Speaker 1: I'm al Franken Center from Minnesota. The jargon word I
Speaker 1: hate hearing in hearings is uh. It's another tool in
Speaker 1: my tool belt. It means nothing. And that's why I
Speaker 1: welcome to game Plan, a show about our lives at work.
Speaker 1: I'm Rebecca Greenfield, a reporter at Bloomberg, where I cover
Speaker 1: workplace culture, and I'm Francesco Leavie, editor of the game
Speaker 1: Plan section of bloomberg dot com. Today we're talking about jargon,
Speaker 1: the much hated empty phrases we're all guilty of using
Speaker 1: when we talk to our coworkers. Later, we'll talk to
Speaker 1: Sarah Schaeffer, a comedian who has had a variety of jobs,
Speaker 1: including a five year stint at a law office, which
Speaker 1: served as the inspiration for her web series Day Job.
Speaker 1: But before we hear from her, a little background on jargon. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so you did. You've done some research on this, and
Speaker 1: you have actually delved into the history of some of
Speaker 1: the earliest jargon. Yeah, I went deep on jargon. But
Speaker 1: before getting to the way back when, let's start with
Speaker 1: an actual definition from Oxford Dictionaries, which says jargon is
Speaker 1: special words or expressions that are used by a particular
Speaker 1: profession or group and are difficult for others to understand.
Speaker 1: I thought that last caveat was really important. So that's
Speaker 1: what makes it jargon is that it excludes people who
Speaker 1: are outside of that industry or a group that uses
Speaker 1: those words. Kind of Yeah, it's it's meaningless to other
Speaker 1: people who aren't in that group, because I think every
Speaker 1: industry has its own terms, and sometimes you really need
Speaker 1: those terms. You can't really do your job if you
Speaker 1: don't have special definitions for some of the things you do.
Speaker 1: But that's not exactly jargon, right, There's another Like, the
Speaker 1: thing when we talk about jargon that makes us really
Speaker 1: angry is that it feels like it's words that we
Speaker 1: don't really need to be using. We just kind of
Speaker 1: want to. Yeah, it's words, but when you think about them,
Speaker 1: it's like, what does that actually mean? But when you're
Speaker 1: using them, you you think you sound pretty good. So
Speaker 1: some of the favorites I think. I think the easiest
Speaker 1: one to make fun of is definitely synergy, right, because
Speaker 1: it sounds really stupid. Yeah, and it really doesn't mean
Speaker 1: much at all. Yeah, I don't, I don't know what
Speaker 1: it means. It's I mean, these words become like so
Speaker 1: broad that it could have meant something at one time
Speaker 1: in somebody's head, but the definition is not widely shared
Speaker 1: among everybody that uses it. Yeah, if I hear someone
Speaker 1: say the word synergy, I immediately stopped taking them seriously,
Speaker 1: which is the opposite of what jargons should do. But
Speaker 1: they're there are less kind of nefarious ones. I would say,
Speaker 1: circle back, I see I just heard that yesterday, touch base.
Speaker 1: I don't know what are some of the ones you
Speaker 1: hear a lot. I will circle back and touch base
Speaker 1: definitely are common. They're the I think the newer jargon
Speaker 1: word is the more you're like, really, why am I
Speaker 1: hearing this? Like one of the ones I hate is learnings,
Speaker 1: which is like a word that there's already a word for,
Speaker 1: which is lessons, And learning sounds stupid. It sounds like
Speaker 1: you're not really grasping the English language that well. It
Speaker 1: sounds kind of like something a preschool teacher might say,
Speaker 1: like it's learning's time exact. But a lot of people
Speaker 1: emerge from meetings with key learnings that they want to
Speaker 1: share with you. And the amazing thing is that, like
Speaker 1: among a certain set, or at least among the people
Speaker 1: who are saying these things. They must think it makes
Speaker 1: them sound really smart. There's a lot of sports metaphors,
Speaker 1: like what touch base? That is a sports metaphors, ramp
Speaker 1: up a sports medal, I think so right, like rev up,
Speaker 1: I don't know rev up. People say let's run it
Speaker 1: up the flagpole and see who salutes. I've never heard
Speaker 1: the second half of that. I've heard run it up
Speaker 1: the flagpole. Well everybody knows. Maybe you don't even need
Speaker 1: to say the second part anymore because it's so self explanatory, right,
Speaker 1: just running total f and then obviously someone will salute
Speaker 1: after it's been run up. There's a formal salute remaining
Speaker 1: where that's mentioned. But yeah, so jargon goes back way back. Um,
Speaker 1: some of my research says it goes back to the
Speaker 1: sixteen hundreds and you had, like you, you had an
Speaker 1: original definition of jargon, which is pretty fitting. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: the word jargon, before it was used and the way
Speaker 1: we use it now, came from the French word for
Speaker 1: birds twittering. Do you know the French word? No, I
Speaker 1: do not speak French. Please don't play that on the show, please. Uh.
