With as much time as most of us spend at work, we’ve all undoubtedly developed a few opinions and pet peeves. Many of these pet peeves involve refrigerator and break room manners and cleanliness, but some of our biggest work gripes have to do with communication, or lack thereof.
When things get frustrating or stressful at work, it’s important to maintain a sense of humor, even if it’s dry humor. Laughter helps us get along nicely with co-workers and develops a sense of camaraderie. Here at NameTagWizard.com, we voted from a list of 92 highly overused and downright annoying office phrases. To illustrate these results in a fun and humorous way, we put together this handy infographic.
Top 8 Annoying Office Phrases. Click here to view it larger.
In the process of getting everyone’s votes, we also learned a few things about office communication, and how it can be improved.
1 – It’s important to be authentic. When things get hectic in the office, it’s easy to use cliches to communicate, but over time, these cliches lose their real meaning. If you want to communicate in a memorable and effective way, be yourself and describe things in your own way.
2 – Many employees, especially those who are new to the work force, do not understand what many common corporate phrases mean, but they won’t ask because they feel like they should already know. This breaks down communication and leaves people feeling “out of the loop.”
3 – Office cliches can break down morale. Bold and ill-defined phrases like “synergy” that are intended to motivate people can have the opposite effect. It is helpful to use language that speaks more directly to a person, project or event.
4 – When people are annoyed or exhausted with something, they stop listening. Again, this goes back to authenticity. People will feel more motivated if they truly understand the goal and know their unique contribution to that goal. Vague corporate language isn’t genuine.
5 – People want to stay true to themselves at work, and the best way to achieve authenticity in the workplace is through friendly and genuine language that speaks directly and informatively to each person and each situation.
Some of the other annoying phrases that were nominated include:
- Gentle reminder
- A lot on my plate
- Managing up
- Reach out
- Quick win
- Wrap our heads around it
- Run an idea up the flagpole
Are any of these phrases used too often in your workplace?
Some inspiration for our infographic “Top 8 Most Annoying & Overused Office Phrases” and blog came from:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-4563616/The-50-irritating-office-jargon-terms.html