Reaching out

[Icimoi]

I'm dealing with someone at work who never says that he'll contact someone, speak to them, phone them, email them etc - he always says he will reach out to them, or asks them to reach out to him. When he does it with me I find it hard to keep a straight face. I've noticed it occasionally with other people. Where on earth has this nonsense come from?

I can almost cope with "reaching out" if it specifically refers to seeking assistance from somebody - like a drowning person reaching out for a life buoy. It's when it's just used to mean contact ing somebody that it really rankles.

there was a job advertised this week as proposition manager!

That presumably goes along with the advice to, "Manage with a whip and a feather." I snigger every time I read it (in a handbook,) because I am that professional.

You can't use words like disseminate, because apparently people won't understand it. I got told off for saying "mea culpa" - at least "my bad" would have been understood. They have all known me enough time to know I am not the sort of person to come out with "my bad." I can train them in using a dictionary if they need it...

There's a featurerette in this month's Cosmopolitan with a reference to "we must double-click on that". I wonder which of today's anodyne cliches are yesterday's management speak bollocks.

I think it's been imported from the US. I've just been watching the US version of 'House of Cards' and they are always 'reaching out' to people.
Or, as I say, phoning them....

Aw, I like it! He'll reach out to them, in a huggy soulful way. Awwww.

Love that a couple of you have experienced the RUSH email since this thread started, seriously, the word is urgent, not rush,and if you stick it on every email you send, it loses its impact.

There is a couple that drive me absolutely nuts. They are:
Reach out
I'll flag that
Touch base
And using ask as a verb. 'I've got a few big asks for you'
A nameless person who sits opposite me uses them all in every single phone call they make. It makes me want to put her stapler in jelly.

I'll drop your stapler out the window. They'll know it's you, it's got your name tippexed on it.

To me, 'reach out' just covers all the potential ways of contacting someone as in 'I don't care if you text, tweet, phone, email, IM, fax or page this person, just make contact with them somehow and let them know we need x,y or z.' I think it's one of those terms which has become more popular as the potential ways of contacting someone have increased.

Contact is a perfectly good word that does that though Dojo. Or get in touch. Reach out is just grim

Indeed, but where would we be if there was just one word for everything! I personally would use contact, but I can see how 'reach out' has become more prevalent. To me it also has more of an air of asking for a favour rather than just normal getting in touch with someone who is also just doing their job. I have usually heard 'reach out' used when asking for a favour, advice or something above and beyond their normal remit.

I'm so glad I'm self employed and there's only a few of us working together (and we're all mates). Our conversations go like this:

"Oi. Oi. OI!"
"Fucking what?"
"Did you call the wholesalers yet?"
"Jesus fuck! I said I would. Do you want coffee?"
"Yeah, and change the channel. One more episode of Bargain Hunt and I'm going to stab somebody in the face."

4 hours later

"If you don't call them fucking wholesalers right now I'll stab you in the face. Knob."

We totally reach out with our needs and cascade our feelings along the parallel in clearspeak.

Greebo, do you have any vacancies?

I had to join a conference call at short notice today with Americans.

There was much reaching out and touching base and so on. I had to put my phone on mute so I couldn't be heard muffling my giggles which were as a direct result of this thread.

Eww, enough with the reaching and touching.

Eww, enough with the reaching and touching.