Business speak
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Business speak is a term for seemingly out of place words used in a bureaucratic or financial environment. Some of these words may be new inventions, designed purely to fit the specialized meaning of a situation. However the term "business speak" usually has a negative connotation. Words which seem unnecessarily long may be deemed preposterous. On the other hand, an abundance of abbreviations may connote laziness or lack of originality in communication skills.
Some business speak terms are:
- Advise — a word normally reserved for formal communication in English, but used in mundane circumstances for business speak, such as, "Please advise which size of Pro Block is ordered."
- -age- added to the end of mundane words, this appendage makes them sound more official, as in, "I noticed some breakage on that item. We might want to facilitate signage so there's some verbage out there as to how it's properly used."
- A.S.A.P. — an acronym meaning "as soon as possible". The term is undoubtedly intended to be more polite than the brusque "now" or "today" that might otherwise accompany written instructions. Detractors claim that abbreviating the phrase to an acronym gives it the same impersonal, rushed feeling as less polite terms anyhow.
- Attn. — used on an envelope, this abbreviation for the word "Attention" is put before the name of the recipient, assumedly so that it is not opened by someone else. Detractors say that the word is redundant, since the letter is obviously addressed to the recipient, with or without "Attn." before their name.
- Branded/branding — handling of a company's marketing; generally related to the overall feeling evoked by the company's products, advertisements, and graphic design in the public or the company's customers; such as in, "We need to analyze how our product is branded."
- Business casual — a term referring to a common office dress code, meaning essentially semi-casual. Stereotypical business casual wear is pressed khaki trousers, a subtly colored button-down or polo shirt, and polished but not very shiny leather shoes. Some level of sexism is traditionally inherent, as in allowing women to wear collarless shirts and flip flops, but not giving men the same leniency. Detractors of the term claim that the underlying meaning of "business casual" is clothing and grooming of unflattering monotony.
- Communicate — often used in place of "say" or "tell", assumedly since "communicate" conveys all forms of communication (e-mail, voice mail, etc.), and not just speaking. Detractors say that the word sounds ridiculously long in its usual context, such as "Did you communicate to Jodi where her file was?"
- dba — an abbreviation for "doing business as". This term, used in legal documents and sometimes even on company letterhead, describes a situation in which a parent corporation uses a different name in its advertising. An example is "Worldwide Marketing, Inc. dba Fun Flavors".
- Dress-down Friday — used to make the staff feel they are human by wearing normal clothes.
- Facilitate — arrange. Perhaps this more technical sounding term is meant to avoid the personal tone of "arrange" or "put together". An example: "Will you facilitate a meeting with your team about our branding?"
- FYI — an acronym meaning "For your information". This term implies that the information being shared does not require action and is being presented simply as food for thought. Detractors claim that the term is redundant, since the statement being shared is obviously for the recipient's information, or it wouldn't be shared with them. An example: "Oh, I have a little FYI about our planning session next Tuesday."
- Get with the program
- Guided - used to abdicate responsibility for a decision, especially where the consequences of making a poor choice could be severe. I.e. "We would be guided by you on that" translates as "you make the decision, I'm not sticking my neck out"
- Heads up - Used to ask for a report/update on something, I.e. "Give me a heads up on this"
- Inc. — an abbreviation of the term "incorporated" meaning that the aforementioned company is a corporation
- LLC — an abbreviation for "limited liability corporation", this term applies to the company name listed just before it
- Opportunity — a task which is likely to generate little reward for a lot of work. While sometimes 'Opportunity' is used in the phrase 'opportunity for advancement', it is more likely to be used in "I see this next project to be an opportunity for you to leverage your skills and demonstrate your commitment to the company."
- Per — used almost exclusively in writing, this term is an abbreviation for "pertaining to". Detractors claim that unabbreviated words including "as", "by", or "in" would work equally as well in most situations. An example is, "As per our conversation, I communicated your message to John."
- Professional — as used in business speak, this term is an adjective meaning generally polite and responsible. Detractors claim that its underlying implication is conventional, interchangeable blandness without any personality or style.
- Team player — someone who works well in a group. The phrase is meant to compare an official environment with a sporting team, adding a sense of joviality to the environment. The word "team" is often used to describe a group of co-workers, with the same intended effect.
- Touch base — to contact or speak with. This phrase is borrowed from baseball and seems to convey that the speaker is a "team player" (see above). An example is, "We can touch base about the branding on Friday."
- "Going forward" — this phrase is substituted for "from now on", or even simply "in future."
- As discussed — a phrase by which the speaker reminds one that a conversation has taken place and absolutely nothing has changed since then, as in "The reports have been running and should be ready later today as discussed."
"As part of our continuing...": tends to refer to an update in a system that has not been finished and has, more likely, only just started.
