Irritating & grating phrases and words used in the work place

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  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 72,245
    bobmcstuff wrote:
    /\ My boss says "ultimately" all the time. So he'll be talk about some stuff and then he'll say "but ultimately it's about x" - and then go on to talk about some more things! It's OK to use sometimes (i.e., at the end of a discussion or when you want to highlight something) but peppering your conversations with it makes it lose its' impact somewhat.

    I must admit to using moving forwards though. When I use it I don't mean quite the same thing as "from now on" and "in future" though - that means something specific and it's going to be different from now on; a clean break. However "moving" forwards" I would use in that we want to try and change something or work towards a different outcome or something, so "moving forwards we're going to work on improving the way we do X".

    I think anything's annoying if overused, so perhaps it's the way people say it all the time.

    "From hereon in" will suffice, in that instance.
  • keef66
    keef66 Posts: 13,123
    Not so much a problem at work, but any sentence starting with "So, ..." or "Yeah, definitely." Also any conversation peppered with "...and I was like..." For some reason I find them incredibly irritating.

    We have a rich language with so many ways to express things, and I hate hearing people lazily using a 25 word vocabulary and habitual verbal fillers.

    Then again, I am an old curmudgeon. An incorrectly used apostrophe causes me to wince.
  • First.Aspect
    First.Aspect Posts: 14,498
    keef66 wrote:
    Not so much a problem at work, but any sentence starting with "So, ..." or "Yeah, definitely." Also any conversation peppered with "...and I was like..." For some reason I find them incredibly irritating.

    We have a rich language with so many ways to express things, and I hate hearing people lazily using a 25 word vocabulary and habitual verbal fillers.

    Then again, I am an old curmudgeon. An incorrectly used apostrophe causes me to wince.
    These are just natural pauses to think, no different to, "um..., er...." and so on. Not quite that same as work jargon or newspeak.
  • bobmcstuff
    bobmcstuff Posts: 11,196
    I've just been delivering a load of training courses and you really notice how many filler words you use when you're delivering the same material repeatedly, especially to non-native English speakers. I was making an effort to be concise and simple with my language, and it took a surprising amount of thought and control.

    I think everyone uses fillers in natural conversation, whether it's younger people using the words keef describes or whatever else. They become grating when you start paying attention to them - since I noticed my boss saying "ultimately" all the time in sentences at work I can't stop hearing it.
  • Pross
    Pross Posts: 40,217
    I find myself using 'ultimately' quite often but 'basically' is the one I catch myself saying far too often. I know I do it but only notice as it's coming out of my mouth. It probably irritates me more than anyone as I doubt the person I'm talking to is paying attention anyway.
  • Pross wrote:
    I find myself using 'ultimately' quite often but 'basically' is the one I catch myself saying far too often. I know I do it but only notice as it's coming out of my mouth. It probably irritates me more than anyone as I doubt the person I'm talking to is paying attention anyway.

    'Literally' literally annoys the hell out of me.
  • jgsi
    jgsi Posts: 5,062
    I'm sure you are all over it" meaning you have that piece work done by now because I really dont want to ask twice implication with threat.

    I have just walked out after 4 days with the most horrendous gov agency. Better that than actually twatting someone.

    Before I did went on their Sharepoint and looked at the last internal staff poll.. how the fck can an organisation have just 50% satisfaction rate of actually working for them????? Bullying and intimidation was at 10% in the location where I was.
  • Pross
    Pross Posts: 40,217
    JGSI wrote:
    I'm sure you are all over it" meaning you have that piece work done by now because I really dont want to ask twice implication with threat.

    I have just walked out after 4 days with the most horrendous gov agency. Better that than actually twatting someone.

    Before I did went on their Sharepoint and looked at the last internal staff poll.. how the fck can an organisation have just 50% satisfaction rate of actually working for them????? Bullying and intimidation was at 10% in the location where I was.

    My old company was really keen on IiP for a few years, upgraded after a couple of years and were chasing the next level again but the staff survey results were getting worse. Since I left I've now heard their solution to stop getting bad staff surveys is to stop doing them and, presumably, leave the IiP scheme.

    After the first year there was a big panic as they'd had a few poor scores on the question 'I do not encounter racism, sexism or bullying in the workplace'. They were worried about racism and sexism so they split the question the following year to put bullying in a separate question and all was good then even though bullying still got some bad scores.
  • bobmcstuff
    bobmcstuff Posts: 11,196
    Sorry, liP??
  • Pross
    Pross Posts: 40,217
    bobmcstuff wrote:
    Sorry, liP??

    Investors in People. I did think of typing it in full but thought it was something virtually all companies endure these days. It's supposed to be a system to get happy, well trained staff but in my experience just creates pointless paperwork and a staff survey that the management spin to show how great they are.
  • bobmcstuff
    bobmcstuff Posts: 11,196
    Pross wrote:
    bobmcstuff wrote:
    Sorry, liP??

