A couple of additions to Lake Superior’s  list

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Good morning everyone,

In a long-running New Year’s tradition, Lake Superior State University has released its  43rd annual List of Words Banished from the Queen’s English for Mis-use, Over-use and General Uselessness.

The list was started by the late W. T. Rabe, a public relations director  at the university in Sault Ste. Marie, MI, a town that is almost as cold as northern Delaware. The list is useful in a business world where words and expressions make their way to the staff meeting or the session with HR.

Here’s  an abbreviated  2018 list of words and phrases (and commentary):

  • Unpack – Misused word for analyze, consider, assess. Concepts or positions are not packed, so they don’t need to be unpacked.
  • Onboarding / Offboarding – Creature from the HR Lagoon. We used to have hiring, training and orientation. Now we need to have an “onboarding” process. Firings, quitting, and retirements are streamlined into “offboarding.”
  • Nothingburger – Says nothing that ‘nothing’ doesn’t already. I’ll take a quarter-pound of something in mine.
  • Impactful – A frivolous word groping for something ‘effective’ or ‘influential.’
  • Drill Down – Instead of expanding on a statement, we “drill down on it.”
  • Fake News – Once upon a time stories could be empirically disproved. Now ‘fake news’ is any story you disagree with.
  • Gig Economy – Gigs are for musicians and stand-up comedians. Now expanded to imply a sense of freedom and a lifestyle that rejects tradition in a changing economic culture. Runs a risk of sharecropping.

While the term gig economy has been overused, I disagree that the term is being misused.  In many references,  it accurately describes jobs without benefits.

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I would add another word  to Lake Superior’s  list – transition.

In  today’s  economy, the term has become  a euphemism for  seeking work. Sadly, the word recently made its way to the obituary page to describe the ultimate career move. Sample sentence – He was offboarded and transitioned to his next celestial assignment. 

I would also   throw in the word consequential, which pops up all too often when a writer is struggling to describe a  current or future event.

Have a great Wednesday. The newsletter  tomorrow will should be more than a  nothing burger – Doug Rainey, publisher.

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