Recently we came upon a site called CorporateTrash.com, a directory of corporate jargon. We were struck by the site’s angry tone; the description reads, “We are three guys who’ve finally had enough and hope to put emphasis on how ridiculous corporate trash (the people & environment that breeds this filth) has become.”
Since we’ve spent a lot of our career doing employee communications for corporations, we were interested in what made these folks so ticked off. So we interviewed one of the site’s founders — known on the site as “Disgruntled Dan,” but in real life as Seattle Web designer Daniel Seliger, 31.
Media Orchard: When did you launch the site? What inspired you to create it?
Disgruntled Dan: The site initially launched in May of 2004. I started the site because I was bored with my job and looking for a creative outlet. Starting the site also gave me a venue to vent about the ridiculous corporate culture that exists in business today. I’m not anti-business or anything of that sort. I just think things have gotten out of hand in office environments with the jargon used, and behavior of employees and management.
MO: Have there been specific instances that have really bothered you regarding corporate double talk — anecdotes that come to mind?
DD: I don’t know that there is really any specific story I’d like to share, mostly because there have been so many, but there are generally three things about corporate double talk that bother me.
1) It’s often used to make lame people in lame jobs feel more important or better than they are. I think they feel if they have their own inside language that others don’t know or need explained to them that they are somehow superior. Really the day-to-day operations of a company or office are more often than not pointless and trite and people stuck in that sort of environment need escape. This little language that’s evolved makes them think they are above the real yawn that’s going on around them. I pity them actually — I’m on their side.
2) Another part of the equation is the use of corporate jargon to try and make things more exciting — the classic sports comparison is a big one. Your boss telling you that you’re “in the fourth quarter” on a project for example. Of course you’re not, but I think they say it to make themselves and/or the employee more excited. Either way, it’s just sad.
3) Lastly, I think the biggest reason that corporate double talk has really evolved to what is today, is the lack of straightforward leaders in government, business, households and other organizations. Everything is so overly politically correct and watered down. It seems there’s just less and less people that want to take control and be the boss — be direct and responsible for decisions — taking credit when it’s due and owning up to mistakes when they happen. There’s a real pass-the-buck mentality that dominates these days leading to less respect for people in positions of power. It’s rare that a leader emerges and is direct, assertive, but reasonable and demands respect. When they show up they generally throw people off now. We don’t expect it anymore. I, for one, welcome that sort of leader back — we clearly don’t have enough of them.
MO: What’s your favorite example of corporate double talk or jargon?
DD: Oh, that’s a tough one. The first term that comes to mind is “synergy,” which is really the corporate equivalent of “peace” — we’ll never have it, it’s a fictitious concept — but that’s not it. Then I thought, well, pretty much any business comparison to sports — they as a group are some of the worst — but no, that’s not it either.
I think the biggest ones that annoy me most are those that fall into the “putting out fires” camp. This whole group of terms could be done away with if people in charge would EVER just ONCE plan ahead. I have and will continue to have problems with bosses who simply react to everything, say “yes” to anything, and therefore are constantly bogged down in shit and it’s never until the end of a project that they “come up for air” and realize that the project is an absolute disaster. Then they start “tasking” people to “take ownership” and “put out fires.” Why? Because you, my friend, are an idiot. Ah, I feel better already.
MO: “The people and environment that breeds this filth”? How angry are you, really?
DD: I like what I do for a living, I like what my job duties are or should be. What I don’t like are the gray, white and subdued-blue cube farms, austere (in a very bad way) offices, and the PC fakeness of how people generally handle themselves in offices with corporate speak being just one piece of that whole rotten pie.
The whole environment and culture bothers me, bores me, and makes me want to scream sometimes. More often than not, I feel I’m wasting my life away in my little gray box. A coworker recently summed it up one day before a meeting — “I’m so incredibly busy I want to cry, but so incredibly bored I want to kill myself.”
—-
Note to corporate communicators: There are a lot of Disgruntled Dans out there. And what they’re looking for, more than anything, is straight talk.
