Working from home? Social media is full of stories about hearing your partner talk in 'work-speak' for the first time, with comments like 'let's circle back'!

So what is the most overused corporate-speak phrase at your workplace?

Every industry or business has its own jargon relating to processes and products that only the people in that industry talk about. These are useful ways to describe things that you talk about every day.

But what about all that other corporate-speak that sneaks into meetings and emails? We are talking about the language that we hardly ever use outside the office, but all find ourselves responding to, or even saying, when we are at work.

We have all come across the following phrases:

• Let’s get around the table - Let’s have a meeting
• I’ve got limited bandwidth - I don’t have time to do that
• I’ll circle back to you next week - I’ll get back to you
• Let’s unpack that - Let's discuss in detail
• I’m reaching out to you - Hello!
• Shall we take that off line? - Shall we talk about this after the meeting?
• Do a deep dive on the figures - Analyse the numbers
• Move the needle - Make a difference to the numbers.

These phrases become cliches of office life and many make us cringe. But perhaps they are just a result of trying to find a polite way of saying something more direct, or putting your viewpoint forward in a team situation.

What are the corporate buzzwords in your workplace?

Going forward, we’d love to help you take a helicopter view and get your ducks in a row!