Most (and Least) Annoying Corporate Jargon

If you’re talking to your co-workers in a meeting or sending a last email before lunch if you work in an office, chances are you’re using certain words or phrases that you wouldn’t necessarily use in your personal life. For example, you probably don’t ask your kids if they’re “in sight” of table manners, and tell your parents you’re “turning back” to see if they have a chance to finalize their will.

One reason for this is that you may be tolerant of such corporate jargon at work, but find it annoying and would rather avoid it the rest of the time. But are they all equally unpleasant, or are some of them particularly bad?

To find out which words and phrases people prefer over others, language learning website Preply polled more than 1,000 Americans in all 50 states in corporate jobs about some of today’s most common workplace slang terms. Here’s what respondents find most and least annoying.

Most Annoying Corporate Jargon

According to the survey results, these are the top 10 most annoying corporate jargon words and expressions :

1. Circle back
2. work hard play hard
3. Boots on the ground
4. Let’s write it down
5. Synergy
6. Insert a pin into it
7. Collect ducks in a row
8. low hanging fruit
9. reinvent the wheel
10. Drop it and see what sticks

Least annoying corporate jargon

While survey participants indicated that these were the least annoying corporate jargon words and phrases , this is not necessarily an overt endorsement. However, here’s what they found to be the best of the annoying group:

1. Synchronize
2. repel
3. Pipeline
4. Level set
5. Have in your back pocket
6. Window of opportunity
7. get hung up
8. align
9. Offline
10. On the same page

The full review contains even more information, including 20 of the most commonly used examples of corporate jargon and the influence Gen Z has on communication in the workplace.

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