Speaker 1: But yeah, it started through letter writing people back in
Speaker 1: the days when they were traveling by ship to ship things.
Speaker 1: They would write letters to their business partners, and people
Speaker 1: just started using jargon to sound business e and convey
Speaker 1: certain things. And then people saw those letters and thought
Speaker 1: that's what you had to do, and so they continued
Speaker 1: using that jargon, which I think is how jargon gets perpetuated.
Speaker 1: Like I see an email from a boss right saying
Speaker 1: something and I don't. I just it makes you feel
Speaker 1: like you should be using that word or phrase. I
Speaker 1: think it's a little bit subconscious. It's not like, oh,
Speaker 1: that's a smart person word, but it just gets downloaded
Speaker 1: into my brain. Yeah. I love the idea that it's
Speaker 1: been around for so long that like the idea of
Speaker 1: people getting behind this veil of talking in a certain
Speaker 1: way isn't new at all. And it isn't necessarily about
Speaker 1: all the extra time we have at work to waste,
Speaker 1: or you know, new technologies, or all the usual suspects
Speaker 1: that we blame workplace culture things on like that. People
Speaker 1: have always been doing this. Yeah, and I wonder if
Speaker 1: email has made it slightly more prevalent, because it's kind
Speaker 1: of like letter writing. It is letter writing, so you
Speaker 1: see these words more often. You're using these words more often,
Speaker 1: and I definitely see jargon a lot in emails. I
Speaker 1: think the thing about jargon is, as you said earlier,
Speaker 1: it's kind of a way to exclude people who aren't
Speaker 1: a part of your group. What's interesting is that the
Speaker 1: words we've been talking about, like circle back and touch
Speaker 1: base are kind of generic office words, but actually every
Speaker 1: industry has its own sub jargon, like there's it's almost
Speaker 1: like there's languages and there's dialects. And I actually prepared
Speaker 1: a short quiz for you, Becca, I don't worry. It's
Speaker 1: very short. It's like winning well things right. Well, I'm
Speaker 1: going to give you some very easy words that you
Speaker 1: should have heard. English words. Nothing crazy. They have definitions,
Speaker 1: so I'll just read them off and you can tell
Speaker 1: me what they mean. Are you going to tell me
Speaker 1: what industry they come from. I'm just going to give
Speaker 1: you a word that I'm gonna do a word, and
Speaker 1: you tell me what you think that word means based
Speaker 1: on your experience as a human being living in the world. Okay,
Speaker 1: got it? Okay, I'm ready? What Becca? Is a locust?
