Workplace Jargon Hurts Employee Morale and Collaboration, Study Finds (phys.org)
- Reference: 0178888496
- News link: https://slashdot.org/story/25/08/26/2318239/workplace-jargon-hurts-employee-morale-and-collaboration-study-finds
- Source link: https://phys.org/news/2025-08-workplace-jargon-employee-morale-collaboration.html
> You've probably heard it before in a meeting: 'Let's touch base offline to align our bandwidth on this workflow.' Corporate jargon like this is easy to laugh at -- but its negative impact in the office can be serious. According to a new study, using too much jargon in the workplace [2]can hurt employees' ability to process messages , leading them to experience negative feelings and making them feel less confident. In turn, they're less likely to reach out and ask for or share information with their colleagues.
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> "You need people to be willing to collaborate, share ideas and look for more information if they don't understand something at work," said Olivia Bullock, Ph.D., an assistant professor of advertising at the University of Florida and co-author of the new study. "And jargon might actually be impeding that information flow across teams." Age made a difference, though. Older workers had a harder time processing jargon, but were more likely to intend to ask for more information to clarify the message. Younger employees were less likely to seek and share information when confused by jargon. "It gives credence to the idea that younger people are more vulnerable to these workplace dynamics," Bullock said. "If you're onboarding younger employees, explain everything clearly."
The findings have been [3]published in the International Journal of Business Communication .
[1] https://slashdot.org/~alternative_right
[2] https://phys.org/news/2025-08-workplace-jargon-employee-morale-collaboration.html
[3] https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/23294884251364525
You know what's worse ? (Score:2)
French opened chakras managers (N+1 to N+too much) using all those buzz words too feel important and up to date. Ridiculous.
The one that disconnects my brain the fastest is "digital(e)". "Communication digitale", "n'importe quoi digital" ...
They take the English word "digital", and they use it without translation, either "digital" or "digitale" depending on the genre.
Instead of "numérique".
But I cannot help to understand the French meaning of "digital(e)", more often linked to fingers
And especial
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"digital" is a Latin word. The French, a Romance language, took it directly, and then English borrowed it from French.
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Replying to myself to add context: "digitus" is Latin for finger, and "digital" simply means "with the fingers". In a metaphorical sense, it means "counting with the fingers" or, to make it sound more sophisticated, "based on discrete numbers".
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> "digital" is a Latin word. The French, a Romance language, took it directly, and then English borrowed it from French.
Well, one could argue the French influences on English were less "borrowed" and more "imposed".
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Still, it's the French who should wonder, why the English language uses the French word "digital" instead of the English "fingerwise" to describe computer communication.
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> should wonder, why the English language uses the French word "digital" instead of the English "fingerwise"
In both cases it's through "number"
English: digit (number) ---> "digital"
French: numéro (nombre) ---> "numérique"
I think the OP was not complaining about English, but how French use "digital" as a meaningless but fashionable buzzword in meetings.
(I'm not sure to agree with the point, I'm just passing the message.)
Better yet, don't use buzzwords. (Score:2)
"Let's touch base offline to align our bandwidth on this workflow." isn't jargon, it's buzzwords. It just translates to "Let's meet after this and make sure you understand how I want that to work.". Just use the ordinary English instead of the buzzwords. A lot of the "confusion" is probably the employees thinking "Just speak English, dumbass.".
Jargon has specific meanings that can't be quickly expressed in plain English. "hack" vs. "kludge" for example. Both have implications beyond the basic "solution to a
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No. Jargon (which is a French word probably trying to mimic either gibberish or bird sounds) means a non-standardized variety of language specific to a small group, may it be professional, regional or social.
Yes, that means that words have a very specific meaning within that group, which is usually not understood outside of that group. And that is also true for "bandwidth", which in this context does not mean the actual width of a ribbon, but the collective manpower of the team addressed in this speech. Y
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> Jargon has specific meanings that can't be quickly expressed in plain English.
Recently I was reading a thread on Reddit in the Amazon Vine sub about these ruby bead things , which apparently have something to do with marijuana. The thread was started by someone who'd assumed they were for some sort of arts and crafts use, and then along comes someone explaining what they actually are, and nearly the entire explanation is in incomprehensible jargon that had me thinking it may as well be a stoner version of the old Turbo encabulator skit. So of course, I had to run with that:
Introduci
Not less confident (Score:2)
I don't think the main problem is feeling less confident because of jargon being used, I think the main issue is that it starts to feel fake. Everyone is "super happy to be here" and "excited about this opportunity", and after a while it all starts to feel fake.
Companies always doing things because of "environment" or "bringing people together", when it's pretty obvious that the real reason is money, or perceived control.
If there is a fake front to all communication, it starts to be meaningless.
You wa
Re: Uncorroborated pseudoscience hurts everyone (Score:2)
Word. Bitch ass punks be frontin.
