Words/phrases I wish would go away

[GreenSheep]

Sure, it fits here! It's a phrase, and I agree, I wish it would go away! I like fall, and I say "y'all," but it's completely stupid to put them together like that.

I think she's talking about the apostrophe.

Yup.

Wow. I can't believe I missed that. I think I was so appalled by the dumb rhyme that I overlooked the misplaced apostrophe that usually drives me nuts.

[DadJokes]

As a frequent user of y'all (it just rolls so well off the tongue), I do have one problem with the word: when it's used in the possessive form.

Is it y'all's? That looks abysmal.

[Dicey]

As a frequent user of y'all (it just rolls so well off the tongue), I do have one problem with the word: when it's used in the possessive form.

Is it y'all's? That looks abysmal.

Dunno, but I think it's hilarious that the plural of y'all is now apparently, "all y'all".

[Dancin'Dog]

As a frequent user of y'all (it just rolls so well off the tongue), I do have one problem with the word: when it's used in the possessive form.

Is it y'all's? That looks abysmal.

Dunno, but I think it's hilarious that the plural of y'all is now apparently, "all y'all".

You'uns is a plural form that's really funny.   I hear it from very rural mountain (Appalachian) people. 

[Bateaux]

I posted this recently, the phrase, "please advise."   Drives me crazy.

[zolotiyeruki]

I posted this recently, the phrase, "please advise."   Drives me crazy.

What about that phrase rubs you the wrong way?

[nessness]

I posted this recently, the phrase, "please advise."   Drives me crazy.

Hmm, I use that regularly. Usually in emails to my manager - I describe the problem and end with "please advise."

What about it bugs you?

[DadJokes]

I posted this recently, the phrase, "please advise."   Drives me crazy.

I'm lost as to what we should say instead.

Please advise.

[solon]

I posted this recently, the phrase, "please advise."   Drives me crazy.

I'm lost as to what we should say instead.

Please advise.

"If it's all the same to you, kindly let me know what you would like me to do/think/say regarding this issue."

[nessness]

I posted this recently, the phrase, "please advise."   Drives me crazy.

Hmm, I use that regularly. Usually in emails to my manager - I describe the problem and end with "please advise."

What about it bugs you?

Thinking about it some more, I do have a coworker who follows questions with "please advise", e.g., "Who should I contact about this problem? Please advise." That annoys me a little bit because it feels redundant.

[Metalcat]

I posted this recently, the phrase, "please advise."   Drives me crazy.

Hmm, I use that regularly. Usually in emails to my manager - I describe the problem and end with "please advise."

What about it bugs you?

Thinking about it some more, I do have a coworker who follows questions with "please advise", e.g., "Who should I contact about this problem? Please advise." That annoys me a little bit because it feels redundant.

Yeah, I would find that redundancy annoying, but not the phrase if it's itself because it's nice and succinct.

[dougules]

I posted this recently, the phrase, "please advise."   Drives me crazy.

Hmm, I use that regularly. Usually in emails to my manager - I describe the problem and end with "please advise."

What about it bugs you?

Thinking about it some more, I do have a coworker who follows questions with "please advise", e.g., "Who should I contact about this problem? Please advise." That annoys me a little bit because it feels redundant.

Yeah, I would find that redundancy annoying, but not the phrase if it's itself because it's nice and succinct.

On some level it sounds annoying to me too being kind of buzzword-y, but it is a really good idea to put what you want the reader to know or do as succinctly as possible right at the beginning or the end of an email, and not imbed it in a long string of text like I'm doing now.   I actually had a boss who wanted us to put the take-away in the subject line if possible. 

[DadJokes]

I posted this recently, the phrase, "please advise."   Drives me crazy.

Hmm, I use that regularly. Usually in emails to my manager - I describe the problem and end with "please advise."

What about it bugs you?

Thinking about it some more, I do have a coworker who follows questions with "please advise", e.g., "Who should I contact about this problem? Please advise." That annoys me a little bit because it feels redundant.

Yeah, I would find that redundancy annoying, but not the phrase if it's itself because it's nice and succinct.

