The Most (And Least) Annoying Corporate Jargon

Whether you’re speaking with your colleagues in a meeting, or firing off one last email before lunch, if you work in an office environment, chances are you utilise certain words or phrases that you wouldn’t necessarily use in your personal life. For instance, you probably don’t ask your kids whether table manners are “on their radar,” or tell your parents that you’re “circling back” to see if they had a chance to finalise their will.

One reason for this is that maybe you tolerate that kind of corporate jargon at work, but think it’s annoying, and would prefer to avoid it the rest of the time. But is it all equally obnoxious, or is some of it particularly bad?

To find out which words and phrases people favour over others, the language-learning website Preply asked more than 1,000 Americans across all 50 states working in corporate jobs about some of the most common workplace jargon in use today. Here’s what the respondents deemed the most and least irritating.

The most annoying corporate jargon

According to the survey results, these are the top-10 most annoying corporate jargon words and phrases:

1. Circle back
2. Work hard, play hard
3. Boots on the ground
4. Let’s table this
5. Synergy
6. Put a pin in it
7. Get ducks in a row
8. Low-hanging fruit
9. Reinvent the wheel
10. Throw it up and see what sticks

The least annoying corporate jargon

Although the survey participants indicated that these are the least annoying corporate jargon words and phrases, that’s not necessarily a ringing endorsement. Still, here’s what they deemed the best of an irritating bunch:

1. Sync
2. Pushback
3. Pipeline
4. Level set
5. Have in back pocket
6. Window of opportunity
7. Loop in
8. Align
9. Take offline
10. On the same page

The full survey has even more information, including the 20 most commonly used examples of corporate jargon, and the influence of Gen Z on workplace communication.