Non-jargon version? (Score:2)
Would a non-jargon version of 'Let's touch base offline to align our bandwidth on this workflow.' be "Let's talk, email, IM or use other methods of in-office communications outside of official meetings in order to discuss the combined required as well as available time of various employees of the company to ensure that we have sufficient available employee time and number of employees to follow this sequential set of steps, also known as a work workflow"? Is that really more likely to get people to engage?
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How about "Let's meet to discuss how much time we can put into this task"?
The worst (Score:2)
I think the worst term I've ever heard is Non Functional Requirements (NFRs)
"Non" means the opposite, so the opposite of functional is stuff that doesn't work. I have a non-functional bridge to sell you, a non-car (no engine, no wheels), a non-profit (there's no profit), a non-smoker, non-existent.
Also, function is much broader in meaning, it's how one thing relates to another (a function of), an assigned role (perform the functions), what something's purpose is, and a sequence of steps. Creating compatibil
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Those requirements have no function in solving the problem at hand. The vehicles of the fire brigade being red is a non functional requirement. The fire brigade would be as effective with blue or green vehicles. This renders "red" a non functional requirement, because legislation still demands the vehicles to be red.
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> ... requirements have no function ...
So, they would be "function non-requirements". To me, "functional requirement" means they require a "requirement" to perform: A bit like a genie granting 3 wishes. Alas, man-made machines don't grant wishes.
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Trying to be rabulistic?
If I require a function, it is a functional requirement.
If I require something without function, it's a non functional requirement.
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I think that's only because you define the color as not having any function.
Actually, color does do something. It communicates meaning. It has a certain amount of visibility. To the extent it communicates danger, prestige, warning, etc., it's signalling bystanders to get out of the way, to let the pros perform their work, etc. that's performing a needed function. Maybe you could choose yellow instead, but red is the standard meaning, so red works.
This is why I don't like "NFR" -- it implies you can separat
Re: The worst (Score:2)
Non functional requirement is my wife's name fir my penis.
Someone needs to be told ... (Score:2)
... Their ongoing buzzword scenario makes them look extremely stupid.
It is used to hide meaning and incompetence... (Score:2)
When I hear someone talking like that they usually are trying to increase their importance and hide incompetence.
They just have actually nothing to say so they inflate their speech so it is seems more important.
For Enterprise-Lexicon-Only Stakeholder... (Score:2)
For Enterprise-Lexicon-Only Stakeholders: De-risk Comms, Uplift OKRs, Retire Jargon Debt
Team, quick pulse-check: the latest peer-reviewed insight artifact flags a material comms drag. Over-indexing on synergy-speak is creating cognitive latency, negative sentiment, and outreach suppression across swimlanes. Older cohorts will raise a clarify ticket; early-career ICs hard-mute, spawning dark workstreams and orphaned knowledge. Net-net: excessive buzzword bandwidth is sand in the gears of our value creation
Buzzword (Score:2)
30 years ago, I watched half a lesson on selling: Point 3 always stuck with me, use buzzwords. If you've been shopping for any piece of technical equipment, you'll probably notice that each brand has their own buzzwords to describe exactly the same feature. Sometimes, you'll also notice, the buzzwords don't describe anything in reality, it's gibberish. I think corporate-types attempt the same brand differentiation by using gibberish.
> ... align our bandwidth ...
How do I translate this into a real-world noun?
"Bandwidth" means, rou
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But, Sega has Blast Processing!
Reply in jive (Score:2)
Let's see who can keep up longer.
There are useless jargons and useful jargons (Score:2)
We have useless management jargons designed to mislead and confuse, like "right-sizing", "let go", "efficiency", "synergize", "leverage", etc. Which really means very common words but created to make very mundane ideas sounded grand. Yes, absolutely agree these jargons hurt morale and collaboration, good luck trying to get management to change this practice.
Then there are useful technical jargons that actually means something and communicate a lot of information quickly. These HELPED collaboration among
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It didn't seem to be - two examples of its 'useless' jargon were 'intranet' and 'EFT', both very specific terms. Without getting access to the source study I can't tell if that's a bad article or a bad study of course, but certainly the linked article didn't provide the point it thought it was making.
Say that in English (Score:2)
That first sentence (never heard anything like that in real life) I would just stand up and ask them loudly to say this in English.
Sophisticated (Score:2)
I had this conversation with someone on Slashdot a few months ago. People pick up these words because they think it makes them sound smarter. But it is so transparent, because if they had a command of the English language then they wouldn't need those words. It happens in all walks of life, not just the office. There was an episode of breaking bad' where Jesse hears someone use a word (can't remember what word it was, but it was something I would say) shed then he uses it with his druggie buddies not re
Workplace Jargon a good tactic sidelining people (Score:2)
Workplace Jargon a good tactic sidelining people who are too expensive to make redundant
Nonsense, Negative Nellies (Score:4, Funny)
These naysaying nattering nabobs of negativism just need to get with the program, shift some paradigms, let collaboration flow freely (in person, of course), and start giving 110%!
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Colorless green ideas sleep furiously...h
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> and start giving 110%!
I would love to but I'm will waiting on that 110% pay. Everyone should take a pay positive attitude because we're worth it, right? Hello? Are you still there?