On some level it sounds annoying to me too being kind of buzzword-y, but it is a really good idea to put what you want the reader to know or do as succinctly as possible right at the beginning or the end of an email, and not imbed it in a long string of text like I'm doing now.   I actually had a boss who wanted us to put the take-away in the subject line if possible.

I had to take a business communications class as part of my major in college. The professor said that you should always start your email with the request, then follow it up with any details.

[Dicey]

"Please advise" is a lot nicer than, "Give me the answer now, damn it!" It's better than "LMK". It politely and clearly lets the reader know that a reply is expected. Works for me.

[Metalcat]

"Please advise" is a lot nicer than, "Give me the answer now, damn it!" It's better than "LMK". It politely and clearly lets the reader know that a reply is expected. Works for me.

But it would be ultra annoying seeing it redundantly tacked on to the end of every question.

[Master of None]

The only time it drives me nuts is from the individuals who massively overuse the statement or consistently ask questions that have previously been answered multiple times. There is one peer I have that will verbally ask me questions and I provide answers and then they will go to email and re ask the question with "please advise" at the end so they have a written record of what we discussed. I've started replying that we just had that conversation and asked them to document our discussion and send it out and I will correct any mistakes. I do this for 2 reasons. One, to make sure they were listening and understand what was discussed and two, I was tired of doing all the work of documenting our conversations that they started but were too lazy to document.

[Dicey]

"Please advise" is a lot nicer than, "Give me the answer now, damn it!" It's better than "LMK". It politely and clearly lets the reader know that a reply is expected. Works for me.

But it would be ultra annoying seeing it redundantly tacked on to the end of every question.

I completely agree. I assumed that it was only used once, at the end of a communication.

[BlueHouse]

I had to take a business communications class as part of my major in college. The professor said that you should always start your email with the request, then follow it up with any details.

I remember a lesson on this at some point in my career and the thing that stuck in my head was to avoid idioms, especially sports idioms.  They gave some examples to avoid to be more inclusive for women (this was a long time ago) because some women and especially foreigners wouldn't know what "he hit a home run" or "we need a hail mary pass" meant.  As part of the exercise, we had to substitute different idioms such as "the sales team really pulled off a triple axel with that deal".  This example is in embedded in my memory forever because it's just so different from anything actually used in business. 

[merula]

I remember a lesson on this at some point in my career and the thing that stuck in my head was to avoid idioms, especially sports idioms.  They gave some examples to avoid to be more inclusive for women (this was a long time ago) because some women and especially foreigners wouldn't know what "he hit a home run" or "we need a hail mary pass" meant.  As part of the exercise, we had to substitute different idioms such as "the sales team really pulled off a triple axel with that deal".  This example is in embedded in my memory forever because it's just so different from anything actually used in business.

I'm completely behind that advice on sports metaphors, and after a few times where I was trying to make that point but the obscure metaphors continued (GTFO with "overclubbed").

I then described a business problem as "It's like a run in your hose. We need to just slap some clear polish on it to get through until lunch, and then deal with it."

The women nodded and I moved on without further explaining myself, and I think sitting with that confusion helped some of the men present to recognize why group-specific metaphors are problematic. (Not all, but what can you do.)

[Metalcat]

I remember a lesson on this at some point in my career and the thing that stuck in my head was to avoid idioms, especially sports idioms.  They gave some examples to avoid to be more inclusive for women (this was a long time ago) because some women and especially foreigners wouldn't know what "he hit a home run" or "we need a hail mary pass" meant.  As part of the exercise, we had to substitute different idioms such as "the sales team really pulled off a triple axel with that deal".  This example is in embedded in my memory forever because it's just so different from anything actually used in business.

I'm completely behind that advice on sports metaphors, and after a few times where I was trying to make that point but the obscure metaphors continued (GTFO with "overclubbed").

I then described a business problem as "It's like a run in your hose. We need to just slap some clear polish on it to get through until lunch, and then deal with it."

