We outline the jargon definition and some common jargon examples from the business world, with translations of each jargon meaning.
Jargon definition
A special language of certain groups shaped by profession, class, milieu with special [colloquial] vocabulary.
Jargon is a way of expressing oneself in certain social, professional or similar social groups within a language. Nearly every professional field – engineering, every science, law, education and so on – will have its own particular jargon, and the jargon meaning may not be clear to those outside that professional field.
However, the jargon most of us will come into contact with is business or office jargon, including some common jargon examples that are shorthand expressions for situations where humor is used to cope,
Business jargon: source of most common jargon examples
It sounds cryptic, and all the abbreviations and the empty phrases, the codes and the anglicisms suggest that it is more about understanding aliens than trying to simplify internal communication in the workplace. Anyone who is new to the world of work needs a while to find out what their colleagues actually mean. But why do we even use jargon? What are all the abbreviations, codes and phrases of those common jargon examples supposed to be? And why is it not very productive to use the same jargon in external communication that is maintained internally?
Why do we use jargon?
Language very often has to do with defining oneself as part of a certain group. Otherwise there would hardly be any dialects – and they are in every language. Among other things, by speaking your dialect (if you do) you also signal a certain affiliation or a feeling of belonging to your home country, your family (the tribe or clan, so to speak), your personal environment. But what does jargon have to do with it? Very easily. The principle is the same, by using certain phrases you express that you feel you belong to the “clan” in the office.
This does not only mean that part of jargon that is used everywhere (in some cases ironically), i.e. terms like “asap” (as soon as possible, as quickly as possible), “mfg” (with kind regards), ” btw ”(by the way, by the way),“ put in CC ”(make someone a co-recipient of an email),“ FYI ”(for your information or for your interest, so“ for your information ”),“ thx “(Thanks, thank you very much) or“ IMO ”or“ IMHO ”(in my opinion or in my humble opinion, in my opinion) and a few more.
Often, this also refers to terms that – similar to a dialect – have only developed within a single company. Often these are your own further developments of “asap” or the like.
Good communication is key to success
For newcomers to a company, the specific jargon that is only used there is often a mystery. That doesn’t have to be a problem if the colleagues use the codes in a reasonably limited manner and do not use them as mastery knowledge towards newcomers – in the sense of “I’ll show the new colleague how things work here, she should ask me when she does not understand “.
Anyone who joins a well-established team usually has enough to do with understanding the processes and getting to grips with how things are actually done. You don’t want your office to have a jargon problem, which would require newcomers to have to spend additional energy and time cracking encrypted office communication.
If jargon is used excessively, this usually leads automatically to problems, not only in communication with customers (more on this in the last section). Anyone who uses excessive jargon accepts that misunderstandings can permanently occur, which reduce productivity and often lead to personal conflicts. Often these conflicts spread to entire departments. In addition, it is not uncommon for questions to arise as to what is actually meant – although the perpetrators themselves are to blame for the use of the cryptic office jargon.
Jargon examples from the business world
Abbreviations
Abbreviations are among the most common jargon examples. As already mentioned, there are abbreviations in companies today that really only exist there, and it is actually something like a dialect of its own. Of course, we cannot go into all the “office dialects” that are used throughout the world at this point – but at least we would like to introduce you to the well-known abbreviations.
• ASAP: First of all, there is the well-known “asap”, which stands for “as soon as possible”, that is, as soon as possible. What is meant is that something must be urgently completed, transmitted or discussed, between the lines: It is almost too late! When superiors write asap, it’s really serious. One of the few words that have made it from jargon into everyday life, because asap is often broken ironically in private surroundings.
• TGIF: TGIF, which stands for “thank God it’s Friday”, is probably just as well known by now: Friday at last. Is often used as a final remark in internal mails, if you want to be particularly original, it is best to use the abbreviation on Wednesday morning. TGIF has also made it a little bit into private life.
• OOO: OoO is also often read, especially in automatically generated reply mails. It’s just an out of office notice. “OoO” means nothing else than “out of order”, not in operation, and conveys that the request made cannot be answered at the moment. If you still haven’t received an answer to your email after a few days, you’re welcome to ask.
• IMO: Anyone who puts the abbreviation IMO under a letter means that the whole thing represents their own opinion (“in my opinion”). So it is not an official position, but an assessment. IMHO is applied thicker: “in my humble opinion”, in German “according to my humble opinion”. However, IMHO is mostly only used by colleagues or superiors whose opinion is anything but modest, i.e. of great importance for the department – which is why everything is just a masquerade. If supervisors use IMO or IMHO, this is more of a code that everything is done exactly as suggested by them.
