There are many examples of jargon in the workplace. Whether it is the typical colloquial language that is heard in a café or the stuff that you might say or hear in a cubicle or around a water cooler in the office, workplace jargon is very common.
Workplace Jargon Examples
Below are a few examples of popular buzz phrases that constitute many of the most-used phrases in workplace jargon:
- Land and expand – Workplace jargon meaning to sell a small solution to a client and then once the solution has been sold, to expand upon the same solution in the client’s environment
- Blue-sky thinking – A visionary idea without always having a practical application
- Think outside the box – This term means to not limit your thinking; it encourages creativity with regards to your job description
- The helicopter view – An overview of a job or a project
- Get our ducks in a row – Order and organize everything efficiently and effectively
- Drink our own champagne – A term meaning that a business will use the same product that they sell to their customers. The champagne is an indicator a good product.
- End-user perspective – What the customer thinks about a product or service. It also is an indicator of a how a client would feel after having used the product or service.
- Pushing the envelope – This basically means to go outside of what is seen as normal corporate boundaries in order to attain a goal or secure a target
- Moving forward – Workplace jargon meaning getting things accomplished or making progress
- Boil the ocean – To attempt to do something that is impossible
- Heavy lifting – This refers to the most difficult aspects of a project, as in, “Bill is doing all the heavy lifting for us!”
- Face time – The time spent with a customer or client in person as opposed to on the phone or online
- Hard copy – A physical print-out of a document rather than an electronic copy
- No call, no show – An individual who neither shows up for the day nor calls in with a reason
- Hammer it out – To type something up
- Cubicle farm – A section of the office that contains worker’s cubicles
- Win-win situation – A solution where all parties are satisfied with the results
- Desk job – Term for a job that is typically confined to duties from a desk, rather than one that requires standing or moving around
- Kept in the loop – This is a common phrase used to mean a person who is informed about what’s going on with a project or plan
- Pick the low hanging fruit – Choose the simplest option or avenue to accomplish a task
When you hear these phrases in the corporate world, you’ll know have a better understanding of what they mean. Remember, every business and every industry has its own jargon; so, you’ll need to know not just general slang but also the industry specific jargon where you are employed.
