On Business Buzzwords

I did a deep dive and leaned in on business buzzwords and phrases. I decided to drill down on why we can’t just, you know, talk to each other like humans.

Putting this post on your radar may help you to move the needle, going forward, or realize, at the end of the day, that all these business buzzwords can be annoying. I understand professions have and use jargon. Some are necessary. But, I think we may be going down a rabbit hole of word salad nonsense if we begin communicating in jargon speak to each other’s human faces. Let’s stop. Full stop. Hard stop.

A Wall Street Journal article from February 2021, found these buzzwords to be some of the most annoying: agile, digital transformation, innovation, actionable insights, and AI. Many business buzzwords, according to the article, are overhyped and overused.

A 2019, article, “The Ultimate List of 119 Most Hated Business Buzzwords,” on TrustRadius included others such as; reach out, touch base, disrupter, customer journey, take it offline, synergy, pain point, put a pin in it, advertainment, boil the ocean, hard stop, full stop and feedback loop. There were others on this list that sounded a wee bit misogynistic. Thankfully, those buzzy words and phrases have been deemed as no longer viable, by whoever does the deeming. 

Another article refers to “circle back” as the most used and “most annoying work phrase ever.” In fact, Los Angeles Magazine claimed it as being “soul-sucking.” Referring to when a supervisor or someone tells you she or he will circle back, one CEO said: “It usually means we just had a meeting where nothing was accomplished, and we need to ‘circle back’ to have another pointless meeting.” 

Bandwidth Faux Pas

During an online interview a couple of years ago, I was presented with the old standbys: “Tell me about yourself,” and “Tell me about your proudest moment,” and “Tell me about a time you resolved a conflict with a co-worker.”

I answered beautifully, brilliantly. I thought to myself, I’m nailing this!

Then came, “What’s your bandwidth?”

With all the celebrating in my head about how I was nailing the interview, I blurted out something like my home office having the capability to do the job. After all, I’ve worked remotely for years and I could transmit a large amount of data over my internet connection at any given time. Right after that came out of my mouth, I knew he was asking about how much time I had in order to do the tasks he was asking me do. I completely forgot about the bandwidth thing in terms of my time. Slipped my mind. My mind did a quick reboot, and I tried to recoup the lost data. 

Alas, it was unrecoverable, and I could see from the look on his face on the screen that allowed me to view him because of my actual bandwidth, he viewed me as an out-of-date Mac. Or, maybe I just wasn’t suited for the job, and I wasn’t looped in.

It’s me, not you. 

If you want to know how much time someone has to get a job done– to give it her or his all, to exceed deadlines and to use expertise and experience, just ask. Like this: How much time can you devote to this job? Or this project or whatever the case is. Does using that sentence take so much more time that you have to whittle it down to three words: What’s your bandwidth?

An executive interviewed for the Wall Street Journal article I referenced earlier said this about people who may have an “unhealthy dependence,” (his words, not mine) on jargon:

“I’ve started trying to challenge myself that if I’m using a tech buzzword that I would have to explain to my 80+ year-old mother (which is all of them), then I need to use more approachable, descriptive and inclusive language.”

Agreed. If this is the new normal, (another over-used, despised phrase), I’m not sure I can give it 110 percent. I won’t circle back despite the fact I have the bandwidth to do so, and can hit the ground running in any fast-paced environment. I’m a Ninja-like thought leader who brings a lot to the table, and thinking outside the box is my middle name. Obviously, though, I need to take a refresher course on business buzzwords, and keep efforting, as I’ve been adulting for some time now.

 “Four basic premises of writing: clarity, brevity, simplicity, and humanity.” – William Zinsser.

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Do you have words or phrases that drive you crazy? Do tell, or perhaps use Pig Latin with emojis after checking with ChatGPT in order to express yourself in “human-like” text. Sheesh.