New year’s resolutions: Will you be cutting out these phrases in 2017?

One of the many upsides to working from home is that you get to hear less office jargon! But even if you’re not with colleagues face-to-face, you’ll still be talking on the phone to clients or using social media, which means office jargon can still creep in.

Office jargon is often used as a tool to make a task or job seem bigger or better than it may actually be, but it can also be used in a much more innocent way, explains Gareth Jones, Business Manager at Kit Out My Office:

“The modern working life is fast-paced, and as such we strive to deliver information in a clear and concise manner. The downside of this is it is a breeding ground for jargon. Setting a collective New Year’s Resolution in your office to stamp-out jargon in 2017 could definitely help to improve morale.”

Traditionally, New Year’s resolutions are often set as personal goals to better ourselves, ranging from visiting the gym more often through to learning a new language. For 2017, Kit Out My Office want colleagues across the UK to come together and set a New Year’s Resolution for their office – to stamp out the most annoying office phrases and improve office morale.

The top five most annoying office phrases are –

  1. Think outside the box
  2. It’s not rocket science
  3. Amazeballs
  4. Going forward
  5. Can I borrow you for a second?

Hmmm… I must admit to having used ‘let’s think outside the box’ and ‘it’s not rocket science’ a few times myself!

Dr Julia Claxton, Principal Lecturer in Leadership and Organisational Development at Leeds Beckett University added her opinion, “hurt feelings, unclear goals and ambiguous strategies are just a few examples of issues that can arise and contribute to low morale and are the basis of an ineffective team that can be easily avoided.”

At the opposite end of the spectrum lays “best-practice”, which is the least annoying phrase used, with nobody stating that it was irritating or overused.

Top 5 phrases that won’t annoy your colleagues –

  1. Best-practice
  2. Thrown under the bus
  3. No brainer
  4. Cool beans
  5. Move the goalposts?

So now you know!

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