Speaker 1: A locust? I mean a bug? One of the ten plagues? Good,
Speaker 1: the passover? Later? Okay, I haven't. I mean context, right,
Speaker 1: That's what I look locust is. I think to most people,
Speaker 1: a locust is a type of bug. But in the
Speaker 1: nonprofit fundraising world, locusts are charitable donors who only give
Speaker 1: once every seven years. That is so specific and yet
Speaker 1: so meaningless. I mean, it has a meaning, so it's
Speaker 1: not completely meaningless. But so you know, a bunch of
Speaker 1: fundraising folks sitting around over drinks can just laugh in
Speaker 1: sortal about locusts, and you're going to think that they're
Speaker 1: talking about a biblical plague. Okay, this is a word
Speaker 1: that you might actually not use that much in normal
Speaker 1: English language, but you've heard it. Reconstitution, free constitution. Obviously
Speaker 1: it means to write the constitution again, and it's used
Speaker 1: by legal scholars. Am I right? I feel like your
Speaker 1: ambition is getting the better of you a little. I
Speaker 1: don't really think you should try to game the quiz back,
Speaker 1: because it's not a reconstitution. This is a word I
Speaker 1: actually got from. This is a public education word, and
Speaker 1: I actually got it from the Virginia Department of Ed,
Speaker 1: which publishes an entire glossary of terms. Because education is
Speaker 1: so thick with jargon that you know, you're in trouble
Speaker 1: when you need a glossary. Yeah, and it is for
Speaker 1: a school rated accreditation denied. It is a process to
Speaker 1: initiate a range of accountability actions to improve pupil performance
Speaker 1: and to address deficiencies and curriculum and instruction may include,
Speaker 1: but is not limited to, restructuring a school's governance, instructional program, staff,
Speaker 1: or student population. So that is reconstitution in the Virginia
Speaker 1: Department of Education. That is a lot of definition. Yeah,
Speaker 1: for one word, Yeah, I feel like if you're if
Speaker 1: you're getting reconstituted, it's not a good thing. But I'm
Speaker 1: not entirely sure. It does sound bad. Yeah, Okay, here's
Speaker 1: the final one. It's a fun one. What is a
Speaker 1: cast member? Somebuddy who as part of an ensemble? Were
Speaker 1: you ever a cast member? No, you never did any theater,
Speaker 1: and I was not. I was not gifted in that way.
Speaker 1: I wasn't. I can see you in Pirates of Penn Dance.
Speaker 1: I had some theater kid friends. I thought's as close
Speaker 1: as I got. I was inquired. Okay, you were one
Speaker 1: of those kids. Yeah, that's fun. I like singing. Well,
Speaker 1: if you wanted to be a cast member, now, it
Speaker 1: would mean that you were actually a sales employee at
Speaker 1: the cosmetics chain Sophora. That is what they call they're
Speaker 1: on the floor sales staff cast members. They're not salespeople,
Speaker 1: they're not rouge hawkers. No, you are a cast member.
Speaker 1: I think it's a foora because you are putting on
Speaker 1: a beautiful show for the world. I guess we're acting
Speaker 1: out the consumer's wildest makeup fantasies. The people at Separa
Speaker 1: are very nice, so so maybe so maybe that's maybe
Speaker 1: that's a great way to end the quiz because that
Speaker 1: is a big thumbs up plus one for dargon. The
Speaker 1: fact that they're called cast members makes them love their
Speaker 1: jobs so much that they're really nice. We should ask
Speaker 1: them about that for asserting that claim. But yeah, fair enough.
Speaker 1: Now that we know where jargon comes from and how
Speaker 1: it plays into office life, I think it's a good
Speaker 1: time to introduce our guest, Sarah Schaeffer, who perfectly chronicled
Speaker 1: office life in day Job. Hey, Fred, Sarah, Sarah the comedian,
Speaker 1: tell me a joke. Can you even believe that? Meaning
Speaker 1: you gotta put that in your act. You're a comedian,
Speaker 1: Tell me one of your jokes. If you're looking for
Speaker 1: new material. This place is a zoo. Any plans tonight?
Speaker 1: So you got any plans this weekend? Yeah? I have
Speaker 1: a show exciting. What do you want with that? Performing
Speaker 1: at Carolines Where Carolines? I love Carolines. No, it's a
Speaker 1: three minutes set in a basement underneath an adult DVD
Speaker 1: shopping Queen's Oh similar. Sarah's a writer and comedian. She
Speaker 1: has worked for MTV Jimmy Fallon, writing questions for Who
Speaker 1: Wants to Be a Millionaire, and has a new comedy
Speaker 1: album out, Chrysalis. She also spent five years calculating damages
Speaker 1: for securities fraud cases at a law firm, which was
Speaker 1: the inspiration for that clip you just heard and many
Speaker 1: other funny ones just like it about the banality of
Speaker 1: office life. Sarah, thanks so much for coming and talking
Speaker 1: to us today. Thank you for having me So, Sarah,
Speaker 1: what made you decide to turn your five years working
Speaker 1: at a law firm into a web series? Um? Well,
Speaker 1: it happened. Um you know, I made the web series
Speaker 1: many years later, And I kind of find that to
Speaker 1: be the case with a lot of my comedy and
Speaker 1: stuff I write, is that it takes a long time
Speaker 1: to incubate in my head my life experiences, and then
Speaker 1: they come out many years later, and once I've gotten distance,
Speaker 1: and I find I can find the funny in it.
