[DarenR]

I was sitting here listening to coworkers and I noticed that certain terms just rub me the wrong way. Over used business terms seem to drive me nuts.
Terms like the following:

touch base
irregardless
I have a question
etc...


Now my question to you is, do you hear this nonse all the time and what is your term(s) that you just can't stand anymore?

[BenignDesign]

"irregardless" isn't actually a word and only serves to make someone sound like an idiot.

"I have a question" is an overused business term? Sounds like a mundane sentence that could be spoken by anyone, anywhere, in any line of work... or possibly a child. I know mine say this quite a bit.

So, I'm seeking clarification here... is this a list of overused business terms or just general phrases that you personally find annoying? The distinction is very important in determining whether the topic has been posted in the correct board.

[modi123_1]

"Thank you" as part of the signature... that annoys me.

I get quite a few emails that have "please advise" on the line above their signature.

[tlhIn`toq]

I agree with BenignDesign. This sounds more generic and I think will quickly degrade to "People are really stupid or under educated these days."

• How many places do we see "your" instead of "you're" and so on?
  
• SMS speak everywhere including advertising.
  
• We see the erosion of work ethics everyday in the quality of people asking questions. Nobody wants to research or experiment any more. If they don't somehow intuit how the code should work they give up and ask. Reading the documentation is just never a thought.
  
• Few people can format a business letter any more.
  
• Blah blah wonk wonk

Its simply a numbers game. The cost of living goes up, the quality of living goes down, funding for education keeps getting cut. Its a shifting baseline, but a SLOWLY shifting line where most people don't see it.

In the 50's and 60's a family of four could live on one income and still take summer vacations and put aside for retirement and kids' college. Certainly not happening today. Companies used to provide a pension for employees of 20+ years. Hasn't happened in years. Schools used to have enough budget for everyone to have a textbook and provide driver's education in real cars. Now they are lucky if they have chalk and program after program gets cut in an effort to just support the basics.

The end result being pretty obvious: Both parents work so nobody is there with the kids to teach them what they need to know to grow up to be decent adults. The schools don't have the resources to teach them enough to grow up to be contributing members of the work force. Congratulations: You now have the coworker sitting in the cubical next to you. He can ask you how to do his job, get indignant at the idea he's blocked from Facebook while on company time & computers, and continually text his girlfriend with "Wut R U waring?"

This post has been edited by tlhIn`toq: 24 August 2012 - 07:05 AM

[no2pencil]

modi123_1, on 24 August 2012 - 10:00 AM, said:

"Thank you" as part of the signature... that annoys me.

Wow, that's not just me?! Awesome!

[tlhIn`toq]

I think this thread dovetails nicely into the thread about students/rookies becoming more rude with each generation.

[modi123_1]

... a thread not accessible to everyone in general..

[Nykc]

Haha I use thank you because I don't like using sincerely, or regards,

Trying to have a conversation with the business side or marketing.

Agile terminology - Define "Done", SCRUM, Scrum of Scrums, UAT, Demo and SQA.

[nick2price]

"You're Fired" is a term thrown around quite a lot whenever I am in the room

[baavgai]

Any time someone talks about "110%" of something, I feel the urge to push them out the window...

Business sayings tend to be organic, they come and go as people realize how fundamentally meaningless they are. Jargon, on the other hand, is eternal. Sales goons like to use IT jargon to show they're up to date. The mainframe becomes a remote framework becomes a web service becomes a cloud.

There are a number of annoying ways to say "dumb it down for the suits." I usually translate this to say "you're in the wrong meeting."

[modi123_1]

Quote

I usually translate this to say "you're in the wrong meeting."

Typically I run it up a flag pole and see who salutes before I leave a meeting...

[Robin19]

no2pencil, on 24 August 2012 - 09:06 AM, said:

modi123_1, on 24 August 2012 - 10:00 AM, said:

"Thank you" as part of the signature... that annoys me.

Wow, that's not just me?! Awesome!

Darn, I might have to change my signature. To be fair, my signature is

Quote

Thank You,

Robin19, | Systems Integration Technitian 414-555-5555 ext. 555 robin19@work.com
Work 123 Main St, Milwaukee, WI 53555

I also use "thank you" often when speaking and end most support calls with it. So it doesn't seem unnatural. I usually have to delete "thank you"s in my email when I remember that there is already one included.

What I hate at work is the use of product code instead of flavor code. All documents/files follow the naming convention Flavor-ProductCode. So when sales calls and mentions G12345 (pronounced "Gee, twelve, thirty-four, five" for some reason) it isn't easy for me to find. Give me the Flavor code and I can find the necessary document faster.

[modi123_1]

My issue with the auto sig'ed thank you is it waters down the authenticity and genuine nature of a thank you. I had a boss that was quite selfish and not a nice person to talk with, but her emails always had "thank you" in them... When grousing one day about the lack of appreciation it was pointed out that I am very appreciated by my boss - she thanks me for all the emails this guy happened to be on!

[bflosabre91]

It is what it is
Anything that references drinking kool aid.

I'm sure there are more but those are the ones I can think of and deal with multiple times per week. Although my boss probably says it is what it is literally 10 times per day on some occasions.


and yeah the thanks in the sig is bad. Especially when they type

blah blah blah.
Thanks

Thanks,
their Name

This post has been edited by bflosabre91: 24 August 2012 - 12:37 PM

[no2pencil]

I hate the auto-added thank you, because it's so empty.

"What is your ETA?"

thank you,
person

"Ok, I'll see you on Monday"

thank you,
person

They obviously are not thanking me in these situations, so when they do provide a favorable response, & not just im level emails, then the thank you was also just as meaningless. So the thank you is now as routine as their name, & their phone extension. I'd just as soon that they didn't even bother, & you can thank me properly when the job is complete, not when you email me a photo of a lol cat.