10 most cringe-inducing buzzwords of 2016
To round off 2016, London Offices have identified the 10 most annoying phrases people use in offices around the UK and it seems there is a little bit of David Brent hiding inside nearly all of us according to the study. The Capital's premier office brokerage service surveyed 1000 office workers & revealed the UK’s most detested parts of office life, from bad beards to charity whip-rounds, and identified a list of the most cringeworthy phrases and words a colleague can use.
The survey participants had plenty in common when they admitted what mildly irks them in the office.
Chris Meredith, CEO of LondonOffices.com agrees that cheesy cliché phrases should be avoided but are seemingly baked in during day-to-day office conversation: “There’s no need to try and make yourself sound trendy or try hard. Employees respect straight-forward language. Personally, I find people who use certain words to try and impress or sound edgy irritating.”
2016’s most irritating words and phrases at work:
10. Let's just work out the “Delta” on these numbers – No, we just need to know the difference please!
9. If you could just “tweak” it a little… - This innuendo-riddled sentence is a major cringe-maker – it’s a coy way of asking for changes to a piece of work.
8. Let’s take a “comfort break”. – what this actually means is here’s 5 minutes to go and pee because you’ve been stuck in this training room for 2 hours.
7. Can you “buddy” up with our new employee? – we don’t need buddies at work, we need professionally minded, reliable colleagues to pair with. And we’re not at school.
6. Remember to “smile while you dial” – this antiquated phrase from the 1980s call-centre has made it into the mainstream office manager’s vocabulary and irritates the hell out of everyone.
5. Let me just make a “Brain Dump” for you with everything I know – like the Thought Shower but much less eloquent. And somewhat faecal-like in quality perhaps?
4. This is “low hanging fruit” – the thought of dangling bananas is just too much for some people to get their heads around.
3. “Winner winner chicken dinner” – it’s pretty hard not to seriously face-palm when this one is rolled out for some marginal success.
2. Can I get an “ETA” on that report please – yes, once I’ve tweaked the stats and leveraged the delta we can sit down and brain dump some more ideas for our preso later today…. Do we really need to explain?
Rolling in at no. 1 on the most cringe office words list for 2016 is this gem. Enjoy!
1. Preso – seriously? Presentation, please… people who say this must notice the eye’s rolling at them?