Speaker 1: But it I had been hosting this MTV show where
Speaker 1: I was like doing jokes about Justin Bieber and like
Speaker 1: really light fun stuff, and I wanted to show my
Speaker 1: sort of darker, deeper, more subtle side, and this web series,
Speaker 1: I just wanted to show the moments of what it's
Speaker 1: like to have a day job when you're aspiring to
Speaker 1: do something creative. And I think for a lot of comedians,
Speaker 1: their story is like, oh, I couldn't keep a job,
Speaker 1: you know, I was just such a misfit I had
Speaker 1: to do comedy. And that wasn't the case for me.
Speaker 1: I was actually really good at my job, and I
Speaker 1: kept getting promotions and I was making good money and
Speaker 1: I had stability, and it was it was a constant
Speaker 1: battle every day to fight the urge to just settle
Speaker 1: into my cubicle. The job I had was not creative
Speaker 1: at all. It was numbers, it was law, legal stuff. Right.
Speaker 1: I love the idea that you like, couldn't help but
Speaker 1: be good at this job. Well, I'm amazing well, and
Speaker 1: that you know, and that somehow kind of went against
Speaker 1: your identity as a comedian or you know, a creative person.
Speaker 1: I think you're right. People have take pride in their
Speaker 1: war stories when they're in a creative field about just
Speaker 1: slogging through a day job. And we've been talking about
Speaker 1: how people use This episode is specifically about jargon. We've
Speaker 1: been talking about how people use it as a way
Speaker 1: to be more included or feel more part of a group.
Speaker 1: And you working in an office and kind of wrestling
Speaker 1: with what your identity was as a totally competent law
Speaker 1: firm professional versus a creative person, a comedian, someone who
Speaker 1: wants to express themselves in a totally different way. How
Speaker 1: did you find yourself dealing with those questions about belonging
Speaker 1: Did you want to belong to the office. Did you
Speaker 1: find yourself kind of slipping into the lingo or the
Speaker 1: kind of way use of the office, or did you
Speaker 1: really resist it? The jargon there was it was very specific.
Speaker 1: What we did was so niche. I think some of
Speaker 1: a lot of it was like email stuff, like the
Speaker 1: jargon and emails always like drove me crazy, Like when
Speaker 1: someone would send an email that was passive, aggressive of
Speaker 1: and mean scolding or something, and then sign it with
Speaker 1: like best best uneas against best the worst and you know,
Speaker 1: we need to drill down, like they were kind of
Speaker 1: like we need to drill down and then we need
Speaker 1: to have the blue sky view of this, you know,
Speaker 1: like all those terms that are just so I felt
Speaker 1: it came from men, mostly, like I felt that interesting
Speaker 1: men would spout these things a lot because they would
Speaker 1: it would make them sound like they were really knowledgeable
Speaker 1: or you know, on top of whatever we were talking about.
