2009's most annoying business expressions

This year has seen its fair share of annoying catch phrases enter the corridors and emails of the business world, according to Forbes.

Here's a selection of some of the jargon terms that went from zero to hero (ha!) over the last year:

• 'Learning' (used as a noun) - it's claimed terms like 'key learning' and 'team learnings' aren't just annoying they're also grammatically incorrect
• 'Take it to the next level' - said to be a term that means absolutely nothing by suggesting a goal that's devoid of quantification
• 'Manage expectations' - really just a euphemism for underperforming
• 'Low hanging fruit' - a colourful but potentially aggravating term that means 'doing the easy things first'
• 'Break down silos' - a term used to describe the need for more effective communication that only works if people know what a silo is

More annoying (but fun to read about) business expressions are available here.

Comments

[Business Communication]

For sure, these statements are annoying but I'm glad to find a place to keep up with all these expressions. Especially for international business, I do not think people realize how confusing they become when getting too creative with their expressions in the workplace.

[Russell Linwood FAIM]

One of my favourites is "go forward" or "Take X forward" when referring to some action intended for an organisation. Anyone else experience this one in the world of "dribblespeak" communication that we suffer these days?