Words, usages, and phrases that annoy the shit out of you...

*and it can , not "as it can"

"Morphed"

in 2016!!! wtf

it also bothers me when people say "karma" every time some shitbag later has something shitty happen to them.

Elvis otm.

Elvis was otm to most.....

also "lit"

I think this is just confined to Australia, but "schnitty" as a ubiquitous slang for a schnitzel used by pubs and restaurants across the land, and all who encourage it should be rendered down to their component elements

TBH australians doing that for most words gives me hives.

I'll always rep for durry, that said.

i like durry too, and pluggers has its rough charms, but schnitty is an outrage and servo is depressing.

when i briefly visited australia i was surprised, kind of bemused, but overall pleased, by how ubiquitous schnitzels were.

'Price point', as in 'set at that price point'. What's wrong with just 'price'?

"make a decision"

WE HAVE A WORD FOR THAT IT'S "DECIDE"

Are we back to making decisions now? Under Cameron we were taking them, much to my disgust.

"pay grade"

yeah, people I work with use "beneath my pay grade" all the time to mean "this task that's part of my job description should really be done by an intern."

i only ever hear pay grade used when people are asking if they can do something in fear that it might be "above their paygrade". probably use this occasionally myself, like if i am about to send a mail or question something that might be best said by my boss or whatever.

Can't help myself, whenever I see Pay Grade I immediately think Gay Pride.

i think first heard it in a Bourne movie, tbh, then all of a sudden it was everywhere. just seems like an unctuous way to say "salary"

or Gay Parade, xp

xp it doesn't just mean "salary" because it refers to jobs that have specific salary steps or "grades" (e.g. govt jobs).

If I use it, I mean what LocalGarda said. It means "I'm just the dumb worker bee, I can't make a decision of that magnitude." Or "I'm just a contractor. It's not my place to tell you what your business strategy is - that's for your leadership to figure out, and if they haven't, that's on them, not me."

Pithy alternatives like "it's not my place to say" sound weak and passive. The more folksy "That's outside my swim lane" sounds like you're just trying to dodge work.

Especially if you're talking to ex-military or government folks, they will know that what you mean is "a different (usually more important) person needs to decide that." The idea is for them to conclude "Okay, I need to lay off hassling Mad Puffin, because it's not his fault his hands are tied."

It may also mean "I will get in serious trouble with both of our bosses if I do that thing that you just asked me to do." Or "My hands are tied (by your own stupid internal rules)." Ass-coverers everywhere can relate, and they will let you off the hook.

So (as I did this morning) I find myself saying/writing something like: "Last week, the consensus was that Yasuko and Jose would meet separately to strategize. I'll take that content and combine it with what Susan and Rajiv wrote earlier, then send out the revised draft to everyone for comment. Does that make sense?

Actually, I'm way less annoyed by "does that makes sense?" -- I think precisely because it's a question, and not a rhetorical statement. I ask that a lot when I'm training people too, because it forces them to actually consider if it makes sense. And they almost always say it does, when later I realize that it didn't, but that's another story...

This Twitter perfectly explains what dogs would have been like in school
The hero of 'The Big Short' perfectly explained why you shouldn't try to be the next Warren Buffett
Joseph Brodsky Explains Perfectly How to Deal With Critics and Detractors in Your Life

Let me make up my own mind whether or not it's perfect! And paired with 'explains' like you definitely didn't understand in the first place...

― It certainly is punk of the Church of England to think that way (tangenttangent), Monday, July 25, 2016 8:52 AM (3 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I feel like some of this type of language in clickbait ties in with my half-formed thoughts about this increasingly popular tendency for average people to reject experts because they have access to so much information that they now believe themselves to be experts in everything except that their 'expertise' often only extends to parroting dumb shit that was written by a twenty-year-old clickbait author who employs rhetorical flourishes that project expertise without any of the troublesome ambiguity or depth found in an actual expert's opinion that might pose a challenge to our own.

Recently saw this article by a woman complaining about whiny friendzone guys, making all sorts of silly generalizations. She said one of the key differences between friendzone whiners and studs was that the former were obsessed with what pundits say and studs don't care about pundits opinions.

"And Hiddleswift have been photographed just ONCE in the past two weeks. Before the Kimye feud kicked in, they were papped multiple times per day."

Papped?! I assume short for 'papparazzi'd? Ugh.

that's repulsive

That's been about for 10 years, easily.

Pap-smeared multiple times per day

the new guidelines suggest once every 5 years

http://blog.robertstrachan.com/wp-content/gallery/glencoe-feb-10/loch-leven-pano.jpg

"That's above my pay grade" is also a way I sometimes self-deprecatingly remind myself to stop overthinking and second-guessing decisions I have no control over.

.... if that makes sense.

tbh 'if that makes sense' is ultimately arrogant, rather than humble. If it didn't make sense that way you wouldn't have said it that way. If you think you were unclear, then you'd rephrase. So you either don't care enough to fix your lack of clarity, or you do actually think it's pretty clear (this is more likely) but that the person listening is a cretin who can't follow your heroically nuanced train of thought

i say this all the time fwiw

... if that makes sense

I think it gets used out of insecurity, but an insecurity ultimately born of thinking you're smarter than other people and worrying about how they'll perceive you.

it is entirely possible to not know if what you said was clear.

especially if you frequently work among people with different learning styles and personalities who don't react the same way to you as others do. an aire of superiority isn't inherent in that statement IMO.

