The longer I spend in the IT corporate world, the longer the list gets. You know what I’m talking about - that fancy talk used by management to impress, to inspire, to make the most mundane projects seem cutting-edge. The annoying catch-phrases that are peppered into every meeting, email, and motivational speech. Those words that make us throw up just a little bit in our mouth each and every time we hear them.
I know I’m not alone. Years ago, there was a game called Buzzword Bingo. It started with Bingo cards filled with the most over-used corporate phrases that were clandestinely distributed to some of the meeting attendees (not all, of course). Each person would then check off the appropriate square as they were used during the meeting and the first to check off the card wins. I’m not sure if it was to end with someone shouting “Bingo”, but if it did, then the card probably should have included the term “pink slip”, or maybe “lay-offs”, “cutbacks”, “downsizing” or even “rightsizing”.
I was never brave enough to initiate or even play in those fun-sounding games, but here in the privacy of my own blog with my few little readers, am now cutting loose. I’ve put together a list of all the corporate buzzwords and phrases that need to be abolished. Yes, I’m sure new phrases will always be introduced by some corporate kiss-up brown-noser and they will catch on faster than a wormblaster virus, but for now I’d be satisfied if these words below were never again spoken:
