Work can be tough when you’re putting in 110% to smash it with a win-win before close of play – and research from Business telecommunications provider 4Com suggests that hearing office buzzwords all day only makes it worse.
The researchers found that despite a third (31%) of those surveyed agreeing that office jargon is annoying, almost a quarter (23%) admitted that they used buzzwords daily. One in fifty confessing to using them every hour.
The top 15 most annoying buzzwords and phrases and the percentage of people that find them irritating are:
| Most Used buzzwords & phrases | Percent of respondents who dislike these |
| There’s no ‘I’ in ‘team’ | 32% |
| Let’s touch base | 24% |
| Thinking outside the box | 22% |
| 110 percent | 15% |
| I’ll just ping that over | 14% |
| Let’s arrange a chemistry meeting | 14% |
| No brainer | 13% |
| Smashed it | 13% |
| Close of play | 13% |
| Game-changer | 11% |
| Having bandwidth to take on more | 11% |
| Win-win | 11% |
| Run the numbers | 11% |
| Play hardball | 10% |
| It's on my radar | 10% |
Additionally, the survey investigated the jargon that UK workers use most often. The top 15 most common office buzzwords and phrases are:
| Most Used buzzwords & phrases | Percent of respondents who use these regularly |
| ASAP | 50% |
| No brainer | 42% |
| Thinking outside the box | 41% |
| To be fair | 38% |
| At the end of the day | 37% |
| Win-win | 35% |
| Catch up | 32% |
| Give you a heads up | 29% |
| I've got a lot on my plate | 27% |
| Close of play | 27% |
| Back to the drawing board | 26% |
| Best practice | 25% |
| Hit the ground running | 20% |
| There's no 'I' in team | 19% |
| Smashed it | 19% |
Commenting on the research, Mark Pearcy, Head of Marketing at 4Com warned that jargon is only effective if everyone understands what it means. “When it comes to making a point or explaining your ideas, it’s definitely more important to be understood than to sound slick,” he said. “It might sound snappier in an email, but unless the person receiving it knows exactly what you mean, there’s not much point!”
Jacqui Adams
Rosemarie
'In the [whatever the topic is] space."
"Impactful." (Does this mean something that is likely to crash?)
Each of these can guarantee that the message gets deleted.