Corporate Jargon!

Fred goes over his least favorite corporate jargon!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
You guys know that there are a lot of things
about well, I mean the breakroom one, But there are
a lot of things about the work environment that annoy me,
which is why I just don't know that I would
survive very well in a normal work environment. I mean,
this is just a better place for me all around,
and that that in itself is a shocking statement, that
this is a better place for me all around.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (00:18):
I mean, maybe i'd like the pace of a of
a I feel like a normal work day has a
little bit more of a leisurely paced for a lot
of people, not everybody, but for a lot of people.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
But I have a special.

Speaker 1 (00:32):
Annoyance with the corporate buzz terms that don't really just
they're just words, you know what I mean, And it's
just like who came up with this stuff? I know,
who came up with this Someone are the very top
of the food chain, and then everybody beneath them repeats it, thinking, well,
because the because the thought leader said it, well, then
it must be smart for me to say, you know

(00:54):
what I mean, like if I heard the chairman say it, obviously,
and I might call our chairman as just just as
an experiment, and and and he and I may make
one up and just to see if he'll use it,
and just to see how many people repeat it.

Speaker 2 (01:09):
And I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:10):
I haven't decided what I want the made up term
to be, you know, but I I just I want
to come up with something, and I want him to
say it in a meeting with a bunch of other people,
and I just.

Speaker 2 (01:19):
Want to then I just want him for a week.

Speaker 1 (01:21):
I want to marinate and watch people in our meetings,
like our boss be like, well, you know you, we
just got to squeeze the apple tree from the bottom.

Speaker 3 (01:30):
It's like taking clover honey from the.

Speaker 2 (01:31):
Bottle, right right, you know what this right now?

Speaker 1 (01:34):
Our current climate, it's just like taking clover honey from
the bottle. Let somebody hear me say it. I swear
if we make something up, someone who repeat it, like
there's more than all of us. But I'm so happy
about this because a new study from Cornell suggests that
employees who are impressed by vague corporate buzzwords may actually

(01:58):
be worse at practical decision making, which doesn't surprise me,
because you're just copying.

Speaker 2 (02:04):
You're not thinking about it, You're just copying.

Speaker 1 (02:07):
Researchers examine how people react to corporate jargon like synergistic
leadership or growth hacking paradigms. They even created a corporate
BS generator that produced impressive sounding but meaningless statements and
asked more than a thousand workers to rate them. The
results showed that workers who found this kind of language
inspiring were more likely to see leaders as charismatic and visionary,

(02:30):
but they also scored lower on tests of analytical thinking,
cognitive reflection, and workplace decision making.

Speaker 2 (02:37):
That's because they're followers. You're not using your brain.

Speaker 1 (02:40):
Researchers say that this can create a negative cycle in organizations.
Employees who fall for flashy buzzwords may help promote leaders
who use that language, even if the ideas lack substance.
What's the one that comes to mind for you, let's
just overuse in annoying. There's like three right now. We
got to go on the thing to that just sounds scary.

Speaker 3 (03:01):
Think we're going to table this for after the meeting,
because I don't want to have another meeting after the meeting.
Let's just talk about it now. We don't need no table.
Let's just talk about it.

Speaker 1 (03:10):
Think Tank. By the way, I'd love to know where
it is. I'd like to go in it. It's it's metaphorical.
It's a feeling, right, Okay.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
All right? And what's the third one?

Speaker 3 (03:20):
What did I say, I'll table We're gonna circle back.

Speaker 2 (03:23):
Yeah, we've been circling back for a long time.

Speaker 3 (03:25):
Yeah, we're circling back after the holidays. We're circling back
right now. I'm like, we'll circle back once I can walk.
You know that sounds like.

Speaker 2 (03:32):
Yeah, readdress, No, I get it.

