Australian office workers have shared the corporate jargon that 'makes them crazy' – and 'just involve you' tops the list.
Generation Z takes a more 'casual' approach to professional communication – as exemplified by the way they structure 'out-of-office' emails and blatantly refuse to make any more calls.
Employees at Australian retailer Decjuba recently rounded up the worst phrases from the endless emails filling their inboxes, and everyone is guilty of using at least one of the popular sayings.
In a viral videothe young men and women hit jargon like 'low hanging fruit' and '[getting your] ducks in a row'.
“Happy Monday” gives me the creeps,” one man said. 'I hate Monday mornings. I was in bed two hours before work. It's not a nice Monday, is it?'
Likewise, another couldn't stand 'Happy Friday' – because if it were 'happy', the weekend would already be here.
Others claimed they didn't like 'take if offline' or the post-pandemic classic 'nice to meet you'.
“Stop saying 'low hanging fruit,'” one woman said. 'We are not fruit!'
One of them objected to the lack of clarity behind 'getting things straight'.
'Where are the ducks? What are the ducks?' she asked. The expression usually means organizing your tasks and planning ahead.
'I do not like'let's think outside the box,” said one.
One office worker said, “It's annoying when you get an email saying, 'I hope this email finds you well,' but that never happens.”
Many Aussies previously discussed email jargon they can't stand 'as per my last email', 'just to clarify' and 'as previously discussed' among the worst offenders.
Employees saw “according to my last email” as a thinly veiled criticism of the recipient for ignoring previous correspondence while still sounding professional.
One guy said, “I hope this helps” is just a passive-aggressive way of telling people that you've given them the required information, but have no intention of completing the task for them.
Others thought it was code for “Don't ever ask me anything again.”
A woman says what everyone thinks about the business phrase “according to my last email”
A New South Wales woman has decoded what 'thanks for your time on the phone today' really means.
“I'm about to put IN WRITING what we discussed, so you can't deny that you said, promised, or agreed to the things you did, and you can't say the deadlines weren't clear !' she said.
One man said he cringes when he reads at the end of an email, “Thanks for your feedback, I'll definitely keep it in mind,” because it's a polite way of saying, “I think your criticism is completely irrelevant if not completely wrong'.
One journalist said she can't stand emails that start with “get back to this” because she sees it as corporate language for “just give me an answer to the question.”