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Right off the bat, this post is in no way piggybacking on all the obesity-your social circle debate. I’ve worked in a ton of different workspaces–part of that is the (desultory) nature of my business, part of that I attribute to an especially roiling tween & teendom. But everywhere I’ve worked, there were always a few people with whom I experienced a workaday yet still severe kind of infatuation–either out of desperation because the job was either scary or boring or actually dangerous, or sometimes because the job was too good to be true and so was everyone in the office. What grew out of these infatuations, was, inevitably, lingo. A shared language. Of course there are always inside jokes 100% endemic to your suite number, and conversations that pick up exactly where they left off at the next lunch or coffee or perhaps smoke break. But I’m talking about the lexicon that develops at a work place, and its staying power.
Now, of course this verbal appropriation happens in close friendships and romantic relationships, but I’m particularly interested in how our officemates shape our phraseology–mostly because office life and language is more functionally public, more sanctioned, and perhaps more in need of verbal ciphers.
At my current office, I find myself calling everyone “Mary Louise.” It’s not because this is the name of anyone I know or aspire to know (though I’d love the opportunity!)–it’s just a saying one of my coworkers started, and it took over the entire office. Any proper pronoun is now predicated by “Mary Louise.” And anytime someone needs to be corrected on a work-related issue, we firmly say: “Absolutely not.” Often: “Mary Louise! Absolutely not.” This habit has so inculcated my daily routine that I now find myself addressing cars as such: “Mary Louise! Absolutely not.”
Via another office, I found myself saying (wince) “For sure!” to any request, and then just in place of “Got it,” or “I understand,” in place of all affirmations: “For sure”–though it eventually morphed into a single Frrsurr. In all my West Coast offices, I quickly learned that everything was “hateful” instead of horrid or rotten or anything else, and I was quick to conform. Hateful, hateful, hateful. But beyond the workplace, I’m not sure my friends took these developments in my vocabulary to heart, but maybe that’s because I was too busy noticing the words and phrases they’d picked up. The offices where this kind of magical sparring was most prevalent were all busy offices, and I suppose all this talk was a shorthand I haven’t even begun to psychoanalyze–any linguistic determinists out there who’d like to try? Every place I work seems to turn into its own Wayne’s World. Otherwise, have you noticed/spearheaded anything like this in your workplace?
Comments (24)
Comment
My last workplace was so interoffice-meme infested that new hires would have to learn a new dialect to understand what they were being told to do.
In that particular workplace’s case, I think it was partially a result of how our boss loved to stir up unnecessary drama and pit us against each other. Speaking to a co-worker in the sublanguage was a way of reassuring them that they were still “in”… and teaching a new person to speak it was a sign they’d been accepted and would be protected.
posted by Meghan on 8-1-2007 at 1:22 am
Prefacing any statement with “sir” to address anyone, regardless of gender, and using the phrase “I beg of you” to express frustration, incredulity, or a heavy dose of sarcastic disdain.
“Did you see what she wore for that presentation? Sir, I beg of you.”
posted by CW on 8-1-2007 at 7:21 am
I find myself saying, “I am going down to the break room to get a cup of brew.” I have never refered to coffee as brew, but do it everday now. Also, even though it is not lingo, I find myself greeting everyone I meet now with the fist pound greeting, since this is the prefered friendly greeting in my office.
posted by Jonathan on 8-1-2007 at 7:31 am
At my old job, I noticed that “correct” was used when one was getting clarification or confirmation about something. You would pose what it was you thought according to your understanding, and the one word response was, “CORE-REKT” instead of “kuh-REKT.” The first syllable was drawn out and held longer. I always thought that sounded strange, but then I started doing it for awhile.
posted by Scott on 8-1-2007 at 7:48 am
it’s not exactly lingo, but…
one day I posted outside my door my “Pirate Name” as determined using www.piratequiz.com. less than 30 minutes later, my supervisor had posted hers, and the rest of my “team” followed suit. we now frequently use pirate talk at meetings or in emails. I can’t decide whether to be proud or embarrassed. maybe it’s both.
posted by Max (aka Bloody Jack Flint) on 8-1-2007 at 7:53 am
We have a habit of mocking each other for the most banal of activities, like “Oh, look a me, I’m getting some water.” or “Oh, look at me, I’m eating grapes.” All of this is done in a high pitched voice.
We also giggle like 13 year old boys at anything remotely dirty. Example: taint, do do, ect.
posted by Lacey on 8-1-2007 at 9:10 am
When I worked in a super busy restaurant, all of us had developed our own language, and would keep catching ourselves using it outside of work. Things like “Heard”, (the restaurant equivalent of the Marine HUA, to express acknowledgement, and often agreement.), saying “Corner” everytime we came around a corner (Very useful in keeping from bumping into other servers and sending plates flying everywhere, but terribly embarrassing outside of work).
posted by Melissa on 8-1-2007 at 9:37 am
I find that I started saying ‘Oh my God’ to describe shock or amazement, and asking people “How are you?” a lot lately when I never used to do it before because I honestly didn’t care. The fact that people around me say it and even though I’m not paying attention.
posted by Marina on 8-1-2007 at 9:47 am
Un - be - leeve - a - bull.
posted by Going Like Sixty on 8-1-2007 at 10:40 am
We are a very superstitious group. Part of our jobs is to provide 24hr support for our computer operations. When leaving at the end of the day we say ‘Have a night’ rather than jinx each other with ‘Have a GOOD night’. When discussing something that would be catastrophic if it failed we preface everything with OOga Booga; There are dozens more but they are even more ridculous then these!
