Study: These Are The Most Annoying Phrases You Can Use in Workplace

By April 25, 2018For Talent

If you’ve ever uttered the phrase ”There’s no I in team” or ”Don’t reinvent the wheel” then I hate to break it to you but your coworkers probably find you pretty annoying.

Apart from leaving your rotting sandwich in the fridge, there are few things that you can do to annoy your colleagues more than uttering useless catchphrases and buzzwords around the office.

And most of us are guilty of it. New research has shown that seven in 10 workers use cringe-worthy phrases in the office.

The study, conducted by OnePoll in conjunction with a company called Jive Communications, looked at the communication behaviors of 2,000 American workers and compiled a list of the 40 most cringe-worthy office phrases.

Which one topped the list? Well, it was that old nugget ”Give it 110%”.

Other contenders included ”Think outside the box” and ”Hammer it out”.

If you’ve ever told a colleague ”Don’t count your chickens until they’ve hatched or ”Let’s circle back” then you can pretty much guarantee they were rolling their eyes are soon as you left the conversation.

You should also forget the phrases ”Paradigm shift” and ”Elephant in the room” if you want to make friends in the office.

If you’re wondering what other buzzwords made the list then you can read them all below.

The Top 40 Most Cringeworthy Used Phrases at the Office:

1. Give 110 percent

2. Think outside the box

3. Hammer it out

4. Heavy lifting

5. Throw them under the bus

6. Don’t count your chickens before they’ve hatched

7. Pushing the envelope

8. Let the cat out of the bag

9. Let’s circle back

10. Win-win situation

11. Blue-sky thinking

12. Boil the ocean

13. Synergy

14. Low-hanging fruit

15. Take it to the next level

16. Barking up the wrong tree

17. Going forward

18. Let’s ballpark this

19. Run this up the flagpole

20. Back to square one

21. There’s no I in team

22. Back to the drawing board

23. Paradigm shift

24. Elephant in the room

25. Raise the bar

26. Drill down

27. Best thing since sliced bread

28. Deep dive

29. Skin in the game

30. Reach out

31. Touch base

32. Play hardball

33. Don’t reinvent the wheel

34. Kept in the loop

35. The bottom line

36. Down the road

37. I’ll loop you in

38. Hit the nail on the head

39. ASAP

40. Team player

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Author Alice Murray

Alice Murray is a Content Creator at Jobbio with a passion for Employer Branding and Graduate Culture. She's a keen traveller and a self-proclaimed lazy runner.

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