The Most Annoying Sayings - at work

A colleague sent this to a couple people today and I thought it was pretty funny. Since starting work in the post grad world, I have learned SO MANY phrases! The amount of metaphors / expressions / play on words, etc, etc, that people in my office use day-to-day is insane.

The colleague who sent it admitted "there goes 50% of my vocabulary." Some of the phrases on the list are kind of random - and some I think are normal / appropriate and not annoying at all. But for the most part, it's pretty funny, because a lot are, well, annoying!

I'm most guilty for "long story short" and "anyways."  However, I can proudly say I've never used "bada-bing!" in a sentence (until now).

A couple I hear almost everyday at work are: "let's circle back "let's hit the ground running" and "let's talk offline." I don't necessarily think they're that annoying - I just think it's funny they're recognized for being annoying, and all of my colleagues use them daily.

Also, if a colleague ever said "balls to the walls" to me, I would jump off my balcony window.

Here's the link and the list! What are you most guilty of?

http://www.prnewsonline.com/free/The-Most-Annoying-Sayings-The-Epic-PR-News-List_17194.html?hq_e=el&hq_m=2552637&hq_l=6&hq_v=d0ec5f6038

• “It is what it is.”  (It is annoying)
• “I personally feel.”  (redundant, redundant)
•  “You need to be more passionate.” (You can’t make people feel passionate)
• The word “social” as a noun, as in, “Acme does social really well.”  (Being social means having friends, not selling product.)
• “I’m passionate about _________.”  (Really? Well lucky you. Guess what? I work for a living! )
• “I’m a ____________ junkie.”  (Since when is addiction a virtue?)
• “I’m just doing what I’m doing.”  (Redundancy will be the death of me.)
• “We need to own social media.” (Um, the public owns social media. What you really mean is you need to tie your social media efforts to a bottom line, be it financial, social good or reputation.)
• Curation
• News-jacking
• When young people say “Well in the old days…”   (Really? You’ve been around for 20-something years. The “old days” for you consisted of an era before social networking boomed and boy bands were the hot topic.)
• Guru
• “Hit the ground running”
• “Going forward”  (Meaning “from now on” as if you could also dictate past behavior)
• “No offense”  (Which means “I am about to offend you.”)
• “I’m confused”  (Which means “You’re confused and I am going to set you straight.”)
• Ideation
• “Circle back”  (Which means to bring your Conestoga wagon back into a circle.)
• Thought leadership
• “True that.”  
• “With all due respect…”  (Hearing that phrase, buckle-up: The words that follow will certainly bear no relation to “respect” or any recognized synonym.)
• “At any rate:”  (It is so seldom used in connection with a literal rate of any sort.)
• “Game on.”
• Winning
• “To make a long story short” (already makes your story six words longer.)
• Meh  (Thank you for your in-depth contribution to the conversation that really helps us solve the problem. Now, please, get back to your texting.)
• “I don’t hate that idea.”  (Otherwise known as “let’s think about that more.”)
• “We want to be in high-profile media”  (…said everyone on earth that wants to be in any media.)
• “How should we spin this?”
• “We need to be strategic.” (“Strategy” and “strategic” are so overused; no one explains what they mean by this, what the plan of action is or the tactics we’ll use to achieve the goal.)
• “Let’s take a step back.” (It’s an early indicator that you are dealing with a conservative organization where innovation is outside their comfort zone.)
• “Let’s not re-invent the wheel…”
• “Value proposition”
• “Let’s get out in front of it…”
• “Where the rubber meets the road…”
• Game time
• Irregardless
• Anyways
• Frankly …
• Honestly …
• Don’t take this the wrong way/personally …
• Incentivize
• Ideate
• “Out-of-the-box thinking”
• “If you will”
• Arrrrrrggggggg!
• Open the kimono (creepy)
• Drink the Kool-Aid
• Move the needle
• Let’s talk offline
• Boil the ocean
• Awesome
• Ramp up. Tee up. Synch up. (Throw up.)
• Push back
• Thought starter
• Scalable
• Factoids
• Synergy
• Run it up the flagpole and see how it flies.
• Skin in the game
• Ping
• Bandwidth
• Hard stop
• “Let’s flesh/flush this out.” I’ve heard it both ways, and both make me cringe.
• “Perfect!” (Used in response to a question answered, such as “Would you like to see the wine list?”)
• “We have a horse in this race.” (Less painful than one’s own skin the game, but same principle.)
• “Under the radar” (I understand the need for stealth at times, but it can cause mid-air collision?)
• “We will be ramping up soon, so be ready!”
• Kill two birds with one stone (poor birds)
• Self-starter
• 24/7
• Bada-bing!
• Leverage
• Give 110%  (What is wrong with your math?)
• Win-win
• Net-net
• My bad
• “In the weeds.”  
• “Put on your big girl panties.”
• I also think way too many trains have left the station and never mind how many people have been thrown under the bus.
• Utilizing
• “Transparency”  (Those who use this term are anything but transparent.)
• “Balls to the walls.” (What does this really mean? Maybe I don’t want to know.*)