These ‘Corporate Speak’ Terms Really Confuse Coloradans

In every industry, there are terms and phrases that we use as an employee that others may not understand. However, these terms in your line of work may be totally logical to you but lost on other people.

My wife works in healthcare and when we share what happened with our day, she will sometimes say some phrases that make me glass over because I have no idea what she is talking about. It is also probably the same with her when I am discussing a situation at work.

There are a lot of terms and phrases that are used by management all over the world to really try and prove a point. There are also times that management, in their best attempts, try to use an analogy that makes you nearly say "What in the world are you talking about?" out loud.

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Voice Nation released a list of corporate terminology that can really confuse some people. Instead of making the point clear, coworkers are even more confused by these weird phrases that some positions in management use. Voice Nation's survey says that more than 40 percent of workers feel alienated by corporate jargon when they do not understand the message behind the analogy.

These are the most searched-for corporate jargon phrases in Colorado that employees look up to understand what some managers are actually saying. Here is a list of the five most confusing corporate jargon terms for Coloradans.

•  COP - Not a police officer. It means close of play or is another term for the end of the day. 22,800 searches per year come from Colorado for the definition of this corporate jargon phrase.
• Game Changer - Not changing the channel to another sports game. An event or idea that can change the course or goal of the current course of action.
• Deck - No, not what you lounge on in your backyard in the summer. This means a presentation or a pitch for a strategy deck.
• Apples to Apples - This one is quite easy in my opinion. It is a direct comparison to like products or businesses. While it may seem like an obvious term, 5,760 Coloradans search for the meaning of this phrase every year.
• Touch Base - If you think you are in baseball, think again. This is a phrase used in corporate America to get in contact with one another at a later time.

Other corporate jargon terms that confuse Coloradans include low-hanging fruit, bite the bullet, moving forward, and circle back. However, I saved one of these on the list for the very last... Idea Shower. Apparently, management in corporate America didn't think that brainstorming was a good enough term for a group meeting to generate ideas, so they came up with the phrase that is known as idea shower. Thankfully, I have never heard this phrase in real life in my workplace and honestly, I hope I never have to.

Learn more about confusing corporate jargon phrases and if it is actually helpful for employees at voicenation.com.