The women nodded and I moved on without further explaining myself, and I think sitting with that confusion helped some of the men present to recognize why group-specific metaphors are problematic. (Not all, but what can you do.)

Love this. Love it so much.

ETA: I'm going to start going out of my way to use female gendered analogies from now on, and see what happens.

[RetiredAt63]

I remember a lesson on this at some point in my career and the thing that stuck in my head was to avoid idioms, especially sports idioms.  They gave some examples to avoid to be more inclusive for women (this was a long time ago) because some women and especially foreigners wouldn't know what "he hit a home run" or "we need a hail mary pass" meant.  As part of the exercise, we had to substitute different idioms such as "the sales team really pulled off a triple axel with that deal".  This example is in embedded in my memory forever because it's just so different from anything actually used in business.

I'm completely behind that advice on sports metaphors, and after a few times where I was trying to make that point but the obscure metaphors continued (GTFO with "overclubbed").

I then described a business problem as "It's like a run in your hose. We need to just slap some clear polish on it to get through until lunch, and then deal with it."

The women nodded and I moved on without further explaining myself, and I think sitting with that confusion helped some of the men present to recognize why group-specific metaphors are problematic. (Not all, but what can you do.)

Love this. Love it so much.

Oh yes. Brilliant.

[GuitarStv]

I remember a lesson on this at some point in my career and the thing that stuck in my head was to avoid idioms, especially sports idioms.  They gave some examples to avoid to be more inclusive for women (this was a long time ago) because some women and especially foreigners wouldn't know what "he hit a home run" or "we need a hail mary pass" meant.  As part of the exercise, we had to substitute different idioms such as "the sales team really pulled off a triple axel with that deal".  This example is in embedded in my memory forever because it's just so different from anything actually used in business.

I'm completely behind that advice on sports metaphors, and after a few times where I was trying to make that point but the obscure metaphors continued (GTFO with "overclubbed").

I then described a business problem as "It's like a run in your hose. We need to just slap some clear polish on it to get through until lunch, and then deal with it."

The women nodded and I moved on without further explaining myself, and I think sitting with that confusion helped some of the men present to recognize why group-specific metaphors are problematic. (Not all, but what can you do.)

Love this. Love it so much.

Oh yes. Brilliant.

TIL - Clear nail polish fixes a run in hosiery!

[sui generis]

I remember a lesson on this at some point in my career and the thing that stuck in my head was to avoid idioms, especially sports idioms.  They gave some examples to avoid to be more inclusive for women (this was a long time ago) because some women and especially foreigners wouldn't know what "he hit a home run" or "we need a hail mary pass" meant.  As part of the exercise, we had to substitute different idioms such as "the sales team really pulled off a triple axel with that deal".  This example is in embedded in my memory forever because it's just so different from anything actually used in business.

I'm completely behind that advice on sports metaphors, and after a few times where I was trying to make that point but the obscure metaphors continued (GTFO with "overclubbed").

I then described a business problem as "It's like a run in your hose. We need to just slap some clear polish on it to get through until lunch, and then deal with it."

The women nodded and I moved on without further explaining myself, and I think sitting with that confusion helped some of the men present to recognize why group-specific metaphors are problematic. (Not all, but what can you do.)

Love this. Love it so much.

Oh yes. Brilliant.

TIL - Clear nail polish fixes a run in hosiery!

I so very much love the thought of this as well!

Although....as a middle aged woman I was not familiar with this tactic either!  I've only worn pantyhose about a half dozen times in my life if that, I think.  Unless I'm unusual, I'd guess that anyone, women or men, in their 20s or 30s might not get it.

[Metalcat]

TIL - Clear nail polish fixes a run in hosiery!

Technically, it doesn't fix it, it just helps stop it from getting horribly worse with every movement. That's why it's a great business metaphor. There are so many instances in business where you need to stop the progression of the problem as much as possible immediately, but can't actually get to a solution any time soon.

[zolotiyeruki]

As a guy, I love the idea of using that pantyhose analogy. (Somehow, I heard about that trick as a kid.  No idea where/how/from whom, but ...)

