Monday, July 11, 2005
Weaselwords
Business and corporate speak have long been one of my biggest peeves. Not even 'pet' peeves anymore, as they've outgrown the back yard. "Leverage" is not a verb, and "operationalize" is almost certainly not an actual word. People at my office talk like this, and it makes me crazy: it takes five times as long to get anything done because everyone is so busy covering their asses with stupid, lazy, and obtuse language. I'm no great writer, to be sure, but I do greatly respect language, and especially appreciate the amount of precision and flexibility available in American English, which I feel exceeds especially in this case.
You can understand, then, why I laughed so hard at this piece that I had to close my office door, so as not to be "observed engaging in distractionary nonbusiness engagements" or something. It's also scary, how even our very language has been co-opted to better transform us from an advanced civilization into a mindless consumer conglomerate.
"Leverage" is still not a verb.
You can understand, then, why I laughed so hard at this piece that I had to close my office door, so as not to be "observed engaging in distractionary nonbusiness engagements" or something. It's also scary, how even our very language has been co-opted to better transform us from an advanced civilization into a mindless consumer conglomerate.
"Leverage" is still not a verb.
