“Proud to say we are leveraging core competencies to align with the shift to omnichannel.”
Whether this sentence makes you laugh or cringe, it is immediately recognizable for its overuse of corporate buzzwords and jargon.
But this isn’t exactly a helpful alternative for an all-hands email or public announcement: “Q1 results just dropped and they’re lit!”
For a private Slack message to a co-worker, though? Why not?
Casual, digital-influenced language is crashing the old formal structures of workplace communication, thanks in no small part to hybrid office arrangements and the variety of messaging apps now in use. And every new generation of workers brings a new vocabulary.
“It has been a concern for employers over the last five to 10 years with new generations coming in with new styles of seeing the world — everything is so casual and quick and instantaneous,” said Karen Burke, HR knowledge adviser at the Society for Human Resource Management. “It’s magnified now with more employee communication happening electronically.”
Virtual communication has opened up more channels for dialogue in the office — Microsoft Teams video meetings and chats, Slack channels and private messages — but it brings the abbreviation-riddled, emoji-laced language of text messages into the office.
Again, that’s fine for personal conversations among colleagues, Burke says, so long as it is not harmful. She said employees — and their bosses — need to know their audience and use the right tone, and terms, for the occasion.
“When speaking to your manager or director you may need to turn down the abbreviations being used,” she said. “I think a lot of employees, and I wouldn’t put an age on it, are having challenges knowing their audience.”
Conflict can arise not because slang or abbreviations are unknown but based on whether they belong in the workplace.
“Older workers or those in certain positions may view it as disrespectful, while the person communicating may think of it as quicker and using less words,” Burke said.
It may simply be a matter of coaching, new-hire training or ongoing reminders to set expectations in the workplace, virtual or not.
“Communications plans are being updated to include digital communications, and we see them being used more,” Burke said.
Social media creators are also credited with bringing terms like “quiet quitting” into the mainstream, changing the way we talk about work, not just what we are saying at work.
Harvard Business Review studied the use of jargon in 2021 and found that while it can simplify internal communication and offer a feeling of membership, it can also impose costs. Again it comes down to knowing your audience.
The Plain Language Action and Information Network (PLAIN), a group of federal employees focused on easy-to-understand government communication, says: “Write for your audience. … Know the expertise and interest of your average reader, and write to that person. Don’t write to the experts, the lawyers or your management, unless they are your intended audience.”