The members of Connect: Professional Women’s Network dish on the words that drive them nuts at work—and how to avoid using them. To continue the conversation or join the LinkedIn group for free, visit http://www.linkedin.com/womenconnect.

1. BROUGHT TO YOU BY
Banishing Buzzwords
The members of Connect: Professional Women’s Network dish on the
words that drive them nuts at work—and how to avoid using them.

2. We all know them—the bosses and
coworkers who rely so heavily on clichés
that they can hardly utter a sentence
without spewing out at least one. In one
of Connect‟s most popular discussions to
date, members vented about the words
and phrases that set their teeth on edge.
We‟ve rounded up the most (or should
we say least?) popular offenders, along
with some helpful tips about how to
avoid falling into the jargon trap.

3. THE SPORTS ANALOGIES
“Team player”
“Touch base”
“Step up to the plate”
“Aim for the goal post”
“Raise the bar”
“Tee it up”
“Slam dunk”
“Get the ball rolling”
“Hit a home run”
“Hit the ground running”
“Step up your game”

4. “People will say „I just want to touch base with you.‟
This would only make sense if we were baseball
players. I‟m an accountant, for crying out loud. Let‟s all
just agree to remove that phrase from our vernacular.”
Jennifer Pluff, Senior Accountant

5. “Win-win frequently means „win for us, and we think we can sucker the
other side into thinking it is a big win for them.‟”
Melissa Migliuri, Research Analyst

6. “Clichés are an easy crutch people often use in both
verbal and written communication. The real goal should
generally be to form our own rather than automatically
grabbing for a stale expression someone else came up
with.”
Karen Tavares, VP, Investigative Science and Engineering

7. MIDDLE-MANAGEMENT JARGON
“Utilize”
“Value-added”
“Success-driven”
“Keep me in the loop”
“Get your creative juices flowing”
“Skill set”
“At the end of the day”
“Moving forward”
“Mindshare”
“Low-hanging fruit”
“Get on the same page”

8. “Think outside the box drives me crazy. In my
environment, it‟s often used by people who want to
criticize the current process without contributing
something positive. How about „Let‟s get creative!” or
“How can we approach this in a different way?‟”
Sarah Descamps, Sales & Marketing

9. “Circle back is the phrase I find most annoying. Not
only does it sound silly, but I‟ve often found it‟s a kind
way of saying, „We‟re putting this off indefinitely.‟ I
seldom find that anyone circles back to anything.”
Helen Gaye Brewster, Sales Associate

10. “Sometimes it depends on who‟s saying it. You know those overly
slick and insincere people who like to bandy phrases about so
they seem in the know? The ones who toady up to executives
and order administrative assistants around because it makes
them feel better about their middle-management careers? Those
folks can make ANYTHING annoying. Even a perfectly wonderful
word like namaste.”
Tara Browne, Brand Coordinator and Production Finance Manager

11. COP-OUTS
“It’s above my pay grade”
“We’ve always done it that way”
“It is what it is”
“Don‟t fix it if it isn‟t broken”
“Let sleeping dogs lie”
“I don’t ask questions”

12. “I don‟t like bandwidth, as in „I simply don‟t have the
bandwidth to support that right now.‟ I prefer to hear
„‟It‟s not my priority at the moment given my current
workload.‟ We are not computers…or at least most of
us aren‟t.”
Tina Lancaster, Coding Assistant Manager

13. “It is what it is. True, but if the
situation is dysfunctional, do something
to change it!”
Heather Dykes, Human Resources Director

14. JUST PLAIN WRONG
“Déjà vu all over again”
“A whole nother”
“Orientated”
“Revert back”
“Exact same”
“Not at the current time”
“For all intensive purposes”

15. “Irregardless. It‟s not even a word! I was
listening to an interesting speaker the other day
making a great presentation. Then he said
irregardless, and he completely lost me. I have no
idea what else was said.”
Julie Denton, PMO Coordinator

16. “Don‟t even get me started on previous
experience (as opposed to the experiences
you haven‟t yet had?) and each and every
(„nuff said).
Lesa Kerlin Kiebel, Development Coach, Resume Writer

17. “So many supposedly affirmative phrases reinforce the divide
between management and the people they want to motivate. We‟re
tired of hearing them, yet so few have the courage to speak plainly
and fairly with their reports. It‟s a lot harder and more risky to connect
and empathize with the person you‟re tasked with overseeing. But in
the end, if you can achieve that balance (manage without losing your
humanity), you restore credibility to your position.”
Barbara Berger, Creative Director

18. NEW-OFFENDERS
“Incentivize”
“Blue-sky thinking”
“LEAN IN”
“Synergize”
“Prioritize”

19. “How about dialogue when used such as
„Have you dialoged with them?‟ Ugh! It
makes me crazy!”
Rachelle Petrancuri, Relationship Manager

20. “Let’s take this offline. Why can‟t you just
say, „We will talk about it later‟?”
Jennifer Boglioli, Co-Interim Director of Alumni Relations

21. “If we speak authentically and really consider
our words, I would suspect that none of
these phrases would show up, and we‟d all
be better communicators.”
Sally Ann Phillips, Vice President of Marketing

22. Join the conversation!
Connect: Professional Women’s Network, Powered by Citi, is an online
community on LinkedIn that helps women achieve the careers they want
and discuss the issues relevant to their success.
For more great insights from Connect members, check out the
discussions: What are some of the phrases that drive you crazy? and
What SHOULD we be saying in the workplace?
Visit linkedin.com/womenconnect for more information
and to join the group for free!
Photo Credits:
Cover: ChrisM70/Flickr
2: Togataki/Shutterstock
3: Boris N/Shutterstock
4: Jeremy Derr/Flickr
5: Terry George/Flickr
6: Anastasiia Kucherenko
8: Marie Richie/Flickr
9: Rajesh Narayanan
12: JL Watkins/Flickr
13: auremar/Shutterstock
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16: Job Meeting/Flickr
19: TED Conference/Flickr
20: Dell's Official Flickr Page
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23. ©2013 LinkedIn Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
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