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?

I think you all need to manage your expectations. (Shit!)

Oh yes, all of the above.

"Rocking a smoky eye". Just the one, dear?

Also "passed".

@boreofwhabylon

Agree re passed. A lot of these things are creeping americanisms.

I also dislike call instead of phone.

My colleagues are OB. SESSED. With reaching out. I’m hanging in there, putting it in ironic quotation marks, but I know I’ll give up and join them soon.

I’m not even at the ironic quotation marks stage. Yet. I have tried to say it, once, just to see how wanky it made me sound but I could not get the words out without saying it in a funny voice and doing a ‘reaching out’ hand motion.

My pet hated word in the workplace is 'resource' when what's actually meant is 'people'. As in have we got enough resource to accomplish X, Y and Z?

This, I think, is a sop to people who work in HR/project type roles deciding who to assign to which project. They are a bit insecure about what they do when faced with the coding, commercial and finance experts working on the same project team. Calling what they do ‘resourcing’ makes them sound cleverer and more important than they really are, so they have adopted it, and its derivative (‘resource’ instead of ‘people’) enthusiastically. I have worked with quite a few of these people. They also enjoy using their own jargon, including ‘glide path’ (deciding how many people you need in six months).

So in summary, that one is just wank.

I hate " a cheeky" this or that. You're not being a rebel because you describe your wine/piece of cake/nap as "cheeky". So annoying.

Oh Christ, are people still saying that? A cheeky glass of wine. Cringe. I thought that even the stupids had realised that that makes them sound idiotic and cliched.

There's a lot of 'reaching out' going on at my work place at the mo. As my lovely colleague said 'FFS you're not in the Four Tops'

Oh Christ, are people still saying that? A cheeky glass of wine. Cringe. I thought that even the stupids had realised that that makes them sound idiotic and cliched

Sadly yes. And the "it would be rude not to".

Talking about a red ‘lip’. No there are TWO of them!

Remembered another one that's recent: pivot, as in let's talk about how we've pivoted to deal with the current crisis .
and ping instead of send (yuck)

Yuck, ping. I loath that one too.

Passed as in dead? I feel guilty for finding this irritating. My daughter says it a lot, which seems odd as it feels like an old lady who is into spiritualism. What’s wrong with the word “dead”, it’s what people, animals, plants do. It feels like pussy-footing around to say passed.

A thing someone likes 'is life'. "peanut butter is life" etc.

YYY to "gentle reminder". The most passive aggressive phrase ever invented, and guaranteed to give me the hump. Just ask me to do the thing! If I've forgotten to do the thing, that's on me - so by all means pointedly reference your email of last week. But if you send me a gentle reminder I will hate you.

I hate “reach for”, as used extensively in articles about dieting.

Instead of biscuits, reach for an apple!

You mean EAT, write EAT. It’s like eating is so taboo in this context that it can’t even be uttered.

I hate it too. As others I always imagine a hand reaching out or someone getting hold of your arm with a soppy/sad/pained/overly sympathetic expression. It's awful.

I must admit I quite like 'my bad' though... a lot easier than 'oh gosh, I'm so sorry I cocked up there'

A simple "sorry, my fault" would do though.

I hate gentle reminder too. It's patronising.

The way people have started "speaking to" a presentation, report or idea rather than speaking about.

e.g.

"Valerie, can speak to the report on this month's figures"

"I can speak to that"

Speak to what? Picturing Valerie gently lecturing a collection of A4 pages.

Too many phrases to mention, but I LOATHE "reaching out", OP. Loathe it. My boss is an incredibly sarcastic git yet he's been using this phrase a lot lately. I don't know if he's taking the piss or he really thinks it softens the blow when he delivers bad news. Doesn't work either way.

Ditto on the "my bad". I've never heard it said in a way that is in any way apologetic. It always seems to come with a cutesy head tilt and a silly smile: "Oh, SOZ! My bad," titter, titter... It's up there with those who love to explain away their penchant for lateness with a: "Oh you know me! I'm NEVER on time," titter, titter...

In the workplace, new systems are not introduced any more – they are 'rolled out'. And people don't negotiate – they 'push back'.

I hate in the pipeline, it makes me imagine a dirty pipe with dirty water going through it. Lol.

I also hate close of play even worse COP. Its meaning has nothing to do with play and it just doesn't make sense anyway.

In my workplace, management roles are only open to those using ALL of the above phrases in every sentence/email

We're reaching out' and 'rolling out' all over the place and usually in 'granular detail' (my most loathed phrase!)

The way people have started "speaking to" a presentation, report or idea rather than speaking about.

Oh yes, this one is insidious. Perhaps they think it sounds more intellectual than ‘talk about’.

I always say, “Eh? Speak to the numbers?” and nobody dares try the “oh you must be so stupid, not understanding our jargon” gambit because I am demonstrably not. They revert to ‘talk about’ then.

Snobs and best of the world.