Management May: Learning the Lingo
Corporate jargon is used between colleagues to introduce new ideas, provide status updates, describe productivity measures, or convey a business message.
As a first generation professional, you may not have experience using these phrases in regular speech and the definitions may not be included in the employee handbook, leaving you to piece together meanings through office conversation and context clues. While corporate jargon can be confusing, the below list is a digest of common phrases that can help you interpret.
Let’s make a list
Actionable
A task still needed to be performed; a to-do list.
“What are our actionable next steps?”
Alignment
On the same page or having the same understanding of a situation or task.
“I am seeking alignment on the action items.”
Baked In
Already considered or included in the understanding
“Q2 sales are baked into this analysis.”
Bandwidth
Time, capacity, or energy to dedicate to a new task, or be brought into a different project
“Do you have bandwidth to help with this presentation?”
Blue Sky Thinking
Best case scenario, a creative or innovative idea
“This is different than anything we have ever tried, definitely blue sky thinking!”
Boil the Ocean
An idea or project that would/will take an unreasonable amount of time to complete.
“Don’t boil the ocean trying to organize our files.”
Deck
A presentation of slides, usually to illustrate an idea or business pitch.
“How many slides are in the the new client pitch deck?
Deliverable
Another name for work that will be turned over to your leadership or manager; also know as work product.
“Due dates for the client deliverables are outlined in the latest statement of work.”
Hard Stop
The time someone must end a meeting, likely because they have another meeting immediately following.
“I can make a meeting at noon work for my schedule but I have a hard stop at 12:30.”
Heads down / DND
If you or a colleague are heads down, or on Do Not Disturb (DND), you are quite busy with limited time to dedicate to additional work
“No, I do not have bandwidth right now - I am heads down until this proposal is finished.”
Out of Pocket
Unavailable or unreachable
“I will be out of pocket until the plane lands.”
Lots of moving parts
A complicated situation with a lot of variables or components that need to work together for the idea to be successful.
“This project has a lot of moving parts; we need alignment from finance and sales too.”
Related: Plates or balls in the air
Action items still moving through to completion
“The program is in progress - we still have a few balls in the air, but everything should land smoothly.”
Move the Goalpost
Altering a project or action item to make it more difficult to complete, in perception or in fact
“After we finished the research, sales decided they needed to bake in different metrics. They completely moved the goalpost on us.”
Not to be confused with: Move the Needle
To move the needle is to make incremental or measurable progress toward a goal
“Today, we completed the prospectus, emailed the client, and received actionable feedback. By being proactive, we really moved the needle toward our goals this quarter.”
Pain Point / Roadblock
A known problem or issue that may delay or prevent success
“Securing the permits for the worksite may be a roadblock; securing timely approvals from that department has historically been a pain point.”
Punt
To reassign, delegate, or deprioritize a task or project
“Laurie had to focus on another deliverable - they punted the research to Tim.”
Sidebar
To speak with privately, as opposed to with the entire group
“If you have a second, I would love to grab a quick sidebar.”
Related: Take the Conversation Offline / Offline the Conversation
Move the topic or question from the larger group to a smaller group in a separate setting
“I’m not sure everyone on this call has the background on that; let’s take that question offline to work out the details between our departments before circling back to the group.”
Silo
Refers to an independent working style of a person or department, as opposed to collaborative or holistic
“Has anyone looped in Legal? They are pretty silo-ed from this project.”
Table Conversation / Pin the Topic
To pause the topic for a later time, or until pre-work can be completed
“Miles has a hard stop at noon, so let’s table this discussion for now. We can unpin in Q3.”
Zoom Out / 1000 Mile View
To take a look at the larger picture and how the individual deliverables or action items fit in
“We may be getting too granular on the details. Let’s zoom out to consider the whole picture.”
As opposed to: Drill down / Deep dive
To take a look in further detail, to analyze an aspect or portion of a project
“I have asked Strategy to drill down into the Q4 data; we should do a deep dive into those metrics.”
Acronyms at-a-glance
BAU
“Business as usual”
KPI
“Key performance indicators”
CPA
“Cost per acquisition”
“Certified Public Accountant”
EOD / EOW / EOM
“End of Day”
“End of Week”
“End of Month”
LY
“Last year”
FTE
“Full time equivalent” - refers to an employee's scheduled hours, divided by the employer's hours for a full-time workweek.
Ex. When an employer has a 40-hour workweek, employees who are scheduled to work 40 hours per week are 1.0 FTEs.
OKR
“Objectives and Key Results”
ROI
“Return on Investment”
Departments with Acronyms
HR
Human Resources
IT
Information Technology
UI
User interface, often refers to the design of to screens, buttons, and other visual elements, making sure they are polished and functional
UX
User experience, often refers to the entire interaction, including how the user feels about the interaction. the flow of a site, or if the interaction is fully realized and consistent
Corporate jargon can be confusing, but once you have the basics, you will find yourself incorporating like a pro.
However, try not to overuse corporate jargon - plain, specific language is always the best way to relay a message. As you are learning your office slang, make a list of commonly used phrases (or industry-specific terminology or acronyms) to keep at-a-glance. When in doubt, choose your favorite online search platform to ensure your use is correct. Be patient with your progress to learn this new language, one phrase at a time!
Citations
Chugh, Sneha. “Top 50 Corporate Jargon to Help You Survive High-Level Meetings.” Emeritus Online, 19 Jan. 2023, https://emeritus.org/blog/career-corporate-jargon/#:~:text=Corporate%20jargon%20is%20essentially%20workplace,corporate%20speak%2C%20or%20management%20speak.
Editorial Team, Indeed. “45 Examples of Business Jargon Terms and Phrases.” Indeed, Indeed Career Guide, 10 Mar. 2023, https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/jargons-in-business.
Kaplan, Zoe. “Corporate Jargon Gen Z Should Know.” Edited by Jeanine Skowronski, Forage, 29 Mar. 2023, https://www.theforage.com/blog/basics/corporate-jargon.
Sri, Vivek. “Asana’s Corporate Jargon Cheat Sheet.” Wavelength by Asana, https://wavelength.asana.com/workstyle-workplace-jargon-cheat-sheet/.
This article is not sponsored by any of the development platforms discussed above.
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