[simonsez]

As a guy, I love the idea of using that pantyhose analogy. (Somehow, I heard about that trick as a kid.  No idea where/how/from whom, but ...)

Agreed, I enjoy learning more about idioms of all backgrounds, usually good for an interesting wiki tangent and learn a little bit more about history, etymology, culture, etc..  Just there is a time and a place and a professional work environment is usually not the ideal setting as it can alienate and discourage collaboration.

[iluvzbeach]

This conversation reminds me of a time when DH and I were at brunch and the (very young) server asked if I wanted another mimosa. I replied with “you could twist my arm” and he just stared at me with a bewildered look in his eye. My husband told him I did want another mimosa and then after the server left he pointed out that the server clearly didn’t under the phrase I’d used.

[Morning Glory]

We were at a picnic when visiting friends out of state and my son asked some boys if they wanted to play cornhole and they looked completely bewildered. I guess they don't call it that everywhere...(it's the game where you throw beanbags at a board with a hole in it, in case it's called something different where you are). Much amusement followed, on the part of the adults.

[dandarc]

We were at a picnic when visiting friends out of state and my son asked some boys if they wanted to play cornhole and they looked completely bewildered. I guess they don't call it that everywhere...(it's the game where you throw beanbags at a board with a hole in it, in case it's called something different where you are). Much amusement followed, on the part of the adults.

I mean, it is the American Cornhole League that fills up half of the lesser ESPN networks' content these days, right?

[Metalcat]

We were at a picnic when visiting friends out of state and my son asked some boys if they wanted to play cornhole and they looked completely bewildered. I guess they don't call it that everywhere...(it's the game where you throw beanbags at a board with a hole in it, in case it's called something different where you are). Much amusement followed, on the part of the adults.

I literally never heard of this until my 30s and have never actually seen it in the wild, only on TV.

[nereo]

I remember a lesson on this at some point in my career and the thing that stuck in my head was to avoid idioms, especially sports idioms.  They gave some examples to avoid to be more inclusive for women (this was a long time ago) because some women and especially foreigners wouldn't know what "he hit a home run" or "we need a hail mary pass" meant.  As part of the exercise, we had to substitute different idioms such as "the sales team really pulled off a triple axel with that deal".  This example is in embedded in my memory forever because it's just so different from anything actually used in business.

I'm completely behind that advice on sports metaphors, and after a few times where I was trying to make that point but the obscure metaphors continued (GTFO with "overclubbed").

I then described a business problem as "It's like a run in your hose. We need to just slap some clear polish on it to get through until lunch, and then deal with it."

The women nodded and I moved on without further explaining myself, and I think sitting with that confusion helped some of the men present to recognize why group-specific metaphors are problematic. (Not all, but what can you do.)

Love this. Love it so much.

Oh yes. Brilliant.

TIL - Clear nail polish fixes a run in hosiery!

I so very much love the thought of this as well!

Although....as a middle aged woman I was not familiar with this tactic either!  I've only worn pantyhose about a half dozen times in my life if that, I think.  Unless I'm unusual, I'd guess that anyone, women or men, in their 20s or 30s might not get it.

Hmm…. I think I’ve worn pantyhose about as often as you have in my life.

Personally I like to mix my sports metaphors or select some from way outside the ‘big 5’ sports.  Who doesn’t appreciate a good curling metaphor to get the sales team motivated?

[RWD]

We were at a picnic when visiting friends out of state and my son asked some boys if they wanted to play cornhole and they looked completely bewildered. I guess they don't call it that everywhere...(it's the game where you throw beanbags at a board with a hole in it, in case it's called something different where you are). Much amusement followed, on the part of the adults.

I literally never heard of this until my 30s and have never actually seen it in the wild, only on TV.

I also hadn't heard of it until my 30s when I moved to the South. It's fairly popular down here.

[sui generis]

We were at a picnic when visiting friends out of state and my son asked some boys if they wanted to play cornhole and they looked completely bewildered. I guess they don't call it that everywhere...(it's the game where you throw beanbags at a board with a hole in it, in case it's called something different where you are). Much amusement followed, on the part of the adults.

