. It can be used in many scenarios to describe the need to converse with someone about something in some form or other.
8. “It’s a no-brainer”
Even those without a brain will know what this one means...
9. “Win-win”
Everyone loves to win so naturally everyone wants to be in a scenario where there is no other outcome but a winning one. Why can’t every aspect of our lives be win-win?
10. “Pre-plan”
Here’s a favourite of ours, as we struggle to decipher exactly how one can ‘pre-plan’ something. Surely to pre-plan is to plan?
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