Workplace & Corporate Slang

🏢 Workplace & Corporate Slang

Circle back - Revisit later
”Let’s circle back on this next quarter”
Ping - Message someone
”I’ll ping the team for updates”
Loop in - Include someone
”Loop in Legal before sending”
Bandwidth - Availability/capacity
”I don’t have bandwidth for this project”
EOD - End of day
”Need this by EOD Tuesday”
Pivot - Change direction
”We’re pivoting to mobile-first”
Low-hanging fruit - Easy wins
”Focus on low-hanging fruit first”
Boil the ocean - Overly ambitious
”That plan would boil the ocean”
Drink the Kool-Aid - Blindly follow
”New CEO wants everyone to drink the Kool-Aid”
Herding cats - Managing chaos
”Coordinating vendors is like herding cats”
C-suite - Executive level
”C-suite approved the merger”
IC - Individual contributor
”I prefer being an IC to management”
Fast-track - Accelerate promotion
”She’s on the fast-track to VP”
Golden handcuffs - Lucrative retention
”My stock options are golden handcuffs”
Quiet quitting - Doing minimum
”After the layoffs, many are quiet quitting”
Throw under the bus - Betray
”He threw me under the bus in the meeting”
Face time - Visibility with leadership
”Need more face time with the director”
Seagull manager - Rarely appears
”Our boss is a seagull manager”
Parking lot - Table for later
”Let’s parking lot that discussion”
Tiger team - Special task force
”Assembled a tiger team for the crisis”
Unicorn - $1B+ startup
”They became a unicorn in 3 years”
Bleeding edge - Extremely innovative
”We’re working on bleeding-edge AI”
Runway - Operating funds
”We have 18 months of runway”
Burn rate - Monthly spending
”Need to reduce our burn rate”
Hockey stick growth - Rapid scaling
”Showing hockey stick growth this quarter”
WFH - Work from home
”WFH on Fridays”
Zoom fatigue - Video call exhaustion
”I’ve got serious Zoom fatigue”
Async - Non-real-time work
”We’ve moved to async communications”
Digital nomad - Remote while traveling
”Our CTO is a digital nomad now”
Hot desking - Shared workspaces
”The office switched to hot desking”
Comp - Compensation
”Negotiating my comp package”
Double-click - Examine deeper
”Let’s double-click on retention issues”
Perf review - Performance review
”Perf reviews are next month”
Pipeline - Candidate pool
”Our hiring pipeline looks strong”
BOB - Benefit of the doubt
”Give the new hire some BOB”
Synergy - Combined value
”Looking for synergy between departments”
Deep dive - Detailed analysis
”We need to deep dive into the data”
Thought leadership - Industry authority
”Positioning our CEO as thought leader”
Best practice - Optimal method
”Following security best practices”
Value-add - Additional benefit
”What’s the value-add for customers?”
Blocking issue - Critical obstacle
”This bug is a blocking issue”
Move the needle - Create impact
”Will this actually move the needle?”
Single-threaded - Focused on one task
”I need to stay single-threaded today”
SWAG - Scientific Wild-Ass Guess
”Give me a SWAG on timelines”
T-shirt sizing - Rough estimation
”Let’s t-shirt size these features”
LGTM - Looks good to me
”Code review? LGTM”
P0 - Highest priority
”This is a P0 incident”
Bikeshedding - Focus on trivial details
”Stop bikeshedding about button colors”
Bus factor - Risk if key person leaves
”Our bus factor is too low”
Yak shaving - Unrelated tasks
”Spent all morning yak shaving”
BANT - Budget, Authority, Need, Timeline
”Does this lead meet BANT criteria?”
Land and expand - Start small then grow
”Our land and expand strategy is working”
Champion - Internal advocate
”We need a champion at their company”
Dark social - Private sharing
”Tracking dark social referrals”
Thought shower - Brainstorming
”Let’s have a thought shower”
Redline - Edit contracts
”Legal is redlining the agreement”
Run the numbers - Financial analysis
”Let me run the numbers first”
CYA - Cover your ass
”Document everything for CYA”
Bluelining - Final contract review
”In the bluelining phase now”
Tentpole - Major revenue source
”This product is our tentpole”
Deliverable - Final product
”The deliverable is due Friday”
Scope creep - Uncontrolled expansion
”We’re experiencing scope creep”
Billable hours - Chargeable time
”Only 60% of hours are billable”
Onboarding - New hire integration
”Improving our onboarding process”
Offboarding - Exit process
”Started the offboarding checklist”
Servant leader - Supportive management
”She’s a true servant leader”
Radical candor - Direct feedback
”We practice radical candor here”
Skip-level - Meeting with boss’s boss
”Have skip-levels quarterly”
Open-door policy - Accessibility
”The VP has an open-door policy”
MBWA - Management by walking around
”Old-school MBWA works here”
Quiet cutting - Stealth layoffs
”They’re quiet cutting via PIPs”
Bare minimum Monday - Slow start
”I’m practicing bare minimum Monday”
Coffee badging - Brief office appearance
”Just coffee badging today”
Act your wage - Work to pay ratio
”I’m acting my wage after no raise”
Lazy girl job - Low-stress role
”She found a perfect lazy girl job”
Zoom room - Video conference room
”Book the Zoom room for 3pm”
War room - Crisis meeting space
”The team’s in the war room”
Hoteling - Reserved desks
”We switched to hoteling software”
Mothership - Headquarters
”Flying to the mothership next week”
WeWork refugee - Former coworking user
”Our team are all WeWork refugees”
Offsite - External meeting
”Planning the Q3 offsite”
Town hall - All-hands meeting
”CEO speaking at town hall”
Lunch and learn - Educational session
”Blockchain lunch and learn today”
Happy hour - Post-work drinks
”Team happy hour at 5:30”
Whiteboarding - Collaborative planning
”We’ll be whiteboarding the new UX”
Ghost job - Fake listing
”That posting is a ghost job”
Resume gap - Employment break
”How to explain my resume gap”
Elevator pitch - Brief introduction
”Need a better elevator pitch”
Coffee chat - Informal interview
”Had three coffee chats this week”
Exploding offer - Short deadline
”They gave me an exploding offer”
Slack channel - Team chat group
”Post in the #marketing channel”
Zoom bomb - Unwanted meeting entry
”Got Zoom bombed during the webinar”
Google doc warrior - Over-editor
”He’s being a Google doc warrior”
Tech stack - Software tools
”Our tech stack is outdated”
SaaS - Software as a Service
”We’re a SaaS company”
Mental health day - Stress break
”Taking a mental health day”
Wellness Wednesday - Health focus
”We have Wellness Wednesday activities”
PTO - Paid time off
”I have PTO scheduled next week”
ERGs - Employee resource groups
”Joining the Volunteering ERG”
Quiet room - Sensory break space
”I use the quiet room daily”