The use of corporate jargon – 06/21/2023 – Sérgio Rodrigues

The “pain of the market”, theme of the last column, should not go away anytime soon. A survey that has just been released, carried out with 8,000 people from eight countries –including Brazil–, attests to the strength of corporate jargon around the world.

The study was commissioned by two reference companies in the digital universe: Linkedin, a social network aimed at the world of work, and Duolingo, a language teaching application. In addition to Brazil, the work included the USA, the United Kingdom, Australia, India, Colombia, Japan and Vietnam.

The ubiquity of an encrypted code in work environments and the predominance of English in its vocabulary does not surprise anyone, but the study caught less obvious aspects of the phenomenon that transforms “rapidinho” into “asap”.

The majority of people exposed to corporative language –57% on average across the eight countries– think it causes a waste of time, misunderstandings and rework in everyday life. Only a minority would not want to eliminate or reduce it.

An even higher number, 60%, complained of a lack of support to learn the “house language” after hiring. Jargon is like this: it serves both to reinforce ties between those within its circle of meaning and to bar those outside. Every one who turns to enter.

If combating corporatism is of theoretical interest to companies, as by improving communication between their team members they would obtain –this is what the survey points out– significant productivity gains, it would be naive to conclude that the problem has its days numbered.

No less than 64% of respondents claim to know that mastering this patois is important for professional advancement. Even those bothered by the excesses of parroting end up having more incentive to learn it than to fight against it.

Another finding of the study is a generational difference in the way of dealing with corporateese. Interestingly, young people are more bothered by it, while those over 40 tend to be more complacent. Here’s a hope for better days.

The survey also listed the five words or expressions that, according to the interviewees, cause more misunderstanding in each of the countries. In the case of Brazil, “feedback” was at the top of the list, followed by “networking”, “asap”, briefing” and “brainstorm”.

Among all the countries surveyed, the Brazilian list is the one that is made up of the most, let’s say, simple, well-worn words, with many years of production —except for the ridiculous acronym “asap” from “as soon as possible”, that is, as early as possible. This one will never acclimatize.

The fact that so many Brazilians stumble over “feedback” should serve as a wake-up call. This is a country with catastrophic levels of functional illiteracy, where even a vernacular equivalent like “response, feedback or evaluation” is likely to provoke misunderstanding.

So here’s the brief for corporate geniuses: brainstorm a way to get all your employees on the same page at the end of the day. Asap!

Antonio Prata called me in his last column a “radical democrat of language”, someone who welcomes with open arms all the linguistic novelties that the people create. I thank the illustrious colleague for reading and for the kind words, but the truth is that I am not so noble. “It’s about” has been giving me a literal itch—in the literal sense of the word literal, which is worse! Democrats are people too.

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