Speaker 1: But um, it all just drove me crazy, you know,
Speaker 1: all of it. Is there any upside to jargon, like
Speaker 1: where there are there moments where you're ever thankful for
Speaker 1: having those words at your disposal? Or are they really
Speaker 1: just extra words we don't need to be using. You know,
Speaker 1: My work now, especially is writing, and I've always been
Speaker 1: a writer, and I've always taken great care in wanting
Speaker 1: to say things a clear really, because that's you know,
Speaker 1: as a stand up comedian, you can say anything as
Speaker 1: long as you're clear. The point is to make people laugh,
Speaker 1: and the point is to make people feel good. And
Speaker 1: there's a big debate in comedy right now about language
Speaker 1: and about what can we say and will the outrage
Speaker 1: machine come after you if you say the wrong thing
Speaker 1: that's offensive and PC culture and all this stuff. You know,
Speaker 1: you're trying to be clear and you're trying to get
Speaker 1: everybody to get on your boat, like whatever it is
Speaker 1: you're selling at work, like is it your status, is
Speaker 1: it your the project you're trying to get through, or
Speaker 1: is it the tone the environment? Like all whatever it
Speaker 1: is you're trying to obtain in your work environment, you
Speaker 1: have to use your language to get people on board
Speaker 1: with you. I feel like the perfect jargon for that is, um,
Speaker 1: what the road show? Go around the office and you
Speaker 1: or you know, there's other ways to use it, but
Speaker 1: the way I would always think of road show is
Speaker 1: like you go around the office and get everybody on
Speaker 1: board with your plan like whatever, Like here's how I
Speaker 1: think we should tackle the jing get his cape, you know,
Speaker 1: and then that's your road show. Um, and those jargon
Speaker 1: E things help get there faster because it's the language
Speaker 1: we all speak. And people don't like that in particular
Speaker 1: because they can see through it. It seems so fake
Speaker 1: because it's a special art. If you know, you have
Speaker 1: to be very subtle about it, and a friend of
Speaker 1: mine who's a linguist, said that the reason people find
Speaker 1: jargons so grading is the same reason we find people
Speaker 1: who come back from abroad and say where it's like
Speaker 1: croissant grading it's croissant. Yeah, I know, Francisco pronounces it
Speaker 1: like that. Every every time you're kind of performing this
Speaker 1: this act and people think it's phony, Well, it's cliche,
Speaker 1: it's unoriginal, And that's what I started to say. It
Speaker 1: was like, in my work, it's very important to me
Speaker 1: to say things in a way that is both clear
Speaker 1: and unique. You know, there's always a way I whenever
Speaker 1: I'm writing something, I mean like, there's a different way
Speaker 1: we can say this. This is hitting me as hackey
Speaker 1: or cliche. So for me, it's very important to be original.
Speaker 1: So I would get very annoyed with people who are
Speaker 1: just lazy. It felt like laziness, like I think, because
Speaker 1: you're worrying better, you know, battle against cliches and journalism. Um,
Speaker 1: It's it's interesting because you're talking about how comedians talk
Speaker 1: to audiences and how you have to think about your
Speaker 1: word choice and make it as clear and original as possible.
Speaker 1: How do comedians talk to each other like, I'm sure
Speaker 1: it's so annoying. I get very annoyed by it. Can
Speaker 1: you give us some example? Yeah, Especially it's especially annoying
Speaker 1: when you encounter I have a friend of mine who's
Speaker 1: started stand up recently, which comedians joke like, oh, there's
Speaker 1: nothing more annoying than a new comedian, Like when I've
Speaker 1: been doing it for like fourteen years now, and like
Speaker 1: there's an it's like you can't help it. It's because
Speaker 1: they start using the jargon and it's like you're not
Speaker 1: And it's that going back to that inclusive thing. It's
Speaker 1: like you're not quite in with us yet because you've
Speaker 1: only been doing this for a hot second and now
Speaker 1: you're you know, going up, Going up is what you
Speaker 1: say when you you're going to go up on stage
Speaker 1: and perform, like going up tonight, I'm going up tonight.
Speaker 1: Like there's another phrase, and this is an inside joke
Speaker 1: with comedians, which is who books that? Which is we
Speaker 1: joke that it's an annoying thing but everyone does it,
Speaker 1: which is you find out, Oh, I'm going up at
Speaker 1: the clubhouse tonight or whatever venue you might be doing.
Speaker 1: Oh it's a good show. Oh who books that? And
Speaker 1: it's the other comedian wanting to know who books it
Speaker 1: so they can get on it too. And so now
Speaker 1: it's this joke where like comedians will just post a
Speaker 1: picture of like I recently posted a like seal beach
Speaker 1: in Lahalla, California, Like I posted a picture of these
Speaker 1: seals and all these people looking, and I just wrote
Speaker 1: who books that? Because it's like everyone's always asking who
Speaker 1: books that? How do I get ahead? How do I
Speaker 1: get on it? And that's so funny because I would
Speaker 1: have thought comedians just sit around, like cutting right through
Speaker 1: the crap. Well, we use the jargon to cut through,
Speaker 1: like you know who books that? Is a joke making
Speaker 1: fun of comedians that do that, even though we all
Speaker 1: know we've done that and you have to do that
Speaker 1: otherwise you would not get ahead. You hear these words
Speaker 1: and they sound particularly annoying, like comedian jargon sounds particularly
Speaker 1: annoying coming from rookies, and it's that sort of phony
Speaker 1: sounding thing hard right exactly make it all look effortless.
