Despite the often-confusing nature of corporate jargon, a new survey conducted by online language learning platform Preply concluded that Oakville employees are among the top five users of workplace slang in Canada. Among the most irritating workplace phrases in Oakville, "pipeline" and "out of pocket" stand out.
In Oakville, employees rank fifth in Canada for their use of corporate slang, averaging 8.6 instances per day. The survey reveals that 37% find "pipeline" and "out of pocket" to be the most annoying workplace slang.
Surprisingly, over half of Oakville workers use corporate slang in their workplace culture, with an equal proportion using it to build up their perceived credibility (56%).
Across Canada, a whopping 88% of respondents admit to using corporate slang in their work communication, averaging six uses per day. The findings are based on a survey by Preply involving 1,002 Canadian residents across 44 cities.
The most prevalent phrase is "touch base," while the least appreciated is "ping you." Interestingly, "window of opportunity" stood out as the least annoying workplace expression.
It was also discovered that Gen Z strongly uses "G.O.A.T." and "slay" in their vocabulary at work.
The survey of over 1,000 Canadian residents ranked the following phrases as the most and least annoying:
The survey found that the term "ping you" is the most annoying corporate jargon.
People use this kind of language to fit in, save time, or communicate better. Specifically, 28% of male respondents say they use jargon to fit in socially, while 31% use it as a shortcut to save time, and 27% use it to improve communication with colleagues.
Regarding demographics, Gen Z uses business buzzwords the most (eight times daily), while Boomers use them the least (five times daily).
Across departments and seniority levels, Management tops the list in using these expressions, followed by Sales and Operations. It was also found that legal departments, with their technical terminology, are the least likely to resort to corporate jargon.
Full results from the study and survey can be read online here.