While you’re at it, don’t exhort your employees to “think outside the box,” “hammer it out” or do some “heavy lifting.” That’s going to annoy them, too. If you want to really get under their skin then go ahead and tell them to “push the envelope,” or promise to “circle back” or create a “win-win situation.”
“We’ve all been guilty of using these phrases, whether out of habit or not,” John Pope, the senior vice president of Jive Communications, said in a Fox News article. “These phrases definitely aren’t going anywhere anytime soon.”
Pope, who confirmed the survey’s data, said he believes that the overuse of these phrases has diluted their meaning. “Our goal should be to use such jargon sparingly, and when the moment calls for it,” he said.
Although we’ve all been there, the fact is that using these phrases with employees can harm a company’s productivity. According to the survey, 27 percent of American workers acknowledged tuning out people who use this kind of jargon, even though almost 72 percent admitted to habitually using these phrases.
So, are you at fault? Tsk, tsk. Just to be sure, here’s the entire list, in order of cringe-worthiness:
- Give 110 percent
- Think outside the box
- Hammer it out
- Heavy lifting
- Throw them under the bus
- Don’t count your chickens before they’ve hatched
- Pushing the envelope
- Let the cat out of the bag
- Let’s circle back
- Win-win situation
- Blue-sky thinking
- Boil the ocean
- Synergy
- Low-hanging fruit
- Take it to the next level
- Barking up the wrong tree
- Going forward
- Let’s ballpark this
- Run this up the flagpole
- Back to square one
- There’s no I in team
- Back to the drawing board
- Paradigm shift
- Elephant in the room
- Raise the bar
- Drill down
- Best thing since sliced bread
- Deep dive
- Skin in the game
- Reach out
- Touch base
- Play hardball
- Don’t reinvent the wheel
- Kept in the loop
- The bottom line
- Down the road
- I’ll loop you in
- Hit the nail on the head
- ASAP
- Team player