Speaker 1: But at the same you need to use those words,
Speaker 1: which is maybe a good time for me to say
Speaker 1: that sometimes I like using jargon. I will admit it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Beck is a jargon fan. I'm not a fan, but
Speaker 1: I think it can be useful and easy and like,
Speaker 1: if you're in the club, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: So maybe I'm being a bit of like a snob. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I think we've talked about examples of totally
Speaker 1: useless jargon and maybe slightly more useful jargon. We did,
Speaker 1: actually we did a jargon quiz earlier that might be
Speaker 1: fun to do with you. What do you think? So
Speaker 1: this is like, these are just words collected from people
Speaker 1: in various industries, resources in various industries that are English
Speaker 1: words that you would recognize, and I just want you
Speaker 1: to tell me what they mean. Okay, Okay, Revert I
Speaker 1: mean go back to the original version or go backwards
Speaker 1: various in sinct in finance, revert when used in the
Speaker 1: phrase revert to you, it just means get back to you. Yes,
Speaker 1: that's terrible, isn't that? There's something so skincrawlling about it? Oh,
Speaker 1: I just I can picture the guy saying that, like
Speaker 1: him fun of me growing up. It's designed to like
Speaker 1: confuse you. Okay. Activation, Oh jeez, I'm already annoyed. Whatever
Speaker 1: this is for, I'm annoyed. Activation putting a plan into action. Um,
Speaker 1: some kind of making that sound like something that does
Speaker 1: sound like what it should be. It's actually a noun
Speaker 1: used in the world of museums and curator types that
Speaker 1: means a semi educational event. Oh my god, that's bad.
Speaker 1: You would put on an activating our brains. No, you
Speaker 1: have to say, oh my god, did you see Lisa
Speaker 1: at the activation? What was she wearing? Lisa is really
Speaker 1: intent on being the organizer of this conestivation, but I
Speaker 1: just don't think that she I think she's kind of
Speaker 1: a bit okay, and this is the last one. Thank
Speaker 1: you for bearing with our quiz. Cast member. Oh man,
Speaker 1: that's somebody that works at Disney. Probably no, that is
Speaker 1: actually what they called him. I think cast members. I
Speaker 1: feel like that's justifiable since you since you do have
Speaker 1: to do some acting singing a day. So when you
Speaker 1: clean up, when you clean up a piece of paper
Speaker 1: the moment it's dropped like you and you act like
Speaker 1: you enjoy it. Yeah, that's a performance. It's performative. It's
Speaker 1: also what sales people who work the floor at Sephora
Speaker 1: the cosmetics change are referred to. You know what I
Speaker 1: heard about made well, which I love love Made wells products.
Speaker 1: Made well has a rule if you work their minimum
Speaker 1: five layers. I'm not kidding. I'm not joking, my friend.
Speaker 1: You got to work that out. It's got to be
Speaker 1: two or three to five layers. But yeah, So basically
Speaker 1: every single industry has its jargon. And I was thinking, like,
Speaker 1: my family has jargon. That's amazing. Yeah, I mean you
Speaker 1: have jargon. I think I think jargon is basically dorky
Speaker 1: people sling, and I think we should just we should
Speaker 1: accept it. I can accept it. I think it's if
Speaker 1: you're using it, like you said, in a phony way,
Speaker 1: or if you're using it before your inside the group,
Speaker 1: it's do so at your own peril. I'm with you, Sarah.
Speaker 1: I think we should all endeavor to be more clear
Speaker 1: and more direct and more precise in everything that we say.
Speaker 1: And really it's about cutting out the cliches. So if
Speaker 1: it sounds familiar and good to you, it might be
Speaker 1: just because you've heard it a million times before, and
Speaker 1: not because it's actually the best way to express what
Speaker 1: you're saying. Basically, just be cool, Just be cool, Just
Speaker 1: be you cool. Thank thank you so much. Yeah, make
Speaker 1: the jargon you want to see in the world. Great,
Speaker 1: all right, well, thank you so much for coming and
Speaker 1: talking to us about jargon. Okay, Becca, it's time for
Speaker 1: some soul searching. Are you ready, I'm ready. Okay. So,
Speaker 1: this whole time we've been talking about jargon and why
Speaker 1: people may or may not like it, why people may
Speaker 1: or may not use it, but we haven't really looked
Speaker 1: inward and thought about how much we're part of the problem. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think we like to think that we are the
Speaker 1: most direct, concise people in the workplace. Yeah, we're journalists.