• BTW: Everyone knows the three letters “btw” (“by the way” – by the way) by now, this abbreviation is probably one of the few that does not contain a hidden message like some of the abbreviations already described. It means nothing more than additional information, for example at the end or as an attachment to a mail. Sometimes there is no direct reference to the actual content of the message, but the addition can possibly be an advantage as an information advantage. Something like this: “btw: If you are in the appointment with the customers, then remember to put name badges on your lapel, the CEO is so hard to remember names.”
• CEO: While we’re at it, with the most common abbreviated jargon examples – the CEO is the “Chief Executive Officer”, something like the CEO. Every now and then he has the COO, the Chief Operating Officer, at his side, who is roughly the top manager responsible for the operational business. The CFO, on the other hand, is the Chief Financial Officer.
• FYI: The well-known FYI – “for your information”. If a message begins with this abbreviation, you will of course read it, but you do not have to react to it. Most of the time, the content is valuable for you as background knowledge, but not directly relevant. If, on the other hand, a message begins with FYA, then the senders want to refer directly to the funny content: FYA means “for your amusement”.
• FUBAR: Anyone who really wants to hit the wall and show what they are up to in terms of jargon and abbreviations should use the code “fubar” as often as possible. Because that is a wonderful way to unsettle the naive colleagues who now think that you have said “terrible”, even if it does not fit into the context. “Fubar” means something completely different, namely “fucked up beyond any repair” (also: “fucked up beyond all recognition”), it probably comes from the language of the US military and means that a certain thing completely hits the wall driven and can no longer be repaired. This could be a broken deal, which would have been of the utmost importance to the company, or a defective printer.
Jargon examples with a negative meaning
Okay, there are some jargon terms that are completely neutral, but many of them are shorthand for negative – alebeit sometimes humorous – expressions. For example: The term “filing T”, in which something can be stored that is not or no longer needed: in the trash can, is pretty harmless.
• Management by lemon squeezer: In many companies, codes have been established that describe the qualities of management either at their own company or at a customer, none of which is positive. The code “Management by lemon squeezer” mostly refers to one’s own company, which says that management squeezes the workforce out by pressure in order to get more performance out of it. Sooner or later, however, that backfires.
• Management by surprise: With the four following codes, you have to imagine the following situation: You are sitting in an internal meeting in which a customer project is being discussed. The project or the customer is difficult, or your own managers or project leaders are not working properly and now have to work with codes in order to divert suspicion. Terms such as “Management by Surprise” are used – which is to say that the decision-makers on the customer side are first actionist before they think. That is to say that you cannot help the confused situation yourself.
• Management by Titanic: The project was doomed from the outset if incompetent people were in charge.
How phrases work in the office
Phrases are that are very popular in jargon often come across as meaningless and seemingly insignificant. But in truth, the information to be transported is hidden here between the lines. Look familiar to you? Exactly – the same methods executives use when it comes to giving employees a bad review. Using a few examples, we would like to clarify how empty phrases and phrases work and what they actually mean:
• “We should reflect (concentrate) on our core business / core competencies.” The bottom line is nothing more than: Stick to your knitting, we should have stopped expanding our business area to this other field. If we stop that now, then maybe we can save on the balance sheets what can still be saved.
• “We finally have to implement that!” Means that a (supposedly) important thing has been lying around for a long time and must finally be tackled because nobody has had time to feel responsible. So it can’t be that important.
• “The point now is to bundle the synergy effects!” You can put it that way, even if nobody knows exactly what that means. But between the lines it is expressed that money should be saved by cutting tough working hours for certain projects. In extreme cases, it is about the union of departments and thus directly about jobs.
• “I’ve got it on the screen.” This is what people like to throw in at a meeting when they talk about a project or plan that has somehow disappeared into oblivion. If, on the other hand, you say you have a certain matter on your radar, you want to show that you are dealing with it as a matter of course. Even if that’s not true in many cases.
Why jargon can be harmful when communicating
Jargon is a means of communication that requires one attitude above all: the distance to it. Anyone who permanently uses the enumerated codes and abbreviations without reflecting on them is walking on thin ice, because at some point these terms will become flesh and blood. Then they become a matter of course, they determine everyday office communication and at some point probably even jump over to external customer communication.
And should that be avoided? But why actually? Well, on the one hand it is simply the case that you will not be understood by business partners or customers if you throw around the office gibberish you are used to from your company. Also, you are marginalizing the other party and that gives the customer at least a bad feeling.
Anyone who unnecessarily complicates and shortens communication may even be rated by external people as an unprofessional partner. This not only casts a bad light on you, but in principle also on your entire company.
So it is as well to be careful. Because of course you have to be able to speak to external partners in technical terms at all times, otherwise this could be interpreted as a lack of competence. At the same time, you have to avoid drifting completely into this jargon of technical terms and possibly handling abbreviations or codes that are at least ambiguous. You quickly acquire the image of an exclusive and unfriendly person.
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