Editorial consultant Deborah Gaines has a client list that includes major publishers and international law firms. (Full disclosure: The Hired Gun’s blog editor, John Rambow, has worked for her in the past.) Recently, she started The Corporate Writer, a blog that covers the (often subpar) ways that language is used at work–whether it’s in the messages that help get you hired in the first place, weird office-speak, or the constantly changing world of email etiquette. We talked with Deborah about what sort of language problems are worth trying to avoid at work–and also what you might have to let slide.
Congrats on the new site–what made you decide to start it?
I was whining to someone about business-language felonies and she said, “You’re obsessed. You should do a blog.”
Do you think that written communication has gotten worse? Or does bad communication just seem to stick around longer now?
I don’t know if it’s gotten worse–a recent post, In praise of humane writing, quotes a hilarious memo on the subject from 1977. But there is definitely more bad writing floating around since we all adopted computers and smartphones. We pay less attention to what we say because it’s so much easier to just blurt.
The Hired Guns is always thinking about jobs, especially the process of applying for them and how the process is changing. We know you’ve also written about cover letters and the like. Do you have any other advice about applying for jobs–whether it’s mistakes that you’ve come across or ways to keep faux pas to a minimum?
Email addresses like “BanginMama69@hotmail.com” are more common than you’d think. There’s only one job I am going to hire her for. Job hunters also seem more–I don’t know–entitled than in the past. “I want this job because it will give me work-life balance” may be true, but it also signals, “I work until seven now but I will be damned if I do it for you.”
We love the idea of the squirmy awards. [They're given out for "sentences, phrases or whole publications so awful they literally made you squirm."] What drives you up the wall the most?
Drink the Kool-Aid: does anyone remember that this refers to the Jonestown Massacre? Talk about tasteless. Also oxymorons like “negative progress.” Oh, and hyperbole. Is anyone out there not a rockstar, ninja, or guru?
And are there any companies that seem to be really good at communicating? I think of Apple, whose error messages and instructions are usually clear enough to be followed–they also have the benefit of sounding like English.
I love Apple’s clarity, but I find their language a little self-conscious. It’s time to let go of the “cooler than Windows” stance. Google’s pretty good.
OK, I think that nearly all of us have found ourselves lapsing into corporate talk from time to time. If we’re trying to kick the habit of using vague or badly chosen terms, what’s the best way to begin? Baby steps? Cold turkey?
Don’t bother–it can’t be done. Today alone, I said “move the needle,” “run it up the flagpole” and “net-net.” I think the best we can do is laugh about it.
What sort of corporate cliches bother you–and which ones do you find yourself embracing? Let us know in the comments….
[Anti-ninja photo:Mark Ou/flickr]
Pingback: Shooting down corporate clichés | The Corporate Writer