‘Drowning in jargon’: The words we need to remove from our vocabulary

Last week I was on top of a mountain. My husband and I had spent a few sweaty hours slogging our way up the peak, solving the world’s problems between heavy puffs. As we neared the summit, I could hear the faint voice of another hiker taking advantage of the height and scant mobile reception to take a phone call from one of their work colleagues.

The reason I knew it was a work call was because a) they were on speakerphone and b) the conversation went something like this: “Thanks for taking the time to check in,” said the voice on the other end. “I just wanted to circle back to our last meeting and ensure we’re both aligned on the future direction.”

The contrast between the natural beauty of the majestic mountain range unfolding before me, and the unnatural vocabulary that’s spoken only in workplaces couldn’t have been greater. Why is it that some people morph into jargon-spewing corporate robots whenever they’re in a work situation?

I could write an entire column using vocabulary that you’d only ever hear inside the walls of an office, but you’d need a translator to make any sense of it. Think “synergy”, “best practice”, “action that” and “take this offline”. Sprinkle in some “ducks in row”, “move the needle” and “hit the ground running”, and you could even think I was giving a cliche-filled halftime pep talk.

Technology company Reckon surveyed 1000 Australian office workers last year, and found that 70 per cent of people admitted to using corporate jargon with, surprisingly, 25 to 35-year-olds the worst offenders. The most common phrases? “Touch base”, followed closely by “get the ball rolling” and “think outside the box”.

The amount of corporate buzzwords does depend on the industry, with tech topping the list, followed by legal, engineering, architecture and finance all guilty of using corporate lingo as their main way of communicating.

So the next time you hear someone casually throwing around meaningless jargon in the office, call them out and ask them to rephrase it.

But why do we do it? It’s primarily a shortcut to communicating in stressful environments and a way to fit in. If you hear your boss using certain language in a meeting, you are more likely to mirror them, even if you don’t realise what you’re doing.

However, the shortcut can quickly become a detour as it’s easy to misinterpret vague sayings. And we’ve all had colleagues who vomit buzzwords as a way of trying to sound more intelligent about topics they don’t quite understand.

Australian author Gabrielle Dolan was so aghast at the state of nonsensical words that she started a movement, Jargon Free Fridays, to help change the way we communicate in business.

Dolan says that we’re drowning in jargon, acronyms and bullet points as leaders aren’t prepared to say it as it is. When they become the default language of a workplace it can disconnect and isolate people as convoluted phrases are misinterpreted by the time it leaves your mouth.

Good communicators instead use inclusive common words and stories to connect and engage on a human level. They speak in plain language that describes exactly what they mean, and there’s no confusion about which ducks should be in what row.

So the next time you hear someone casually throwing around meaningless jargon in the office, call them out and ask them to rephrase it.

There’s a whole dictionary of words we need to ban so we never hear them again in the workplace. And, while we’re at it, from the top of mountains.

Tim Duggan is author of Work Backwards: The Revolutionary Method to Work Smarter and Live Better. He writes a regular newsletter at timduggan.substack.com

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