I literally never heard of this until my 30s and have never actually seen it in the wild, only on TV.

I also hadn't heard of it until my 30s when I moved to the South. It's fairly popular down here.

I always thought it was a sexual act before I traveled to the south and Midwest and found out it was a popular family friendly game. Weren't Beavis and Butt-Head always making jokes about cornholes or cornholing someone? I managed to keep a straight face when someone told me there'd be Cornhole at a place we were going, but inside I was shocked and worried!

[Dollar Slice]

I always thought it was a sexual act before I traveled to the south and Midwest and found out it was a popular family friendly game. Weren't Beavis and Butt-Head always making jokes about cornholes or cornholing someone? I managed to keep a straight face when someone told me there'd be Cornhole at a place we were going, but inside I was shocked and worried!

That's how I grew up understanding that word (in the northeast). If someone asked underage boys to play cornhole I would have expected their parents to call the police.

[Metalcat]

We were at a picnic when visiting friends out of state and my son asked some boys if they wanted to play cornhole and they looked completely bewildered. I guess they don't call it that everywhere...(it's the game where you throw beanbags at a board with a hole in it, in case it's called something different where you are). Much amusement followed, on the part of the adults.

I literally never heard of this until my 30s and have never actually seen it in the wild, only on TV.

I also hadn't heard of it until my 30s when I moved to the South. It's fairly popular down here.

I always thought it was a sexual act before I traveled to the south and Midwest and found out it was a popular family friendly game. Weren't Beavis and Butt-Head always making jokes about cornholes or cornholing someone? I managed to keep a straight face when someone told me there'd be Cornhole at a place we were going, but inside I was shocked and worried!

Yes, to clarify my earlier post. I had never heard of cornhole the wholesome picnic game until my 30s, before then, I only understood it to be a sexual reference, thanks to Beavis and Butthead.

[Morning Glory]

We were at a picnic when visiting friends out of state and my son asked some boys if they wanted to play cornhole and they looked completely bewildered. I guess they don't call it that everywhere...(it's the game where you throw beanbags at a board with a hole in it, in case it's called something different where you are). Much amusement followed, on the part of the adults.

I literally never heard of this until my 30s and have never actually seen it in the wild, only on TV.

I also hadn't heard of it until my 30s when I moved to the South. It's fairly popular down here.

I always thought it was a sexual act before I traveled to the south and Midwest and found out it was a popular family friendly game. Weren't Beavis and Butt-Head always making jokes about cornholes or cornholing someone? I managed to keep a straight face when someone told me there'd be Cornhole at a place we were going, but inside I was shocked and worried!

Yes, to clarify my earlier post. I had never heard of cornhole the wholesome picnic game until my 30s, before then, I only understood it to be a sexual reference, thanks to Beavis and Butthead.

You know,  I think the game might have been named after the Beavis and butthead reference??? I certainly was well into adulthood when I first heard the game called that,  now that you mention it.

[Morning Glory]

I always thought it was a sexual act before I traveled to the south and Midwest and found out it was a popular family friendly game. Weren't Beavis and Butt-Head always making jokes about cornholes or cornholing someone? I managed to keep a straight face when someone told me there'd be Cornhole at a place we were going, but inside I was shocked and worried!

That's how I grew up understanding that word (in the northeast). If someone asked underage boys to play cornhole I would have expected their parents to call the police.

My kid is six years old and autistic,  so it was pretty hilarious. I guess in Chicago they call it "bags" which isn't much better.

Both references are quite realistic.  I used to do sedation for conoscopies and you could see corn in there, even if the patient claimed they hadn't eaten it for weeks and everything else was cleaned out.

[sui generis]

I always thought it was a sexual act before I traveled to the south and Midwest and found out it was a popular family friendly game. Weren't Beavis and Butt-Head always making jokes about cornholes or cornholing someone? I managed to keep a straight face when someone told me there'd be Cornhole at a place we were going, but inside I was shocked and worried!

