Click to Print

The Most Memorable Business Jargon of 2012

December 26, 2012
URL: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/225320
Deceptionist

Slide 1 of 12

Deceptionist

Definition: A receptionist adept at blocking visitors, rather than facilitating their needs.

Usage: Jane must still be avoiding me. I saw her go into her office, but the deceptionist told me she had just stepped out.

Dining al Desco

Slide 2 of 12

Dining al Desco

Definition: Eating at one's desk in order to keep working.

Usage: Nothing sucks the soul out of a perfectly good lunch break like watching Kevin down a Clif Bar al desco.

Fauxtrepreneur

Slide 3 of 12

Fauxtrepreneur

Definition: A person who comes up with myriad business ideas but never actually sees one out.

Usage: Lauren's a total fauxtrepreneur. She claimed she was about to launch a gourmet waffle stand, but she's still punching the clock in a cube farm. She's all talk, no business plan.

Brogrammer

Slide 4 of 12

Brogrammer

Definition: A frat-boy-esque computer programmer; an anti-nerd.

Usage: Barry knew his boss was going after the brogrammer set when he installed a beer-pong table in the break room.

O'Dark Thirty

Slide 5 of 12

O'Dark Thirty

Definition: Far too early in the morning (Originated as a military term.)

Usage: If the boss man keeps calling me in at o'dark thirty, I might as well stop wasting money on rent and start squatting at the office.

Faker's Dozen

Slide 6 of 12

Faker's Dozen

Definition: When someone calls in sick to work 13 times in a single quarter.

Usage: Stevie logs onto WebMD daily to find new sick-day excuses on his way to a faker's dozen.

E-hole

Slide 7 of 12

E-hole

Definition: A client, employee, co-worker, etc., who addresses workplace issues through passive-aggressive e-mails or who steals thunder through e-mails.

Usage: Martin told me he'd send our ideas to the boss, but I found out he took credit in the e-mail for everything we both worked on. He's such an e-hole.

Lean-in

Slide 8 of 12

Lean-in

Definition: The act of making yourself appear engaged and interested when the person addressing you bores you to the point of exhaustion.

Usage: Donna's PowerPoint presentation was incredibly boring. I had to lean in so far I nearly fell out of my chair in the middle of the crowded conference room.

Blamestorming

Slide 9 of 12

Blamestorming

Definition: The act of meeting to discuss a failure and find a scapegoat.

Usage: Hey, did you hear management is planning a big blamestorming session so they can decide who to pin their latest screw-up on?

Bacon Job

Slide 10 of 12

Bacon Job

Definition: A project with no shortage of volunteers; a plum position.

Usage: Talk about a bacon job: a competitive salary, benefits, a gym membership--and an isolated desk perfect for playing Words With Friends all day. Who wouldn't want that gig?

Jargonaut

Slide 11 of 12

Jargonaut

Definition: A conoisseur of corporate slang. This person has an extensive, but borderline meaningless, vocabulary. 

Usage: If you refer to the gunk that has built up on your computer as "keyboard plaque," you're a jargonaut (and you should probably clean that keyboard).

Mucus Trouper

Slide 12 of 12

Mucus Trouper

Definition: The colleague who always gets the worst colds, yet still makes it in to work to cough, hack and infect the entire office.

Usage: Mucus troupers are so disgusting. They clear their throats for the entire office to hear, they sneeze on their keyboard and then they want to "grab lunch" with you.