Office-speak or corporate jargon is not language, it’s a selection of sounds and symbols designed to impress whoever is listening. Till recently, corporates spoke about future plans. Nowadays, the correct phrase is “going forward”. Earlier, people used to meet, then they started to ‘brainstorm’ till someone got a brainwave and changed it to “Idea Showers” as in “let’s take an idea shower”. Similarly, companies no longer motivate their employees, it’s now been replaced with “Incentivise”. Then there’s the current favourite among CEOs and team leaders, which is to “take a holistic approach”. Firms were doing that anyway, but it took some corporate jargonist to come up with the phrase no company brochure can be without, not to mention the existence of a phrase called “360-degree thinking”.
The origins of some phrases boggle the mind. In American colleges, males described females who were easy to date as “low-hanging fruit”. Nowadays, companies use it to describe goals or targets that are relatively easy to achieve. Some phrases seem to be created just for the way it sounds. Earlier you said you were working on something. Now, the correct office-speak is that you are “actioning” it. Of course, any actioning also requires the ‘bandwidth’, which means the resources to complete a task. Here’s one that takes the cake. Earlier it was enough to give your “100 percent”. In the modern era, we have to give “110 percent”. In corporate speak, that means ‘deliverables’ above and beyond the call of duty.
