It’s the business of business jargon. Say you’re in line at the drugstore. Does it bother you if the cashier says, “Next guest”? In department stores and coffeeshops, does the term “guest” suggest real...
Erin in Cambridge, Wisconsin, says her Southern boss uses sheep-dip for bringing someone into a process, as in “We are going to sheep dip you right down on in here.” Actual sheep dipping moves sheep through a chemical bath to kill insects and...
Why do people use the phrase going forward when talking about the future? Although it sometimes carries legitimate meaning, the expression is often just a pleonastic bit of business jargon that ends up on plenty of lists of people’s pet peeves...
Some office workers say their word processor’s spellchecker always flags the words overnighted and overnighting. Are those words acceptable in a business environment? This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Overnighted”...
Vic from Indianapolis, who works at a newspaper, bristles at colleagues saying I’m efforting that, as in having reporters efforting a photo or asking whether the paper is efforting something. The verb effort has been heard before and may have a...
An employee who gets a great termination package is said to leave the company with a golden parachute. Where’d that term come from? This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Golden Parachutes” Hello, you have A Way with...