Managerese and Language Superficiality

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Has anyone found the way managers, business executives, and other people in the controlling echelons of business tend to use a vapid form of English? I mean, hearing or reading the words, I am at a loss to derive any meaning from their unity. It seems like employees are expected just to know what their bosses mean since the words themselves mean nothing. Really, it seems bosses more often than not use language to convey social status and superiority more than actually conveying information of any significance.

When I worked at Sears, I cringed when some of the managers there blatantly misused words too big for them to understand. It is much like when a high school student browses the thesarus to improve word choice in a paper. The student often gets the context wrong, and it all comes out hilarious.

Another bizarre aspect of managerese is its turning of nouns into verbs ("verbing"). Maybe they're too lazy to say things like, "I want this word to be a verb," ("so I'll verb it!"). In a similar vein, they seem to hop from one word to another. They can't tell their employees that they want them to do something; they might "foresee" (oh those prophets!) that something will be done (how nice, it's passive too, downplaying the role of the employee). They might all start using another word for do a few weeks later.

Anyway, by and large, when I hear or read something written in this style, I find it essentially meaningless (an example of this style, although not nearly so extreme, is http://www.collegevalues.org/reflections.cfm?id=676&a=1).

Hell Yeah,

When i was managing, we used the phrase "trash-out" when it was time to take the garbage out. "We need a trash-out in the back room please."

I love the dumb phrases.

These days, at work I take a lot of "sit-downs" when i want to be a slacker.

There is one noun (a proper noun infact) that I like to use as a verb, Google.

this sort of thing drives me mad!

"i hear what you're saying"; "take it on baord"; "flag it up"... no more, cos i'll explode.

as for the verbing of nouns - guaranteed blood pressure problems, here. particular horrors are "prioritise", "burglarise", ... (list curtailed due to me fuming).

and there's that ghastly "key" thing. "the timing is key". key what? that's not even a sentence.

gods, how i loathe the mangling of language. people are going to end up with a vocabulary of about 4 words, if we ain't careful.

and before i'm accused of being an intellectual snob, and that some people can't use "big" words, i always teach my classes (mostly in inner city "deprived" areas) "big" words - they love them, and use them quite naturally. if we're going to assume low standards for kids, then that's what we'll get.

The word "prioritise" *is* a verb, whereas "burglarise" doesn't even sound like a word. (I know what it intends, but it's just a stupid word.)

Interesting story (or not): A friend of mine was telling me about how when he is high he gets obsessed about numbers, and will end up thinking of the same number all night long. I replied that it didn't seem like much fun. I also mentioned that I get that way when I'm sober, but in my case it's words. Sometimes I'll just start obsessing about the sound of a word for no reason, and will say it over and over to myself until it becomes "disconnected" from its meaning and devolves into just a series of sounds. Perhaps that's why my vocabulary is shrinking as I get older....

"The timing is [of] key [importance]." The problem here is that people like to abbreviate common phrases because they think it makes them seem more efficient and/or modern.

No we will not.

I think I was about 10 years old when I discovered "antidisestablishmentarianism". I could spell it easily enough, but it was a few years before I really knew what it meant.

ARRGRGHHGRHGGGHGHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh its a googol!

i do that - "toothpaste" is a favourite. "gravy" is another.

I tried going to www.10000000000000000000000000000000000 ... 000000.com but the DNS said the site doesn't exist!

huh, I don't think google is a noun.

yeeeeeeuuuuck!! !! ! the combination of toothpaste and gravy was just too much so soon after I'd woken up!

I know what a googol is and I was not refering to one.



What could it be other than a proper noun?

P.S. I use Google as a verb meaning to search with the Google search engine.

Why'd you have to beat me to it, I was going to do that.

Oh, and I know what you all mean. I'm used to talk like that.

Prioritize (with a Z not an S) is a word because it's gained nearly total acceptance and languague is an evolving/living thing. There is a need for this word because saying "to make something a priority" becomes tedious.

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=Prioritize%20

Usage Note: It can be argued that prioritize serves a useful function in providing a single word to mean “arrange according to priority,” but it is often regarded as corporate or bureaucratic jargon. Resistance to prioritize, however, has fallen dramatically in recent decades. In 1976, 97 percent of the Usage Panel rejected its use in the phrase a first attempt to prioritize the tasks facing the new administration. By 1997, however, 53 percent of the Panel approved the use of prioritize in the sentence Overwhelmed with work, the lawyer was forced to prioritize his caseload. This suggests that, like finalize, prioritize is rapidly securing a place in our everyday vocabulary.

I noticed that it was a verb too but didnt have the bottle to go up against vetivert on my own without a strong male figure to back me up.

Dictionary.com has this to say about the word "prioritize"

Personally, I would agree. Surely prioritize is a useful word!

I remember something from my first job that really bugged me. People kept trying to use the word pro rata (an adjective or adverb meaning "in proportion") to create a non-existent verb, to "pro rate". This especially annoyed me when I was expected to write about "pro rating" something and then put my name to what I'd just written.
In fact, since I hated that job so much, i tend to dislike most words that remind me of the place. For example, before I started that job I'd never in my life been advised to "liaise" with anyone.

Last edited by Klytus on 27 Oct 2005, 4:42 am, edited 1 time in total.