To Loathe the Phrase "Reaching Out"?

[DamnYankee]

Maybe this is just a thing in the states.
Instead of saying, "I'm contacting you because...", it's "I am reaching out because...," etc. It just seems kind of pitiful. Mental images of someone actually extending their arms pleadingly.

What jargon sets your teeth on edge?

Yep, it’s jargon, really winds me up.

Reaching out/leaning in.

And the awful 'suck it and see'.

Not office jargon per se but I hate ‘rocked up’... especially when people aren’t actually going anywhere but joining a Teams call

I hate "reaching" out too. It's definitely an Americanism that is slowly creeping in to UK and it needs to stop now.
Another pet hate of mine, not so much a saying as such, but people who ask themselves a question and then answer it, for example "would I do it again? Sure" Instead of just saying "yes, I would do it again" Gets right on my tits

I hate " Reaching Out" too!!
I nearly stopped watching Designated Survivor because they used it so often in each episode

Here's a flowchart showing when it may be used in the workplace

imgur.com/gallery/YOblu

I can almost almost tolerate 'reaching out' if it used it a kind of 'making overtures toward' way, but as alternative to just saying 'contact', it's completely absurd.

Cannot stand it! It's used so often where I work (PR) and it drives me crazy. It's worse than "going forward".

Thanks for reaching out. Moving forward let’s try to get to a place where we can all feel comfortable

Yeuch! So false too.

Reaching out - looping back. It's nonsense. There is a lot of it about.

I hate that one, and I hate "going forward" instead of "in future".

Yep I hate it. My friend is always telling me to 'reach out" if I'm struggling. It really bugs me.

I also hate 'sourced'. Why is everyone sourcing things all of a sudden. I bought some flour in Morrisons this week. I didn't source it.

I hate 'reaching out' too. I always imagine someone drowning in quicksand with a pitiful, doomed expression on their face as everyone ignores their outstretched hand.

I also hate 'my bad', 'a trouser' (where's the other leg?) and 'a red/pink/nude lip' (again, missing lip).

@ErrolTheDragon
You made my day. DH and I crying with laughter over here!

@DontTellThemYourNamePike

Yep. "My bad" is awful.

Our bad.
Love, The States
Not being sarcastic. Genuinely sorry.

There's a lot of 'checking in' going on at the moment too I've noticed. (Teaching)
If you send a colleague or parent an email or phone them you are 'checking in'. Never happened before all this current business.
I bloody hate it. 'Just checking in blah blah blah' .

By the way, another one I hate is curated. Where did that come from? Also so false

I started to hear ‘reaching out’ a lot on American programs. Madam Secretary was one of the worst offenders!
I hate it with a passion 😩

Circle back, jump on a call, and my least favourite: come to Jesus

Reaching out has reached epic proportions. It’s been heavily adopted by younger people especially (nothing at all against millennials on my part, but to them it’s entirely normal to say it in place of contacting).

It makes me want to scream. It feels so overly emotive. “Can you get back to me with the estimated arrival time?” “Sure, I wo reach out to you tomorrow.” 😳 It always sounds 100 times to emotive for any situation (unless, perhaps, you work in a funeral parlour).

It sounds unprofessional to me and way too emotive.

I am also (& this may just be in Canada) loathing the term senior in place of old people or the elderly. It doesn’t help that it sounds really whiny in our accent. “As a seeeeeeenior I feel I deserve more attention”, “we want to help out seeeeeniors enjoy their golden years”. I’ve told my kids that in under a decade when I’m officially retirement age to refer to me as old or elderly and I’ll disown anyone who calls me a seeeeeenior. I may have to emigrate. If it hasn’t got to the UK yet, stamp on it fiercely if it tries to make inroads.

Bloody autocorrect - “too emotive” not “to”. And “sure I will reach out to you”. Tired and typing with one eye closed doesn’t help.

Love that flow chart Errol.

I have been following the progress of ‘reaching out’ for ten years, when it first infected the workplace. Hideous, emotive term. Its genesis has gone like this:

1. New senior (seeeeenior: that is for you, Rita’scornershop) colleague comes in from PWC, starts using it. Everyone sniggers.

1. The blasted phrase starts to take root amongst impressionable colleagues wishing to virtue-signal their ‘soft skills’ so that they can include it in their year end appraisal.

1. Tipping point reached, where ‘reaching out’ starts to invasively crowd out indigenous phrases like ‘I will contact you next weeks or ‘I spoke to X’. A bit like grey squirrels edging out squirrel Nutkin. Any other phrase suddenly considered ‘abrupt’ or lacking in #bekind kudos.

1. Dreaded phrase goes viral. Can it be stopped?

Yep it's really wankey.

One I find that's on the same wankeyness level is when someone at work someone says "can I have that by close of play today". Oh, so we are playing cricket (is that where it comes from?) today then?

It's all gobshite.

Wombat, I can only hope that in my final years I will dimly be aware that young people have stopped saying it and I’ll be able to die happily (as an old, or elderly, person).

I don’t know it can be stopped, lord knows I’ve tried (have actually mentioned to people that I find it a bit strong and would prefer if they’d contact me instead as it is making me that cranky). All we can hope is that it will peak and the downhill side will be arriving soon. And a glorious future that will be.