It’s just over five years since the last new 5-4-Friday was published. On the 25th September, 2020 the subject was “5 Nauseating Phrases” from the workplace. And that was the third 54F that had been specifically dedicated to calling out sicky, pretentious language that had crept into our everyday work lives.
Five years later and nothing much has changed. Well, the actual phrases that make me feel sick have changed but they are no less annoying than the ones that went before – phrases like “reach out”, “bring to life”, “surfacing”, “cohort”; I really could go on for hours!
Anyway, here is my updated list for November 2025. Give yourself a massive slap in the face for each one of them that you have ever used at work. If you use any of them on a regular basis, do us all a favour and just retire. Immediately.
Ladder Up – Now that I am five years older (not necessarily wiser) I have decided to support these amateur blogs with a bit of proper research rather than relying on my own suspect thoughts and opinions. The web says that part of laddering up refers to “building a cohesive brand strategy that links specific products or services to the company’s ultimate vision”. Why don’t you just say that then instead of sounding like a pompous arse? Maybe you could consider “circling back” on yourself?
Problem Space – “Let’s take some time to understand the problem space”. I’ll tell you what, let’s not! The problem here pal, is that you could have ended that sentence after the word problem! All the word space is doing is, well, taking up space. My space and my time! It’s totally redundant! Ooh, did somebody say redundant? Now there’s a thought!
Put a pin in it – Or, kick the can down the road. Or, park in the car park. Or, take it offline. Or, circle back -again! For god’s sake, why not just forget about if for now and come back to it later. What’s wrong with that? It always used to work, back in the day..
Pivot – We’re getting to the ones that really grind my gears, now. My research tells me that when people in a business use the word pivot they are referring to a “significant strategic change in the direction or focus of a company or product”. If that’s true, the people I come across in the wonderful world of LinkedIn need to get a grip. Because the way they fling the word pivot around in every other sentence, they must be changing their strategy more often than the change their underwear. Pivot, in my works, seems to mean put something in the “too hard tray” and have a bash at something a bit easier instead.
Asynchronously – honestly, YTF would anyone use this word when talking to another human being? Again, research tells me that it refers to “working and communicating without the expectation of immediate, real-time responses”. Not in my experience, it doesn’t. It means that somebody can’t be arsed, or hasn’t prepared, to discuss something in the current meeting (a meeting that was probably specifically set up for that purpose) and will eventually get round to doing it at some random point in the future. Or maybe they won’t. Suppose it depends if they circle back to it, or not.
See you in the meeting room
Griff
