After noticing Kevin's BS Bingo link at the Large American Organ, I had a flashback to my Total Quality Leadership class. TQL (it goes under a variety of names) seems to have created a lot of bizarre word constructs, many of which have exploded of the workplace and into the everyday speech of Americans. (Click on the link, and follow the instructions to refresh a few times). Some examples of overused buzzwords are "Outside the box", "proactive", and "empowerment". One that does not appear in BS Bingo was a word that became extremely popular during the Bill and Monica show—"parsing".

One of the most grating examples of TQL fargling the language was the "Mission Statement" of one of the departments at a previous command of mine. It was broken up into several sections, one of which was headed "We are impactful". Thankfully, that word is not in any dictionary of which I am aware. It literally causes me to shudder when I think about it.

Can anyone come up with hideous abuses of the language due to corporate jargon overtaking common sense? Are there any buzzwords that need to be eradicated from the national consciousness?

posted on June 30, 2002 09:55 PM



Comments:

I well remember when I first heard the word "right-sizing" as a euphemsism for "downsizing." It was my Asst. Division Head (a former petty officer cum Lt. Commander) and I knew everything I needed to know about boot-licking careerism from that moment onward.

posted by The Dodd on July 1, 2002 02:26 PM

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You are thinking of the one with the red hair? (I remember his name, but I don't think we need to belittle him in public).

(For those who don't know, The Dodd and I worked together in the distant past...)

posted by timekeeper on July 1, 2002 08:13 PM

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what do you mean parsing's not in the list.... better check again! ;-)

posted by Kevin on July 2, 2002 11:17 AM

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