Speaker 1 (03:35):
I'm looking at a list of these things, though, I
think it's the same list I always go to when
I'm annoyed with these. Paradigm shift essentially the same thing
as move the needle, but it sounds more intelligent and
thought provoking. A paradigm shift represents a fundamental change in
the business model. We can't make a paradigm shift here.
You guys have to unbelievable. And we got to make
sure that we grab the low hanging fruit. Oh we

(03:57):
had a boss who love that one. Oh my gosh,
little baldhead more on, everything was low hanging fruit. Like, dude,
we're out of fruit. Bro I ate all the low
hanging fruit. I'm higher in the tree, somebody getting a tree,
climb up there, drop the fruit onto me.

Speaker 2 (04:16):
The one that cracked me up recently.

Speaker 4 (04:18):
Remember, it's like like, you guys do that, and I'm
just I'm going to lean in, you know, It's like,
what does that have to do?

Speaker 2 (04:23):
Oh, you guys do the work, and I'll just yeah,
support you. Okay, yeah, you'll support like I'm going to
lean in. That's what I'm going to do.

Speaker 1 (04:32):
A lot of these are not I don't know, run
it up the flagpole, see if the cat licks it up.

Speaker 2 (04:39):
Now, now, hold on a minute.

Speaker 1 (04:41):
Now, I would like to hear our chairman use that
one and then watch that get repeated whole day.

Speaker 2 (04:46):
Weird. I don't know. I guess it's supposed to.

Speaker 1 (04:50):
Be like let's just put it out there and see
if our customers will like.

Speaker 2 (04:53):
It if you work in like a pet store. I
don't know. I think we're being too literal with that one.
I'm just I've never heard that around here. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (05:03):
Well no, I mean I hope I hope today it
starts getting used. Oh if someone were to say the
iPod of whatever industry, you know, meaning like we just
reinvented you know, like well, you know it's like the
iPod of radio.

Speaker 2 (05:17):
Why can't we just talk, like why do we have
to like judge it up?

Speaker 1 (05:20):
I don't know, but look, Camlin, don't throw the baby
out with the bath water.

Speaker 2 (05:24):
Okay, I would never throw a baby. No, I always
do that. Yeah, you throw the baby out with the bathwater?

Speaker 1 (05:30):
Does that mean?

Speaker 2 (05:31):
What does that mean? It's like I don't know.

Speaker 3 (05:33):
Like to me, it's like something just being dramatic, like
one thing goes wrong and you're like, just just screw
the whole thing. We'll start off something new.

Speaker 4 (05:39):
I'm taking my ball and I'm going home. Basically, here's
one that applies to this place. Hope is not a strategy. Yeah, okay,
so hard that really that that one touched me. Honestly,
Hope is not a strategy. A T shirt yeah, honestly
that one. Merch store, merch store, print it up, we're

(06:03):
gonna sell it. Hope is not a strategy.

Speaker 1 (06:05):
Yes, boy, don't we run on that around here at
some of the highest levels.

Speaker 2 (06:12):
Is it bridge? It is?

Speaker 1 (06:14):
Hey, bridget good morning corporate saying that you can't stand.

Speaker 5 (06:19):
Put it in the parking lots, which means which means
that they don't have the answer so you put it
in the parking lot so they can go research the
answer and and get back to you later.

Speaker 1 (06:32):
That's ridiculous table in the park Okay, so yeah, we're
tabling it, but instead we're changing the venue. There the
tables in the parking lot. Yeah okay, yeah, no, all right, no,
I'm understanding. Thank you, bridget all right, you guys, you
have a good daddy. Let me see, we'll talk about
this offline.

Speaker 2 (06:49):
That that one always cares. No, no, just do it
right here.

Speaker 3 (06:54):
Right here, right now, no publicly you want to hear
right here all the time.

Speaker 2 (07:00):
Time is the critical mass? I don't know what that means.
I hear the critical mass all the time.

Speaker 1 (07:06):
Yeah, it's like we got to bring it to the
critical mass, like okay, all right, well I'm going to
talk in this microphone. Hopefully the critical mass attends. I
don't know, are alright, Hello, I'm really hoping for it.