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Previous Thread Next Thread Print Thread Page 1 of 3 1 2 3 Office speak: 50 phrases you love to hate #177761 06/25/08 04:31 AM Joined: Aug 2006 Posts: 631 Hydra OP addict OP Hydra addict Joined: Aug 2006 Posts: 631 Some of these are bad; really, really bad. BBC: 50 office-speak phrases you love to hate AgghhhhhHHHHHH! Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: Office speak: 50 phrases you love to hate Hydra #177768 06/25/08 11:06 AM Joined: Dec 2000 Posts: 13,803 Faldage Carpal Tunnel Faldage Carpal Tunnel Joined: Dec 2000 Posts: 13,803 I don't have the time to address this fully right now; I'll just say that I really like number 33: 'You can't have your cake and eat it, so you have to step up to the plate and face the music.' What it's doing on this list is beyond me. It's not like you're going to hear this from every boss in every rah-rah speech at every company. It's just a wonderfully mixed metaphor. Whenever I see one of these extended pet parades I just wonder what the peevologist could be doing constructively rather than playing Caligula vs. the Waves. I do have to agree that, however you spell it, incentivize is silly when we have the perfectly good incent with the same meaning. Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: Office speak: 50 phrases you love to hate Faldage #177771 06/25/08 12:52 PM Joined: Aug 2006 Posts: 631 Hydra OP addict OP Hydra addict Joined: Aug 2006 Posts: 631 Perhaps if you had to work under the kinds of people who use these sorts of expressions... Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: Office speak: 50 phrases you love to hate Faldage #177772 06/25/08 01:24 PM Joined: Feb 2008 Posts: 1,067 Tasmania The Pook old hand The Pook old hand Joined: Feb 2008 Posts: 1,067 Tasmania Did you mean Canute? Or is Caligula v The Waves from Dumas' play or something? (which I've never read) Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: Office speak: 50 phrases you love to hate The Pook #177777 06/25/08 04:25 PM Joined: Oct 2005 Posts: 557 Dallas, TX M Myridon addict Myridon addict M Joined: Oct 2005 Posts: 557 Dallas, TX  Originally Posted By: Faldage the perfectly good incent What's this sandalwood doing in my office? I'm incensed at your attempts to encense me with incense! I specifically requested Chanel No. 5 or L'Air du Temps - you know, real French benefits! And longer coffee breaks so I can have more perks! You receive incentives to incentivize you. What do you get when you're incented? Incents? Incention? Incent only gets 4 hits in onelook - three dictionaries say "to incentivize" and Word Detective Last edited by Myridon; 06/25/08 04:33 PM. Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: Office speak: 50 phrases you love to hate Hydra #177779 06/25/08 06:15 PM Joined: Mar 2000 Posts: 6,511 lower upstate New York AnnaStrophic Carpal Tunnel AnnaStrophic Carpal Tunnel Joined: Mar 2000 Posts: 6,511 lower upstate New York Here's a fun game for you to play at your next business meeting. http://isd.usc.edu/~karl/Bingo/ Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: Office speak: 50 phrases you love to hate Myridon #177788 06/25/08 10:26 PM Joined: Dec 2000 Posts: 13,803 Faldage Carpal Tunnel Faldage Carpal Tunnel Joined: Dec 2000 Posts: 13,803  Originally Posted By: Myridon  Originally Posted By: Faldage the perfectly good incent You receive incentives to incentivize you. What do you get when you're incented? Incents? Incention? Incent only gets 4 hits in onelook - three dictionaries say "to incentivize" and Word Detective You get directives to direct you. Incent gets 460,000 ghits; incentivize gets 242,000. So sucks to the Word Detective. Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: Office speak: 50 phrases you love to hate Faldage #177794 06/26/08 02:45 AM Joined: Feb 2008 Posts: 1,067 Tasmania The Pook old hand The Pook old hand Joined: Feb 2008 Posts: 1,067 Tasmania [said with best Fraunsh accent] You are ze very seely peeple, y'know... Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: Office speak: 50 phrases you love to hate The Pook #177797 06/26/08 02:57 AM Joined: Feb 2008 Posts: 876 western NY twosleepy old hand twosleepy old hand Joined: Feb 2008 Posts: 876 western NY Yahr muzzer wuz a hamstair and yahr fazzer smelt of eldairbarries... and go ayway, or I shall taunt yuu a secohnd tahm... Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: Office speak: 50 phrases you love to hate Faldage #177801 06/26/08 04:23 PM Joined: Oct 2005 Posts: 557 Dallas, TX M Myridon addict Myridon addict M Joined: Oct 2005 Posts: 557 Dallas, TX  Originally Posted By: Faldage Incent gets 460,000 ghits; incentivize gets 242,000. Google does some odd things, but it's particularly odd when you try to compare searches on similar terms. As you say incent 456,000 incentivize 237,000 but incent -incentivize 851,000 The number of pages with "incent" - the number of pages that also have "incentivize" is much greater than the number of pages with "incent" WHAT? so (456,000 - X) = 851,000 X = -395,000 Likewise: incentivize -incent = 574,000 (237,000 - Y) = 574,000 Y = -337,000 Yet incentivize incent = 15,100 +incentivize +incent = 998 which is nowhere near 395,000 or 337,000. Last edited by Myridon; 06/26/08 04:25 PM. 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