To hate this phrase a manager at work is using

[ellemenopee]

Cross pollination.

He's started saying it and writing it all the time. For example, 'it is important team A and team B are coming together at this stage to cross fertilise/pollinate knowledge and learning'.

It feels like manager buzz word jargon having gone wrong. I hate it. Feels inappropriate in a work context.

AIBU?

Oh I'm definitely shoehorning this into a meeting as soon as I have the available bandwidth!

YANBU, it's cringey and he should stop right now. Unless perhaps you work with bees or on a farm.

I think you just need to answer him with "There we are then" every time he says it!

YANBU - that's just cringeworthy!

I had a manager once who used to say 'on that basis' and 'very much so' a lot It drove me absolutely insane. No idea why as they're not particularly bad phrases, he just over used them.

I think I used to subconsciously listen out for them!

@2bazookas

Just reply in kind , introduce lots more horticultural phrases to work talk

bearing fruit
going to seed
Needs some pruning
green shoots
Harvesting the results
weeding out the surplus
pest control
feeling sluggish
fruitful meeting
fertile ground for growth
muddy waters

With luck your colleagues will catch on and find lots more.

New ideas that aren't as great as they sounded in the meeting - throwing a runner

Combining two unrelated sectors into some massive mutant - grafting

Combing two vaguely related sectors in the knowledge that the results might look pretty, but are doomed in the long run - F1 hybrid.

Letting the middle manager have a pet project to chuck money at, it looked good but sales crashed after a short time and the resulting team and everybody's a tad bitter - bolting.

And my personal favourite.

Making redundancies amongst the middle management - pricking out.

I mean it is annoying but ultimately as long as he is making himself understood how bad can it be!

Unless he's an actual talking bee he needs to stop

YANBU... what does he think you are? An apple tree?

What a twat.

A manager I knew was called "GB" for years. He finally realised that it referred to Gordon Brittas.

It sounds like I’ve got this phrase to look forward when term starts back in September. Can’t wait for staff meetings again!

YANBU. Management speak is all bollocks

Management-speak has been going from bad to worse in the last ten years. Does someone have a career in thinking these phrases up? You have to keep a sense of humour and remember those who use it or over use it are out to impress, boost their own egos or pretend that they are above or ahead of you. Plain speaking with normal words will always win the day IMO

It’s awful. I hate management speak. I particularly hate ‘drilling down’. I have also noticed that politicians are ‘clear’ about everything

Goddammit that made me laugh out loud!! Thank you.

Theres a novel by Connie Willis, Bellwether, which satirizes amongst other things Management initiative and management language.

In it, one character consistently writes the same 5 points whenever there is a brainstorming/breakout/group session during these workplace intiatives, which apparently work in all situations. These are:

1. Optimize potential.
2. Facilitate empowerment.
3. Implement visioning.
4. Strategize priorities.
5. Augment core structures.

DH has been playing a game for many years, in various roles and companies to shoehorn at least 2 of these phrases in similar meetings, and occasionally has managed all 5 of them. So far no one has noticed, and his contributions are welcomed enthusiastically.

I'd love to be a fly on the wall if my son's manager came out with this......My son is autistic and VERY literal, it doesn't bare thinking about, well it does and it would be comical!

YANBU. But does he rub the front of his trousers when he says it?

🤮

At boring meetings we would to count clichés , used by our manager, Best - ' They have us in a cleft stick over a barrel!

It's a bit cringy.

I die slightly inside each time my manager comes up with a new "phrase" - so painful!

When I worked in the NHS every one of the admin staff would choose a management speak phrase and whoever's was said first won. Populate the matrix, blue sky thinking etc etc. Another game we played was to claim a few words and when we had to present a case to the funding panel we had to use our words. The guy who sat next to me who was gay chose "blowjobs" and "pathways" and went about the office singing them to the tune of "my favourite things" - and he managed to get them into his speech too! I gave up working there when I moved house. I miss it (these fun parts of it)

How cringy

A girl at work keeps saying 'yes, so I rock up at this meeting .... ' or 'I wonder who will rock up today.....' Drives me insane!!