In today's Philadelphia Inquirer, Jane Von Bergen has one of those tight, revealing stories about the world of work that will make you smile and you sad. Probably, it will come as no surprise. It's about the prevalence of cliches in U.S. business writing, and in how business people talk about their work, their companies and their performance.
Von Bergen was working off a press release from Factiva, and her story speaks for itself. But Factiva's analysis needs to be taken to the next level, because although everyone keeps saying that the rules are changing (Factiva's own home page today cries that "the rules are changing"), the language of business isn't changing with near the vividness of work itself.
Here are some cliches Factiva missed, and their prevalence in U.S. media in the first half of 2006:
Post the cliche that sets your teeth on edge in comments below.
Related Stories: | Topics:Management, media, Factiva LLC, Jane Von Bergen, United States, The Philadelphia Inquirer |
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Recent Comments | 20 Total
August 17, 2006 at 4:21pm by Ian
"Think outside the box" (Inside is where it's at now.)
"Impactful" is not a word.
But my alltime pet peeve has to be, "At the end of the day..." (see rant on link above.)
August 17, 2006 at 5:17pm by linda
I just LOVE the expression "boil the ocean". But my favorite is when an exec says "I don't care if we have to boile the ocean we need to get it done." The phrase relates to an overzealous effort that destined to fail.
August 17, 2006 at 5:25pm by D. Benchley
"Low hanging fruit"
August 17, 2006 at 5:38pm by bonus
"In terms of" - most overused phrase in our company.
August 17, 2006 at 6:49pm by Michael
"Moving Forward" or any derivation
August 17, 2006 at 9:03pm by Scott A.
"As far as"
August 17, 2006 at 10:53pm by Sarah M
"Speak to" a topic. You speak TO a person. You speak ABOUT a topic, everyone.
People at my company also overuse and misuse the phrase, "that being said". They use it as a segue between two totally unrelated things. Like, "It's hard to believe it's the end of the month already. That being said, it's time to review our numbers."
August 17, 2006 at 11:21pm by sue
"lets wrap it up"
Go with the flow
Get to the bottom line
"do whatever it takes but dont go over payroll"
August 18, 2006 at 1:13am by R. Wilson
Our people are our most valuable asset(usually as we are right-sizing our staff by decreasing our assets)
Customer service is our number one priority (right after next quarter's earnings)
August 18, 2006 at 2:11am by Virginia Livingston
"Value-added" as if we would endeavor to execute on non-value-added.
August 18, 2006 at 9:42am by Katie
"Let's take a deep dive on that" -- generally uttered by inadequate execs who have clearly already taken one too many deep dives in the shallow end of the pool.
August 18, 2006 at 9:44am by Mike La Bonne
Work smarter, not harder.
August 18, 2006 at 12:54pm by Cari Sultanik
"That having been said..." is my biggest pet peeve. Also hate when people say "myself" because they can't use "me" or "I" appropriately. Passive voice seems popular these days. And believe it or not, I actually witnessed someone combining all these transgressions and saying, "That having been said by myself..." Nauseating.
August 19, 2006 at 12:42am by Calvin
We have most of the earlier mentioned ones, but also
"From a XX perspective", e.g.
"From a headcount perspective"
"From an architectural perspective"
A typical phrase that says nothing but gives the speaker time to think of something to say. A waste of words.
"At the end of the day" is a particularly nasty one in the UK. Way overused and meaningless.
August 19, 2006 at 1:42am by Mik Mowse
When you connect the dots...
Our value proposition is...
Future vision
Value creation (instead of revenue)
Pay for performance (should be pray-for-pay)
August 20, 2006 at 6:19pm by niti bhan
I miss good old "paradigm shift"... I wonder where old cliches go? Or do they just fade away?
August 21, 2006 at 1:16pm by M. Russell Stewart
Everyone should use the fabulous tool that is the Bullsh_t Generator. Go to http://www.dack.com/web/bullshit.html. I laugh everytime I click the "Create Bullsh_t" button, and laugh even harder when I use the phrase at work and people actually listen and nod.
MAS
August 21, 2006 at 8:09pm by Joe
"It is what it is." Especially when it doesn't need to be that way.
August 22, 2006 at 10:26am by Kevin Dugan
Strategize
Top-down
2.0
November 6, 2006 at 2:25pm by judi cooper
How about "let's circle back..."