UK 
United States
Nearly one year on from the advent of the coronavirus pandemic, so much about the working world has changed. In the wake of the Government-enforced ‘lockdown 3.0’, workers remain largely based at home, businesses are still mitigating the ongoing need to furlough staff and communication on a company-wide level has thrived almost exclusively through digital platforms.
Employee wellbeing | 'FOMU' - the new work term you need to know
And, of course, these big changes have also affected how we talk about work. Words such as ‘lockdown’, ‘pandemic’ and ‘furlough’ are now deeply ingrained in the corporate lexicon, as are phrases like ‘hope you’re doing well, all things considered’ and not a day goes by without an email referencing ‘these dark times’.
In a sense, these words and phrases do what all corporate jargon does; they fill in the spaces in our vocabulary and accurately capture the almost universal feelings circulating around the working world at the moment. However frustrated we may be in both reading, and having to use, COVID-19 jargon, we do see the need.
However, not all such buzzwords and phrases actively fill a hole in our language. Some, which have taken on a new meaning are simply used far too much. In fact, some are used so unnecessarily often that they only serve to infuriate professionals, and these are the words that, really, you should not be using.
