110% - wrong, or acceptable as a figure of speech?

[ilovepiccolina]

My colleague & I disagree on this. She would leave 'Jade has put in 110% effort'. I would change it to 100%.

(Am not arguing about e.g. 'Repossessions have increased by 110% this year' as obviously that's correct usage.)

well is that not 10% more than Jade usually puts in? so she's right...although i doubt that's what she meant!

Wrong. 200% wrong, in fact.

I don't think you should write percentage effort at all. It's for something quantitative, not qualitative. That's where all the confusion comes from.

Agree with TFM. No one is ever reported as putting in 87.2% effort or 112.7% effort, after all.

lol at Kathy. And thanks.

It didn't read that it's 10% more than she normally puts in.

... which could, of course, mean that she's only put in 20% (or whatever) this time. Which rather makes a mockery of the whole concept, as TFM has said.

So you'd change it then? As being wrong? And tasteless?

no, agree, she almost certainly meant it as 100% is the most effort anyone can put in, and Jade put in more than that, which is obviously wrong.

Some things can be more than 100%. Some things can't.

Apprentice-style it's very annoying.

And X Factor, too. "One million per cent Yes". So not as good as two million per cent, then? Yawn.

We seem to have got into a world of effort inflation. Once upon a time football managers demanded (and were satisfied with) 100% effort. Then it became 110% as standard and has continues to rise as each tries to do outdo the other (and its not limited to football managers).

Madonna hits the nail on the head with the qualatative versus quantative argument.

WRONG!!! There is no such thing as 110%. Use the term, "Jade achieved her full potential by maximising her efforts"