People Are Discovering Their Spouses’ Work Personas and It’s Hilarious
I worked from home for several years at the turn of the 2000s, and later worked from home for several years with my wife, 8 feet away, for a joint client. Neither of us had revelations like those described in the link. At least that we spoke of. ;)
It does seem that “Run it up the flagpole and see who salutes,” and “Will it play in Peoria?,” are passé. And no one seems to be thinking of new paradigms outside the box in order to avoid drinking the Koolaid while eating their own dog food.
I only ever met a few people for whom this sort of cant was common. I recognize some of it, but there are fresh cliches (?). I’m happy not to see some I remember from earlier days.
For example, in the 70s there was, “I hear you,” after which I always thought, “But you’re not listening.” This was often uttered by someone who at least once said, “Let me be honest…” I never understood why they thought I was trying to stop them.
“Literally,” remains popular among those who do not know what it means. “Have ran,” seemed to have had a resurgence in the oughts. “New paradigm,” had a run… excuse me, a “ran,” in the 80s.
My current disfavorite is prefacing your opinion with your persona – “Speaking as an x (y, z).” In other words, “Hear me! I am the spokesbeing for all non-binary; women; of color.”
“I hear you,” is now untenable, since you’d have no idea which victims to invoke, and woe betide you if you guessed wrong. “I hear you as a non-binary woman,” would be racist. And confusing. Am I listening as a non-binary woman, or am I imputing that to your speech? And, since I’m a pale, heterosexual male, would even attempting to listen as a woman, much less a non-binary woman, be persona appropriation? Using “the voice” of the “oppressed” has got a lot of authors in trouble.
The implication of that introductory persona clause is that every member of the specified cadre agrees with whatever BS is to follow. It’s intended to shut anybody else up – under the threat of some appellation with the suffix -phobic. Actual group members who disagree are “self-haters.” They are not “woke,” a condition the Marxists used to call “false consciousness.” For today’s SJWs that’s too hard to spell.
You may think that last one isn’t really business related, but I’m sure it’s regularly uttered in Silicon Valley boardrooms, and internal Google chats.
Update 4:01PM
Added some thoughts and a bit of punctuation.
A friend pointed out the “reaching out” abomination. Wish I’d thought of it earlier. It means this post will need a follow up.
Where is George Carlin when you really, really need him?