Speaker 1: There's no way we'd use any excess words, right, and
Speaker 1: you know, we're not those other people who are being
Speaker 1: phony in the workplace. Certainly we're not phones. So we
Speaker 1: put that to the test and gave each other a
Speaker 1: little assignment recalling the jargon audit. We sent each other
Speaker 1: the last dozen to fifteen emails that we had sent
Speaker 1: from our own emails, so emails that we originated, not
Speaker 1: a reply to somebody else. And I think the parameters
Speaker 1: that we set were you sent the email every basically
Speaker 1: every email you sent, dating back from an arbitrary time
Speaker 1: point that wasn't too sensitive to disclose. Okay, Yeah, So
Speaker 1: we sent to each other our emails to see how
Speaker 1: much jargon we do or don't use. So should I start? Yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: I'm ready, great, bring it. I hope you are Rebecca
Speaker 1: who loves jargon. Love is such a strong word. The
Speaker 1: person who tolerates jargon is being tolerant so bad and
Speaker 1: sees its usefulness in the world. I counted in your
Speaker 1: fifteen or so emails about eight uses of jargon, and
Speaker 1: I stretched the definition of jargon enough to include I
Speaker 1: would love to. But you do have one major repeated offense,
Speaker 1: and that is hop on, as in hop on the phone.
Speaker 1: You asked at least four sources or people you were
Speaker 1: emailing to hop on the phone with you, and I
Speaker 1: just don't know how much acrobatics are expecting from each
Speaker 1: these people. What is the nicest way to say, I
Speaker 1: would like to set up a phone call with you? Please? THEREK,
Speaker 1: you just did it. You use no jargon. Okay, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna try to be more, but you know what, hop on,
Speaker 1: jump on, jump off, circle back? Why are we athletic? Really? Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a really energetic world that we pretend to live
Speaker 1: in when we're sitting at our desks sending emails. How
Speaker 1: did I do on the jargon audit, so you had
Speaker 1: more jargon than I did. You had fourteen jargon offenses
Speaker 1: in that I included journalism jargon. In some emails, you
Speaker 1: use the term pubbing, which for non journalists is kind
Speaker 1: of shorthand for publishing. So you would say something like
Speaker 1: where we'll be pubbing that in the morning, which is
Speaker 1: cooler jargon I think, and I think we think that
Speaker 1: goes inside the club than some of your other jargon.
Speaker 1: So in one of your first emails you used next steps,
Speaker 1: which is definitely jargon. E. I think you said ping
Speaker 1: me I did, yeah, which I think is a pretty
Speaker 1: big jargon offense, like can you ping me? That me?
Speaker 1: It's just like, what is it? Let's just get at me.
Speaker 1: Just get at me, and I lighthearted kind of way.
Speaker 1: You don't have to, you know, it's not that serious.
Speaker 1: Just pick me. The thing that was interesting about your
Speaker 1: emails was that when they were emails to people within
Speaker 1: the building, I found that there was actually less jargon,
Speaker 1: or that's when the journalism jargon popped up. But when
Speaker 1: it was emails to people who you're less familiar with,
Speaker 1: the emails got more formal and then more jargon. Started
Speaker 1: creeping into it beca I feel like we've both learned
Speaker 1: a lot about ourselves in the last few minutes. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think you've learned to accept jargon. Apparently I embraced
Speaker 1: jargon without even knowing it. And I've learned that I
Speaker 1: don't use jargon even though I kind of like it.
Speaker 1: But things we learned. Thanks for listening to game plan.
Speaker 1: If you have key takeaways and would like to circle
Speaker 1: back paying us, I'm at RZ Greenfield and I'm at
Speaker 1: Francesco today. Our guest Sarah Schaeffer is at Sarah Schaefer one,
Speaker 1: and I will be sure to read you in on
Speaker 1: any pertinent action items if you get in touch. See
Speaker 1: you next week. Guys, I feel like you're not even
Speaker 1: listening to us. They weren't even listening to us. M