If you're not sure you were being clear, then clarify! don't put the responsibility on the person you're speaking to! to like, raise their hand and admit that actually, no it doesn't make sense, which takes a more than a bit of courage particularly if their status is lower than yours or they're not comfortable speaking up in public

'sorry, sometimes i speak quickly because my mind is just so amazing and i make cognitive leaps that other can't really keep up with, are you with me? good good"

especially if you frequently work among people with different learning styles and personalities who don't react the same way to you as others do. an aire of superiority isn't inherent in that statement IMO.

― Neanderthal, Monday, August 1, 2016 3:14 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This happens to me all the time now that I'm out of the office world and into a public school so far outside the city center that a lot of the staff are basically like the ppl from my hometown (pop. 4300) who never left.

And yes I DO wish I could stop phrasing everything like I'm talking to 10 year olds but so far experience suggests that I will only get in trouble because whoever I'm talking to won't understand a thing.

completely wrong on "does that make sense" - as mentioned upthread it's a polite way of checking that you're not explaining something in a completely unclear way.

it's a bigger problem to just keep talking with no space in which to allow someone to ask a question, most people won't ask questions if you do that. the truth of explaining anything is that it often doesn't make sense. stupid questions are usually the best questions. the amount of times i'm at a meeting about say "publication draft function" or whatever and i say after five mins "okay i'm going to be the stupid guy, what is the publication draft function" and half the other people there are like "yeah i was wondering that"... the amount of times that happens makes me think it probably happens even more than i think.

A few years ago I had a training project where I spoke to 100 people at a time, with essentially no idea how much prior knowledge they came to the talk with, or what they wanted to get out of it. By a perverse accident of scheduling I nearly always got the sleepy after-lunch slot. Lately I find myself addressing teams of 10-20 people, in three different countries, with no idea of what they think about what I'm saying. Also they have almost no incentive to pay attention or do what I ask of them.

"Does that make sense?" is a nicer way of saying "Is anybody listening?"

Also "Am I getting through? Is this too much detail? Not enough detail?"

So Tracer, it's insecure but it's not born of arrogance - rather, desperation.

xxxpost. checking in to see if something makes sense is a common training tool, though - far better than someone just assuming that everybody understood it and barreling through without checking in. Something might make perfect sense to me, in my head, the way I said it, and not to someone else. Checking in then gives you the opportunity to explain the concept differently, or break it down to a more granular level. Condescending would be assuming they needed that added level of explanation to begin without checking in.

Granted, I don't say "if that makes sense" because it's too passive, but I use "does that make sense?" which requires a response. Far better than "do you understand?", which can imply that the fault is with the learner if they don't. but regardless, I think reading arrogance into that statement = reaching. there are also public speakers who lack confidence who say this not because they consider themselves the smartest guy in the room, but because they actually lack confidence expressing themselves. I have many colleagues who hate presenting who say things like this. some people might say it out of arrogance, sure, but it isn't this absolute thing.

Yeah and it's not like there's a "clarity" button one can just push, because different things will be clear to different people.

"If you're not sure you were being clear, then clarify!" is like "If you're not sure your album is good, just make it better!"

like communication is a two-way street, it's not about you assessing your own view of how clear you're being on the fly, it's you legislating for the fact that the words you're using have to go into the mind of another person, who's got a different brain, had a different day, does a different job, etc etc, along with a few thousand other factors that might affect the clarity of what's being said.

xpost otm everyone

xxxpost. checking in to see if something makes sense is a common training tool, though - far better than someone just assuming that everybody understood it and barreling through without checking in.

exactly! the idea that you wouldn't allow time for questions is crazy.

And yes I DO wish I could stop phrasing everything like I'm talking to 10 year olds but so far experience suggests that I will only get in trouble because whoever I'm talking to won't understand a thing.

― If authoritarianism is Romania's ironing board, then (in orbit), Monday, August 1, 2016 11:22 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

precisely. in my situation, the people I train have often been treated like cattle throughout their career, shoved into trainings that are far too short, bounced back and forth between teams on a moment's notice. they actually appreciate a facilitator who slows things down and actually gives them the opportunity to indicate something wasn't clear, and have it explained to them in a conversational way that doesn't undermine their intelligence.

some analogies that have worked in one class don't work in another - it's not an exact science. Sometimes what you say can be crystal clear to one person and not understood by another. This happens frequently, actually. sometimes nobody gets it. sometimes everybody gets it.

people found me much more condescending and distant as a facilitator when I created what I thought were perfect training materials, delivered them in what I thought was a perfect way, and assuming that because I did everything perfectly they were following along, just throwing in an obligatory "any questions?" periodically so I could tick that box off.

btw - "any questions?" will almost always yield far less questions than asking either "does that make sense?".

-either