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

ready for the sarcastic use of "totally normal stuff here" to meet its maker

"He's won three Grand Slams"...no, he's won three of the competitions that constitute part of a single Grand Slam, I THINK YOU'LL FIND.

"We may be finished with/tired of the virus, but the virus isn't finished with/tired of us." Makes an important point, but kind of loses something the nine millionth time you've heard it.

"not a problem" seems to be a new favourite of call centre staff, used in place of "ok", "right", "good", "thanks" and "you're welcome".

We teach ours not to say that, lol.

Mostly because yes, everyone wants to say it reflexively

It always bugs me when waiters say "No worries" or "Not a problem" when I decline their efforts to upsell me something I don't want.

I say "my pleasure" even if the task is not, in fact, pleasurable.

Sometimes if I'm feeling extra I will say "glad to be of service."

Lol "my pleasure" is mine. It's helpful too because if someone was really annoying and thanks me for their help, I can go to these two words fast and hide my disdain.

I'm gonna start saying 'fair enough' at everyone

call center employees can't win, they aren't allowed to use slang and then get dinged by customers for sounding like they're reading off a script or being robotic.

we allow ours to be a bit more 'human', just as long as they don't spend 10 minutes talking about , like, Seinfeld or something.

the reason I was told not to use "no problem" is it seemed too informal and the word "problem" had a 'negative connotation', and then we were adding another negative word 'no' in front of it (yeah, dumb logic, but....it's what it is)

I once listened to a call where the rep tried to help the customer name her new baby and was giving the worst, most stupid suggestions.

f. hazel otm

the reason I was told not to use "no problem" is it seemed too informal and the word "problem" had a 'negative connotation', and then we were adding another negative word 'no' in front of it

Yeah, sounds about right... a bunch of suits who are into NLP suggesting the dumbest bullshit imaginable. Some poor customer just wants to know why their laptop screen has a bright red vertical line down one side and the managers are telling us not to use any negative words like "can't" or "broken" while refusing to replace the LCD panel.

When I was a QA manager at a call center (I listened in on techs to see if they were doing OK) one guy used to just call his online girlfriend and chat with her for hours and hours at a time. I was so impressed with his gall I just told him not to do it anymore instead of formally busting him.

"Between you and I"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jG_Avdsdd-o

I once listened to a call where the rep tried to help the customer name her new baby and was giving the worst, most stupid suggestions.

― he's very big in the region of my butthole (Neanderthal), Tuesday, February 8, 2022 6:38 AM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

AMAB:
Winslow
Thelonius
Marcin

AFAB:
Bernadette
Maxine
Josefa

Those are my actual suggestions whenever people I know are about to have babies lol.

those would have been preferable to what was suggested (though admittedly I don't recall what they were).

probably Jethro

"Cocaine is a helluva drug"

Cocaine explains nothing, least of all artistic choices. This construction is lazy and preposterous.

it's been a decade and a half but iirc the speaker is describing behavioural choices rather than considered artistic expressions

― bad luck banging, or Lorna Doone (sic)

I didn't even know the origin of this (a Dave Chappelle/Rick James incident), so of course you're right about the original intent. But since then I've often heard it used to explain how a ridiculous movie got made or why a song has a bombastic arrangement or something similar.

Also: there's nothing wrong with the name Josefa, wtf

Josefa, I wasn't clear in my post: those are names that I would suggest, and which I do suggest, because I love them.

Oh, then thank you!

The nickname Pepa goes with the name Josefa, so that's another plus.

“no sweat”

I see something described as "staggering" like multiple times a day.

That's me, I drink a lot

lol

xps: Some other other go-to phrases: the retrospective "happy to help" and the speculative "hope this helps."

These are less prissy than the "my pleasure" / "glad to be of service" continuum.

“you got it, big man”

"black bodies" is egregious

i feel like this was already litigated at length a long time ago here but in 2022 to see how most people use it is horrifying

just say black people

“you got it, big man”

This was said to me at a car rental place when I declined their additional insurance coverage

"big lie"

coined by hitler to describe the idea that jews weren't responsible for germany losing world war 1. this "big lie" is itself a big lie. i don't like the phrase being used earnestly.

Jesus, Biden's saying "deep dive" now--pretty soon he'll be talking about his favourite deep cuts.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/10/politics/biden-four-supreme-court-candidates/index.html

A deep state conspiracy if there ever was one

not to any specific post but

this thread is ugly when it ventures into "the language that I prefer to hear out of the mouths of the service industry ppl I have to deal with"

now it's not much better when it's "the way I word police my colleagues despite their meaning being perfectly clear"

but it's a little better

98% of the words/phrases in this thread are absolutely benign

That's implied in the title, isn't it--"annoy"? Annoyances aren't evil; they annoy you.

God forefend that any ilxor is ever in the sort of irritable mood where such an inference might ever arise but, if you open this thread and encounter a word, usage or phrase you employ in real life, isn't one possible inference that you are being called an annoying person?

When you use that phrase, yes. A couple of weeks ago, when my sister got a new dog, she messaged me and framed the news in internet vernacular: "So we did a thing today." I was annoyed.

being constantly annoyed and irritable says more about the annoyed than the thing that annoys them

i agree with dmac in that service employees are just doing their best
have a great day
thanks for coming in
you got it

^^ things i say literally all the time at my service job
if it annoys someone, i know it's them and not me

being constantly annoyed and irritable says more about the annoyed than the thing that annoys them

I don't know--maybe you just roll your eyes at the way a word/phrase gets into circulation and then everyone starts repeating it.

I don't think I've ever posted about anything anyone's ever said to me at the grocery store or coffee shop. I mostly limit myself to things that make their way into reviews, Facebook, and the chatter on TV (or when such things are repeated by Joe Biden or my sister). And mostly things that crawl out of the internet.

you can roll your eyes without posting to this thread -- the outward expression of peevishness by its nature says more about the peeved than the peever

have a great day
thanks for coming in
you got it

These are all unacceptable in the UK, probably fine in the US. "Ya wot?" is more commonly used over here by service operatives.

The thread's here, I post--it's a useful outlet! This is the second time this week I've been chastised for posting about x in threads about x.

I guess I'd say the same thing to you that I said in the other thread, LL; what does it say about someone who's annoyed by x and opens up threads about x to see what people are saying so they can post about how annoying they find that?

i am a glutton for punishment! always have been :)

seeking out bad news to confirm that it's still there is a hard habit to break