Survey: British Office Workers Hate Business Speak
If you’re miffed to hear hackneyed expressions like “think outside the box” you’re not alone: a lot of office workers in Britain reported they also can’t stand the expression, according to a British survey of 2,000 cubicle dwellers.
Tweny five percent of those surveyed ranked “blue sky thinking” and “hit the ground running” as number two and three “Business Speak” offenders.
Seventy five percent of the subjects said they could not stand the “management jargon and meaningless clichés” employed around their offices on a daily basis.
The survey revealed the rising popularity of new jargon masterpieces like “blame-storming,” meaning “finding a scapegoat.”
Business psychologist Dr Rob Yeung, who was interviewed for the Mail Online story, recommended switching to plain English: “Jargon can be confusing and unnecessary so much of the time, therefore managers would be better off thinking about how to communicate in plain English.”
In the United States there is already a strong trend for adopting “Plain English” in all U.S. government correspondence and communications. The Obama Administration has actually passed a “Plain Language” bill back in October 2010 which mandates all government office to rewrite their documents and web sites in plain English — which is a great opportunity for all technical writers who know how to secure one of those government contracts. U.S. Government maintains a web site exclusively devoted to promoting plain language.
