The New 9-to-5ers Guide to Office Lingo

The New 9-to-5ers Guide to Office LingoThe New 9-to-5ers Guide to Office LingoYoure a week into yur first corporate gig when your boss stops by your cubicle, coffee cup in hand ( la Office Space), and casually mentions, Hey there, with the restructuring brde week, were going to need some of your bandwidth to develop action items for the sales push- can we bestattungs some time this afternoon?Huh?When youre the new one, it can feel like your boss is speaking another language- one filled with buzzwords and acronyms that even a good set of Corporate Flashcards couldnt prepare you for. Weve been there. So, if your managers lingo has your head spinning, heres your guide.Bandwidthn.time or capacity to do work, particularly work that was not originally assigned to youIf you have some bandwidth today, can you take over one of Amys financial reports?If your manager asks you if you have any bandwidth, she wants to know if you have any spare time aside from the projects youre already working on . The correct answer is almost always Im pretty busy with insert reminder of what else she assigned you, but could make time for this if needed or if I deprioritize project X.Pingv. contactIll ping you after my meeting so we can find a time to discuss last months numbers.Though its not clear why there needs to be a term in place of simple words like call or email, corporate culture has invented one. Ping means to contact someone by any of several methods- which makes it even mora confusing. Youll instantly be reminded of the dilemma you used to face with your high school crush Wait- does he want me to call? Email? Text?Drill Down v. go into more detailWhen we drill drown into that account, we can see that they made a purchase last week.Again, we have a simple word that means the same thing Look. Yes, drilling down means to look further into a matter in order to get more details. But you wouldnt want to be caught using a regular word, now would you?Deep Diven. a more detailed analysi s than what you did last timeI need you to do a deep dive into last weeks numbers to figure out our budget for next month.Pick up a venti latte and get ready to strain your eyes, because if youre asked for a deep dive, it usually means youll be looking at data for a long time. Typically, this means a time-consuming look into numbers or other documents for the purpose of gathering detailed information- just how you wanted to spend your lunch break.Circle Backv. catch up laterAfter you resolve the issue with the client, can you circle back to me?When someone asks you to circle back, she usually means something to the effect of check back in or follow up. Because, again, we already had words that meant the same thing, but wanted to make koranvers we had a more important-sounding phrase to use in the office.Bubble Upv. tell your boss whats going on- but only if its importantIf a clients giving you trouble, make sure to bubble it up.This is your boss way of saying- I will help you if you need it, but only bring me the important stuff. Instead of asking the woman who sits next to you about how to handle the inconsolable client on the line, tell your direct supervisor- hell be more helpful than your cubemate anyway.Cascade v. tell other people, so your boss doesnt have toWell need you to cascade the information about the budget cuts to your team.When your management team cant stand to be the bearers of bad news, theyll tell you to cascade information down to your team- meaning its up to you to let your employees down gently. Good luck.Take it Offlinev. talk about this laterIf youd like to discuss that further, well have to take it offline.This term is usually used when youre getting a little off topic during a meeting, or need to talk about something confidential. So even if you thought the team meeting about next years budget was the perfect segue into a conversation about why you deserve a raise, youll need to meet separately rather than discussing in front of the entire department.Ridiculous as this term is (youre online in the meeting?), its also very useful for reminding Joe from Marketing and Susie from Partnerships that no one else in the sales meeting wants to listen to them hash through every detail of the new ad campaign.High Level View n. a vague descriptionI only have a few minutes, but I can at least give you a high level view of our software functionality.A high level view explains a concept without getting into the small, technical details. This is usually used when theres limited time- or when its outside your area of expertise and you really dont want Steve from IT to explain the nitty-gritty details to you, anyway.Low-Hanging Fruit n. easily attainable accomplishmentsWe need to go for the low-hanging fruit on this one for a quick boost in income.This particularly overused idiom refers to easily attainable accomplishments, quick sales, or goals that you can tackle immediately. Or, in other over-used corporate words, quick wins. Whitespacen. potential sales to existing clientsLets take advantage of our whitespace and have our inside sales team start reaching out to all our Tier 2 clients.This industry term refers to potential sales that can be made to existing clients. For example, if your company sells office supplies, and a current client only buys paper from you, possible whitespace could include the sale of paperclips and staplers. Because- hello- how else are they going to hold stacks of papers together?Action Itemsn. things you can doLets prioritize the action items for this project.As opposed to regular tasks on your to-do list, action items are tasks on your to-do list with a slightly more important title. They are also supposed to be a reminder that talking about stuff is not the same as taking action.Going Forwardprep. in the futureGoing forward, you should focus on staying caught up on your project backlog.This seemingly friendly phrase isnt as innocuous as it sounds- beware of serious undertones . ansicht words can really mean In the future, dont ever do this again.Tell us What are some of the cryptic buzzwords used in your office?Photo of team meeting courtesy of Shutterstock.