That's how I grew up understanding that word (in the northeast). If someone asked underage boys to play cornhole I would have expected their parents to call the police.

My kid is six years old and autistic,  so it was pretty hilarious. I guess in Chicago they call it "bags" which isn't much better.

Both references are quite realistic.  I used to do sedation for conoscopies and you could see corn in there, even if the patient claimed they hadn't eaten it for weeks and everything else was cleaned out.

OMG, I now both regret having brought this up at all, but also appreciate knowing I was not the only one all this time.

[Metalcat]

We were at a picnic when visiting friends out of state and my son asked some boys if they wanted to play cornhole and they looked completely bewildered. I guess they don't call it that everywhere...(it's the game where you throw beanbags at a board with a hole in it, in case it's called something different where you are). Much amusement followed, on the part of the adults.

I literally never heard of this until my 30s and have never actually seen it in the wild, only on TV.

I also hadn't heard of it until my 30s when I moved to the South. It's fairly popular down here.

I always thought it was a sexual act before I traveled to the south and Midwest and found out it was a popular family friendly game. Weren't Beavis and Butt-Head always making jokes about cornholes or cornholing someone? I managed to keep a straight face when someone told me there'd be Cornhole at a place we were going, but inside I was shocked and worried!

Yes, to clarify my earlier post. I had never heard of cornhole the wholesome picnic game until my 30s, before then, I only understood it to be a sexual reference, thanks to Beavis and Butthead.

You know,  I think the game might have been named after the Beavis and butthead reference??? I certainly was well into adulthood when I first heard the game called that,  now that you mention it.

A quick etymology search doesn't seem to clarify which came first, the sexual meaning or the game meaning. The game is very old, but seems to have had a bunch of different names. Then somehow "cornhole" took over as the game name.

Why? Who fucking knows? Maybe it was dirty farm humour that tethered the name to the very old game for some strange reason, maybe they're unrelated.

Definitely curious.

[Jouer]

We were at a picnic when visiting friends out of state and my son asked some boys if they wanted to play cornhole and they looked completely bewildered. I guess they don't call it that everywhere...(it's the game where you throw beanbags at a board with a hole in it, in case it's called something different where you are). Much amusement followed, on the part of the adults.

I literally never heard of this until my 30s and have never actually seen it in the wild, only on TV.

Fellow Canadian here. I hadn't heard of the game until about 6-7 years ago when I was in the states attending a music festival and our camping neighbours were playing it. They were college kids from just out side NYC. (I kicked their asses)

I thought it was a new game....guess it's just a new-ish name. Interesting.

[Kris]

We were at a picnic when visiting friends out of state and my son asked some boys if they wanted to play cornhole and they looked completely bewildered. I guess they don't call it that everywhere...(it's the game where you throw beanbags at a board with a hole in it, in case it's called something different where you are). Much amusement followed, on the part of the adults.

I literally never heard of this until my 30s and have never actually seen it in the wild, only on TV.

Fellow Canadian here. I hadn't heard of the game until about 6-7 years ago when I was in the states attending a music festival and our camping neighbours were playing it. They were college kids from just out side NYC. (I kicked their asses)

I thought it was a new game....guess it's just a new-ish name. Interesting.

I had never heard of it until I was in my forties.

I snicker like a twelve-year-old boy every time I hear the name.

[Taran Wanderer]

We called it the beanbag toss growing up. But yeah, now it’s corn hole.

[GreenSheep]

"That's a great question."

The Freakonomics Radio podcast ran a rebroadcast (from 2015) yesterday about what they call a verbal tic they encounter in their own interviews and in media everywhere: "That's a great question." I'm so glad they addressed one of my pet peeves and don't know how I missed it the first time around!

[RWD]

"That's a great question."

The Freakonomics Radio podcast ran a rebroadcast (from 2015) yesterday about what they call a verbal tic they encounter in their own interviews and in media everywhere: "That's a great question." I'm so glad they addressed one of my pet peeves and don't know how I missed it the first time around!

Haha, that is so common. Usually in response to things that are objectively not that great of questions, which dilutes the phrase for when an actually great question is asked.