Technorati tags: Web Design, PR, Public Relations, Employee Communications
Tags: dallas texas web desgin, dallas web design
Taking Out the Corporate Trash
Recently we came upon a site called CorporateTrash.com, a directory of corporate jargon. We were struck by the site’s angry tone; the description reads, “We are three guys who’ve finally had enough and hope to put emphasis on how ridiculous corporate trash (the people & environment that breeds this filth) has become.”
Since we’ve spent a lot of our career doing employee communications for corporations, we were interested in what made these folks so ticked off. So we interviewed one of the site’s founders — known on the site as “Disgruntled Dan,” but in real life as Seattle Web designer Daniel Seliger, 31.
Media Orchard: When did you launch the site? What inspired you to create it?
Disgruntled Dan: The site initially launched in May of 2004. I started the site because I was bored with my job and looking for a creative outlet. Starting the site also gave me a venue to vent about the ridiculous corporate culture that exists in business today. I’m not anti-business or anything of that sort. I just think things have gotten out of hand in office environments with the jargon used, and behavior of employees and management.
MO: Have there been specific instances that have really bothered you regarding corporate double talk — anecdotes that come to mind?
DD: I don’t know that there is really any specific story I’d like to share, mostly because there have been so many, but there are generally three things about corporate double talk that bother me.
1) It’s often used to make lame people in lame jobs feel more important or better than they are. I think they feel if they have their own inside language that others don’t know or need explained to them that they are somehow superior. Really the day-to-day operations of a company or office are more often than not pointless and trite and people stuck in that sort of environment need escape. This little language that’s evolved makes them think they are above the real yawn that’s going on around them. I pity them actually — I’m on their side.
2) Another part of the equation is the use of corporate jargon to try and make things more exciting — the classic sports comparison is a big one. Your boss telling you that you’re “in the fourth quarter” on a project for example. Of course you’re not, but I think they say it to make themselves and/or the employee more excited. Either way, it’s just sad.
3) Lastly, I think the biggest reason that corporate double talk has really evolved to what is today, is the lack of straightforward leaders in government, business, households and other organizations. Everything is so overly politically correct and watered down. It seems there’s just less and less people that want to take control and be the boss — be direct and responsible for decisions — taking credit when it’s due and owning up to mistakes when they happen. There’s a real pass-the-buck mentality that dominates these days leading to less respect for people in positions of power. It’s rare that a leader emerges and is direct, assertive, but reasonable and demands respect. When they show up they generally throw people off now. We don’t expect it anymore. I, for one, welcome that sort of leader back — we clearly don’t have enough of them.
MO: What’s your favorite example of corporate double talk or jargon?
DD: Oh, that’s a tough one. The first term that comes to mind is “synergy,” which is really the corporate equivalent of “peace” — we’ll never have it, it’s a fictitious concept — but that’s not it. Then I thought, well, pretty much any business comparison to sports — they as a group are some of the worst — but no, that’s not it either.
I think the biggest ones that annoy me most are those that fall into the “putting out fires” camp. This whole group of terms could be done away with if people in charge would EVER just ONCE plan ahead. I have and will continue to have problems with bosses who simply react to everything, say “yes” to anything, and therefore are constantly bogged down in shit and it’s never until the end of a project that they “come up for air” and realize that the project is an absolute disaster. Then they start “tasking” people to “take ownership” and “put out fires.” Why? Because you, my friend, are an idiot. Ah, I feel better already.
MO: “The people and environment that breeds this filth”? How angry are you, really?
DD: I like what I do for a living, I like what my job duties are or should be. What I don’t like are the gray, white and subdued-blue cube farms, austere (in a very bad way) offices, and the PC fakeness of how people generally handle themselves in offices with corporate speak being just one piece of that whole rotten pie.
The whole environment and culture bothers me, bores me, and makes me want to scream sometimes. More often than not, I feel I’m wasting my life away in my little gray box. A coworker recently summed it up one day before a meeting — “I’m so incredibly busy I want to cry, but so incredibly bored I want to kill myself.”
—-
Note to corporate communicators: There are a lot of Disgruntled Dans out there. And what they’re looking for, more than anything, is straight talk.
Technorati tags: Web Design, PR, Public Relations, Employee Communications
Tags: dallas texas web desgin, dallas web design