    Investors in People. I did think of typing it in full but thought it was something virtually all companies endure these days. It's supposed to be a system to get happy, well trained staff but in my experience just creates pointless paperwork and a staff survey that the management spin to show how great they are.
    Oh yeah, I know Investors in People. We don't have it any more, it didn't seem to make any difference (there's only 10 of us in the UK) and it cost money.
  • laurentian
    laurentian Posts: 2,372
    Pross wrote:
    I find myself using 'ultimately' quite often but 'basically' is the one I catch myself saying far too often. I know I do it but only notice as it's coming out of my mouth. It probably irritates me more than anyone as I doubt the person I'm talking to is paying attention anyway.

    The one that grinds my gears is "obviously". You may call someone to ask for something you know nothing about and they go on to say

    ". . . well, you can have x or for y or a for b, obviously if you choose y then k applies". Why would that be obvious?
    Wilier Izoard XP
  • laurentian
    laurentian Posts: 2,372
    . . . another one: "Custodian" used when you're sorting out a problem or making a change as in "Laurentian, can you be the custodian of that . . .?"

    I'm looking after a small part of a project not the artefacts of the British Musuem.
    Wilier Izoard XP
  • Pross
    Pross Posts: 40,217
    laurentian wrote:
    . . . another one: "Custodian" used when you're sorting out a problem or making a change as in "Laurentian, can you be the custodian of that . . .?"

    I'm looking after a small part of a project not the artefacts of the British Musuem.

    Can you take ownership of this one?
  • byke68
    byke68 Posts: 1,070
    "blah blah blah blah blah blah moving forward, blah blah blah" etc. Moving forward?! Shut the feck up!!!!
    Cannondale Trail 6 - crap brakes!
    Cannondale CAAD8
  • pilot_pete
    pilot_pete Posts: 2,120
    "It's like really hot outside today" :twisted:

    No it bloody isn't like that, it bloody well is really hot outside! :evil:

    Why do so many people keep adding the word like into everything when they try to describe it? I wouldn't mind if they were using it in a correct context, such as when something is actually like something else!!!

    And the constant errs, umms, ahhs and other permutations used by people to fill gaps and provide thinking space between sentences. I was with a recently qualified young work colleague who was conducting a mandatory safety briefing, the key to which is making it interactive and inclusive, plucking the relevant details and highlighting what is different on this particular occasion to draw more attention to it. He erred and ummed his way through every sentence, to the point where I started counting. I got to 50 and had lost the will to live. Luckily, being in charge I made my own safety briefing decisions and highlighted in my mind that my colleague would need clear, precise instructions in the event of a safety incident as he would probably still be umming and arring whilst the incident unfolded. :roll:

    PP
  • mikeyj28
    mikeyj28 Posts: 754
    laurentian wrote:
    . . . another one: "Custodian" used when you're sorting out a problem or making a change as in "Laurentian, can you be the custodian of that . . .?"

    I'm looking after a small part of a project not the artefacts of the British Musuem.

    Hahaha Brilliant!!
    Constantly trying to upgrade my parts.It is a long road ahead as things are so expensive for little gain. n+1 is always the principle in my mind.
  • crescent
    crescent Posts: 1,201
    If someone starts a sentence with "Look" or "Listen" in response to a question then they have lost my attention and my respect immediately. It is so condescending, as if to say "you are obviously not as clever as I am so pay close attention to what I am about to say". For example, "Can you explain how this would help the situation?" - answer "Look, doing this will help the situation because....". Remove the word "look" and you have a sentence with exactly the same meaning but also far more respect for your audience.
    "Moving forward" is annoying but not as annoying as "Point forward", what does that even mean? (Just to pre-empt a witty response, I'm sure someone will respond with "Look, point forward means etc etc..."
    The phrase "Reaching out" was the reason I stopped watching "The Black List" on TV. Every episode was peppered with people reaching out or being reached out to, it really rips my knitting.
    "Deferred success" actually made me laugh out loud at a meeting, the perpetrator was describing a failure.
    Bianchi ImpulsoBMC Teammachine SLR02 01Trek Domane AL3“When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race. “ ~H.G. Wells Edit - "Unless it's a BMX"
  • gsk82
    gsk82 Posts: 3,439
    Obligated isn't a word. The word is obliged.
    "Unfortunately these days a lot of people don’t understand the real quality of a bike" Ernesto Colnago
  • mfin
    mfin Posts: 6,729
    Yep it is word, people mess up the use of it vs when to use obliged though. Americans tend to just say obligated. Mind you they also probably say things like obligatedized.
  • crescent
    crescent Posts: 1,201
    Utilised is another word that is, well, over-utilised. Just say used, ffs.
    Bianchi ImpulsoBMC Teammachine SLR02 01Trek Domane AL3“When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race. “ ~H.G. Wells Edit - "Unless it's a BMX"