Is Corporate Speak Invading Your IT Department?

Worse than Political Correctness asks: "With several years of system administration under my belt, I am moving toward a slightly different role at my company. I am going from a straight system administration role to more of a high-level systems architect for a mid-sized company. There have been several promotions in our department recently, and use of this slang is growing faster than a Dave Chappell bit. Right now, I feel like unless one studies and masters the use of these pretentious buzzwords and phrases, he/she will be run over by people with worse ideas but a nicer-sounding delivery. Is corporate speak a necessary evil? " "I have noticed that as I deal more and more with upper management, selling them on products and direction, as well as with hardware/software vendors, the dreaded corporate speak slang is becoming part of my daily life. No longer is there more work to fill an already full plate, now there are 'opportunities for growth'. There are no company layoffs, there are 'realignments'. Difficult people are merely referred to as 'more challenging' than others. I dislike this non-speak as much as any person bred from a technical background. However, in order to match my new colleagues in the give and take of business life, phrases like 'functions', 'deliverables', and 'value-add' are finding their way into my vocabulary."

Is this just something one has to cope with in order to climb the corporate ladder? If you've found yourself in this position, what things did you do to cope?

Comments

Coping

[Otto]

If you've found yourself in this position, what things did you do to cope?

I cursed a lot. Instead of calling somebody "more challenging", say he's an "asshole". It helps.

What you need to do:

[TheGrapeApe]

Start thinking "outside the box". You need to take a more solution-oriented approach to your problem and focus on your deliverables.

I think you'll find that if you shift your paradigm a little bit, your growth intensity will increase by orders of magnitude.

Just create a win-win big picture for yourself and you're success strategy will manifest itself with "positive team margins" for everyone around you.

Re:You have to fight..

[Karma Farmer]

Some definitions:

Web 2.0: Snake Oil
Solution: Expensive Snake Oil
Enterprise: Very Expensive Snake Oil
Mission Critical: Indispensable Snake Oil
Partner: Snake Oil Salesman

Re:You have to fight..

[Profane MuthaFucka]

You forgot "And look like a totally hot MILF the entire time." I think that HP might have downsized, but I certainly was feeling upsized whenever I got a gander at her. Yummay.

Self-assumed intellect has impacted me too!

[Dystopian Rebel]

I'm glad you pinged Slashdot about this messaging challenge so we could touch base and send a heads up. This kind of meme is gaining mind-share. The metrics are showing more than just a blip, it's a sea-change!

Moving forward, I think it's clear that we need to leverage our wins and make them part of the overall story. I know that we can wrestle this problem to the ground and dominate several emerging ecosystems if we prioritise and deliver best-practices through the channel. Execution is key.

I really need your front-end alignment on this! Can you get your people on board?