Three related things happened in the same morning last week and the coincidence made me smile. First of all, I had a message from a well-known search engine company, telling me that they were ‘reaching out’ to offer a ‘deep dive into my data’. Of course, I knew what they meant, but I wasn’t proud of it. When groaning about business jargon, people often remark: “Would you actually say this in a real-life conversation?”, but in this case, these people actually would. I think it’s healthy to question what’s happened to our lives when we find ourselves working in an environment where people talk like that.
Moments later, I saw this on Twitter:
Here's a handy way to see whether it's appropriate to use the term 'reach out' in the office: pic.twitter.com/YdsrnsKUaY
— Rick Turner (@Orchard_Rick) July 4, 2016
Then I became aware of this wonderful mousemat, made as a promotional item by my favourite copywriting agency in the world (click to enlarge):
There must have been a paradigm shift going forward. And one more thing …
I think its time you ‘opened the kimono’ Chris
“Favourites” include:
I’ll just need to eyeball it ( = I’ve forgotten the word look)
Can I have visibility of that? ( = please send it to me)
So we’re on the same page ( = do what you’re told)
What’s the timescale on that? ( = Have you still not finished that?)
It’s difficult to beat Lucy Kellaway’s Guffpedia in the FT.
https://ig.ft.com/sites/guffipedia/