[GuitarStv]

"That's a great question" is a stalling tactic used to give the speaker some time to think about it while still responding with something immediately.

[sui generis]

Yes, good one, that is annoying me lately and seems to be increasingly prevalent.  I think sometimes it can be a stalling tactic, but I also sense that at times it is definitely being used by a possibly up and coming interviewee buttering up a prominent interviewer and, by extension, the audience (I'm thinking of this in the context of all the podcasts I listen to, where I hear this constantly).  It's really started having the opposite effect for me now.

[GreenSheep]

The podcast mentioned both of the above -- stalling tactic and flattery tactic. And I agree with RWD; it dilutes the meaning of the phrase, so when you truly want to compliment someone on a smart and creative question, you have to use more words to make it clear that you really mean it. I've heard people do this, and it's nice to hear, but it's too bad they have to say a whole paragraph instead of the short form that's been taken over by the stallers and flatterers. Kind of like, "How are you?" and "Have a nice day" and even "Thank you." Sure, we need little niceties to grease the social wheels, but it's sad when they don't mean much/anything anymore.

Oh, another great podcast I heard recently was this one, all about how English spelling became as weird as it is:
https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/corpse-corps-horse-and-worse/
Of course, now I want to read her book!

I have so much fun being a nerd. Other people have no idea what they're missing out on... or "out on what they are missing"...? :-) (Yes, for the supernerds, I could have just omitted both prepositions, but I think it's funnier this way.)

[Hall11235]

I don't know if this one has been spoken of yet, but the term 'Heavy Lift' makes me want to die.

At work it is only ever used just prior to a task being dumped by upper management onto not-upper managment: "Oh, I don't  know, Jim. That progress reports sounds like it will be an extremely heavy lift for me right now. Do you think you could handle it?"

This is, of course, followed up by the classic "But, if you're too busy, I guess I can still handle it" immediately followed by a pregnant, expectant pause.

Basically, all business speak drives me insane because it seems to be universally used to only sound smarter than the people around you, or to somehow differentiate yourself: "Our widget development team is really doing a lot of upskilling this year to improve our interdepartmental efficiency."

[GuitarStv]

I don't know if this one has been spoken of yet, but the term 'Heavy Lift' makes me want to die.

At work it is only ever used just prior to a task being dumped by upper management onto not-upper managment: "Oh, I don't  know, Jim. That progress reports sounds like it will be an extremely heavy lift for me right now. Do you think you could handle it?"

This is, of course, followed up by the classic "But, if you're too busy, I guess I can still handle it" immediately followed by a pregnant, expectant pause.

Basically, all business speak drives me insane because it seems to be universally used to only sound smarter than the people around you, or to somehow differentiate yourself: "Our widget development team is really doing a lot of upskilling this year to improve our interdepartmental efficiency."

Sounds like your widget team is deep diving into picking the low hanging hyperlocal fruit to leverage and align synergies.  A value added growth-hack big data approach to strategic viral disrupting might help them pivot into a better paradigm shift going forward.

[Morning Glory]

I don't know if this one has been spoken of yet, but the term 'Heavy Lift' makes me want to die.

At work it is only ever used just prior to a task being dumped by upper management onto not-upper managment: "Oh, I don't  know, Jim. That progress reports sounds like it will be an extremely heavy lift for me right now. Do you think you could handle it?"

This is, of course, followed up by the classic "But, if you're too busy, I guess I can still handle it" immediately followed by a pregnant, expectant pause.

Basically, all business speak drives me insane because it seems to be universally used to only sound smarter than the people around you, or to somehow differentiate yourself: "Our widget development team is really doing a lot of upskilling this year to improve our interdepartmental efficiency."

Sounds like your widget team is deep diving into picking the low hanging hyperlocal fruit to leverage and align synergies.  A value added growth-hack big data approach to strategic viral disrupting might help them pivot into a better paradigm shift going forward.

I need to print this out and paste it to my fridge: it's very easy to stick to weight loss goals when feeling mildly nauseated.