{"id":55178,"date":"2021-12-06T11:15:40","date_gmt":"2021-12-06T19:15:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.creativecircle.com\/?p=55178"},"modified":"2021-12-06T11:15:40","modified_gmt":"2021-12-06T19:15:40","slug":"circling-back-what-does-office-jargon-really-mean","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.creativecircle.com\/blog\/circling-back-what-does-office-jargon-really-mean\/","title":{"rendered":"Circling Back: What Does Office Jargon Really Mean?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>We\u2019ve all been there before. We\u2019ve sat in a meeting or been cc\u2019ed on an email thread where someone threw out some jargon we\u2019d never heard before, but by the grace of context clues or impostor syndrome, nodded our way through it.<\/p>\n<p>Office work is full of ever-changing lingo, an entire language within a language. But what is supposed to be logistical shorthand often becomes something else entirely. Workers can use it to make something seem more important or serious than it is, passive aggressively ask for something, passive aggressively ignore something, or even just generally convey a level of competency the speaker may or may not have. You may even find yourself employing such vocabulary without truly understanding the meaning, living in fear of the day that someone finally asks you what you meant when you said \u201cprototype.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Well, fear not. To help you navigate the unwieldy world of white-collar words, here is your guide to some of the most common office jargon.<\/p>\n<h4>Circle back<\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>What it means:<\/strong> Let\u2019s start with an easy one. To circle back is to follow up.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Example:<\/strong> \u201cLet\u2019s circle back on this idea next week!\u201d<\/li>\n<li><strong>What it really means:<\/strong> This can go one of two ways:<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>When the speaker employs it referring to the future (\u201cLet\u2019s circle back on this\u201d), it really means they have no intention of dealing with the topic at hand and wish instead to gently kick it down the road, often in hopes that everyone forgets about it.<\/p>\n<p>On the other hand, when the speaker\/emailer uses it in the present referring to the past (\u201cHey, just circling back on this!\u201d), they are extremely stressed and reminding the recipient of a task or project that is wildly overdue.<\/p>\n<h4>Bubble up<\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>What it means:<\/strong> Related to \u201ccircle back\u201d in that it pulls from round imagery, to \u201cbubble up\u201d is to revisit an email conversation with the intention that the conversation\u2019s recency keeps it at the top of your inbox.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Example:<\/strong> \u201cJust bubbling this thread to the top of your inbox\u201d<\/li>\n<li><strong>What it really means:<\/strong> More effervescent than its two-dimensional cousin \u201ccircle back,\u201d \u201cbubble up\u201d is a gentler reminder to revisit an email thread, with the understanding that said thread may have gotten lost under a trove of other emails, as-of-yet unsubscribed sale announcements, media newsletters, petition requests, and other messages from retailers the recipient maybe bought something from once six years ago.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4>Ideate<\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>What it means:<\/strong> To ideate is to come up with an idea but like in a deep, innovative, visionary way.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Example:<\/strong> We\u2019ll take some time to ideate a solution for the distribution platform.<\/li>\n<li><strong>What it really means:<\/strong> Brainstorm. Yes, ideation and brainstorming are two different things, but the vast majority of the time in office workplaces, when people say \u201cideate,\u201d they really mean \u201cbrainstorm.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4>Leverage<\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>What it means:<\/strong> To employ advantages (often social media followings these days) to convert a certain behavior and reach a specified goal.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Example:<\/strong> We\u2019re leveraging our social media audience to bump up sales.<\/li>\n<li><strong>What it really means:<\/strong> To use. Or to let Instagram \u201cdo its thing.\u201d (\u201cLeverage\u201d is also misused very often.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4>In these trying\/unprecedented times<\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>What it means:<\/strong> This phrase is meant to acknowledge the extremely difficult emotional and physical toll the pandemic and current events are continuing to take on us.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Example:<\/strong> \u201cWe\u2019re working harder than ever before to make our employees feel safe and supported in these trying times.\u201d<\/li>\n<li><strong>What it really means:<\/strong> Often used to convey compassion for how difficult it is to live through political instability and a global health crisis \u2014 right before asking employees to do their job like it\u2019s a normal day.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4>Agile<\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>What it means:<\/strong> In project management theory, there are two main approaches. Waterfall is a structured, linear model in which one phase must be finalized before the next phase begins, while agile prioritizes a more flexible approach centering collaboration, adapting, and incremental progress.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Example:<\/strong> \u201cLet\u2019s stay agile on this project, team!\u201d<\/li>\n<li><strong>What it really means:<\/strong> \u201cAgility\u201d is often a warning that you will need to adapt to an increasingly demanding workplace with unrealistic expectations and unmanageable workloads in these trying times.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4>Offline<\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>What it means:<\/strong> To flag a topic that is irrelevant in the current conversation to revisit in a separate conversation.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Example:<\/strong> \u201cLet\u2019s take this conversation offline\u201d or even \u201cLet\u2019s offline this conversation.\u201d<\/li>\n<li><strong>What it really means:<\/strong> There are so many ways meetings can get out of hand, and so often, it comes down to one person just going off on a tangent. Taking something offline is a diplomatic way to get the conversation back on track without hurting anyone\u2019s feelings. And just like \u201ccircle back,\u201d it often does not matter if the conversation actually gets revisited.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4>Ping<\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>What it means:<\/strong> To directly message an individual.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Example:<\/strong> \u201cI\u2019ll ping you about the fonts we\u2019re thinking about.\u201d<\/li>\n<li><strong>What it really means:<\/strong> Similar to \u201coffline,\u201d \u201cpinging\u201d is a promise to get in touch with an individual that often goes unfulfilled.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4>Hop on a call<\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>What it means:<\/strong> To meet virtually.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Example:<\/strong> \u201cLet\u2019s hop on a call and knock this deck out.\u201d<\/li>\n<li><strong>What it really means:<\/strong> This could be an email, but I really enjoy the sound of my own voice.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4>NFT<\/h4>\n<p>What it means: Please don\u2019t get me started.<\/p>\n<p><strong><span class=\"TextRun SCXW258143936 BCX8\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\" data-contrast=\"auto\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW258143936 BCX8\">About the author.<\/span><\/span><span class=\"LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW258143936 BCX8\"><span class=\"SCXW258143936 BCX8\">\u00a0<\/span><br class=\"SCXW258143936 BCX8\" \/><\/span><\/strong><span class=\"TextRun SCXW258143936 BCX8\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\" data-contrast=\"auto\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW258143936 BCX8\">Sam Mani writes about work, creativity, wellness, and equity \u2014 when she\u2019s not cooking, binging television, or annoying her cat.<\/span><\/span><span class=\"EOP SCXW258143936 BCX8\" data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We\u2019ve all been there before. We\u2019ve sat in a meeting or been cc\u2019ed on an email thread where someone threw out some jargon we\u2019d never heard before, but by the grace of context clues or impostor syndrome, nodded our way through it. Office work is full of ever-changing lingo, an entire language within a language. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":55196,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[88,75],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-creative-insights","category-employer-insights"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.1 (Yoast SEO v25.6) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Circling Back: What Does Office Jargon Really Mean? | Creative Circle<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Office work is full of ever-changing lingo, an entire language within a language. But what is supposed to be logistical shorthand often becomes something else entirely.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Circling Back: What Does Office Jargon Really Mean?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Office work is full of ever-changing lingo, an entire language within a language. 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