I nodded as a coworker listed out a few suggestions on ways her team and mine could collaborate in the next few months.
“Yeah, that sounds like a good way to synergise,” I said.
And then we both made a face.
Almost a decade ago, when I started my first official “office job”, I made a silent vow to myself that I would never become One of Those. A corporate drone on autopilot, mindlessly regurgitating buzzwords and key phrases day in and day out to no real end until I would one day reach my final form: a glorified LinkedIn bot.
I didn’t really “use” corporate lingo so much as make fun of it – in a good-natured, tongue-in-cheek sort of way. It was a quick fix for lightening the mood for everybody, myself included: “Well, since that project fell through, guess that’s one less loop to close, huh?”
But these days, I find myself starting to slip into corporate lingo unironically, the same way I started doing years ago with skinny jeans, emojis, and the acronym “LOL”.
LINGO LIMBO
More people are expressing annoyance or frustration with it these days, especially on social media, but make no mistake – corporate lingo is nothing new. From the “value chains” of the 1980s and 1990s to the “key performance indicators” you hear your own manager wax on about today, such jargon has long been a mainstay of working life.
Like with most things that eventually trigger widespread discussions and accusations online of being “annoying” or “cringe”, there’s a legitimately useful element to corporate lingo’s villain origin story.
