Office Jargon Is Getting Out of Hand, Experts Say

“I think someone needs a bite of the reality sandwich” and “Let’s touch base on this offline” might be phrases that we could make sense of, but that would be like shooting arrows in the dark. Yet, they make a lot of sense for office workers in the UK, who are increasingly including them (and many others in the same vein) into their daily vocabulary, much to the shock of experts, as The Telegraph informs.

It’s a well-known fact that small groups of people thrown in together for longer periods of time, such is the case of people working together in the same office, develop a jargon that is understood only to them or that, at best, is very uninviting for someone on the outside. However, as things stand today with business jargon, it could very well be that the situation got out of hand, experts say based on recent research.

“Experts fear that an increasing number of incomprehensible phrases are creeping their way into common parlance at British companies, leaving employees baffled. Among the most bizarre expressions identified was ‘I’m coming into this with an open kimono’ – which means proposing an idea but being open to criticism. Other staff complained of managers demanding ‘we need the right pin numbers,’ when all they were really requesting was for something to work,” The Telegraph writes.

Based on research conducted by recruitment firm Office Angels, it would seem that the use of such standard phrases is getting out of control, with many newcomers adopting them even while they’re still unfamiliar with their meaning. The other downside to this use is, understandably, that it favors an elaborate construction instead of “simple talking,” meaning communication in its most simple and efficient form.

“Trying to talk the talk isn’t particularly productive and doesn’t make you seem more professional. While this jargon is amusing, my advice would be that nothing beats plain talking. If you communicate clearly, then you and your team can work more effectively,” David Clubb, managing director of Office Angels, says, urging workers to forget the pompous jargon and go for “regular” words instead.