Scary bunch
posted by JaneM on 8-1-2007 at 10:54 am
Shared workplace language, huh?
Plus Delta = Pros and cons
Segway = Off topic
Offline = Topic to discuss outside of meeting
Snake = to collaborate with another person or department
Interpolate = Used for any type of estimate or guess
Opportunities = Errors or mistakes that need fixing
Lessons learned = Things not to do again
Intellectual Property or IP = Things not discussed outside work.
Buy-in = Convince another that your idea is correct
Discussion or Dialogue? = Inquiry for clarification between two different conversation styles. Discussion for analysis and finding answers, dialogue for openended talk about ideas.
posted by Jason! on 8-1-2007 at 11:53 am
A friend and I started the “Indeed” response to everything at the office. Once it started to spread, we changed it to “Ostensibly so.” For some reson, the latter never caught on as well.
posted by AJ on 8-1-2007 at 12:00 pm
A friend and I started the “Indeed” response to everything at the office. Once it started to spread, we changed it to “Ostensibly so.” For some reason, the latter never caught on as well.
posted by AJ on 8-1-2007 at 12:01 pm
After seeing the first Matrix movie I started calling one of my employees Mr. Anderson. Now we all address each other as Mr… whoever.
Opportunity to excell - taking on an impossilbe or extremely ugly mission.
Reaccomplish - do it over, but right this time.
foment - to rub oil on somebody
spoon - to stir things or people up
posted by Scott on 8-1-2007 at 12:40 pm
I work in a university, while helping a student out over the phone I asked her to go online and fill out a form. She was soooooo offended that I had asked her to ‘go online’ she started yelling and screaming and even “told me off” by saying ‘No! YOU go online!!! How dare you tell ME to go online’!!!
It was VERY hard for me to not crack up over the phone, but now it’s a joke in my office. Anytime someone gets (fake) upset, we tell each other to ‘go online’ all the time! lol
posted by That one chick on 8-1-2007 at 1:27 pm
At one job, when I started, I thought I overheard one admin address the other as ‘Miss. [first name]’. By time I left that job, all of us were calling the people we liked ‘Miss. [x]’ and ‘Mr. [y]’ Ever since then, I have always called the women I work for as ‘Miss. [whomever]’.
At this job, we have one co-worker who excells at being difficult. Don’t ask me how it started but now, when ever he leaves early we find ourselves doing the dance of the Dancing Baby (a la ‘Ally McBeal’).
posted by Karen on 8-1-2007 at 1:49 pm
My coworkers are really catty, so whenever we say something mean, we add, “Bless her heart” to the end of it. Like, “Did you see how ugly her socks and sandals combo is? Bless her heart.”
posted by Rebekah on 8-1-2007 at 2:21 pm
so great to hear all these. “Oh, look at me”–too funny! Ostensibly so…love that.
posted by becky on 8-1-2007 at 2:42 pm
This post is making me realize how boring conversations with my coworkers can be. Oh well, at least we still have anonymous pranks…
posted by Jason! on 8-1-2007 at 3:11 pm
25 years ago I worked in a silk screen shop—One of the other screeners seemed like he could answer Any comment or observation with “There ya go!”
I still do it myself, and it’s especially funny when I run into the screeners I worked with then—”There ya go!” It can mean ANYthing.
posted by Sheri on 8-1-2007 at 5:11 pm
Where I work we all have nicknames, many of which have no meaning whatsoever, usually someone calls someone by the wrong name and it sticks, or are our logon names. For some reason we say thanks or thanks champ at the end of nearly every conversation.
We’re an accounting office and a lot of the terminology we use is unique to our office. When someone new starts, we have to explain many of the terms we use.
posted by Ssquach on 8-1-2007 at 7:03 pm
Many females are addressed as “Lady”, something I picked up at a former office, and seem to be spreading to my current coworkers. There are four of us in the department, all female, and our exec director is female. We are all Ladies.
My boss and I share an office; we sometimes sing the mahnahmahnah song. She does the whistles, I can’t.
posted by Meredith on 8-1-2007 at 7:17 pm
I worked for a veterinarian and we ended up with a lot of phrases…
the best one came from a breeder who took her bitches to Ohio to be bred. So anytime she was going to breed she would announce that “Fluffy Sue is going to OHIO! She’s a big girl now” We stole the “going to Ohio” to mean we were going on a date, going to get drunk, anything that had the meaning that we “were big girls now!!”
Also we somehow used the phrase “I concur” whenever we agreed with someone…
posted by Mary Martha on 8-3-2007 at 10:45 am
My wretched day job is at a small, draconian office on the edge of town. Management keeps control of the company by keeping the departments in conflict with each other. The guy on top (a somewhat charismatic control freak) single-handedly introduces all of the new office lingo into the work environment . . . thereby securing his control over things on a very fundamental aesthetic level..
I’ve recently started a campaign to give the rest of us some of that control by injecting new office lingo into inter-departmental email. Otherr people are starting to catch-on and folllow suit.
There’s a subtle war over language in the office. It’s all very civil and professional on the surface, but on a linguistic level, it’s a vicious, vicious battlefield.
posted by Russ on 8-5-2007 at 1:04 pm