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There are many ways to express disappointment, criticism and approval in my work life. Here are the top 5 phrases I’ve heard over the years:
5. “We need to move the needle!”
My first reaction to this was, ‘what needle’??? I totally didn’t get it but I know now that it means we need to improve profitability, performance or whatever the speaker fancies.
4. “It’s revenue gone begging!”
I still don’t really get this one to be honest. I think it means that we are losing money that should otherwise be in our pockets??? If someone out there knows how revenue might actually be begging, please get back to me – thanks.
3. “We are just navel-gazing.”
This literally means we are staring at each other’s belly-buttons. So our shirts are either off or too short…. On closer examination, I think it means we are giving each other credit for work that perhaps needs external validation? Again, any geniuses out there can correct me.
2. “We need to get into bed with the customer…”
Eh, there’s no sexual misconduct happening here – promise. This means we need to get closer to the customer, show them some love, TLC. It’s an obvious one I think. I remember wishing this wasn’t thrown around in meetings so much – it made me uncomfortable.
1. “We can’t keep drinking our own bath water!”
I agree because that is a pretty disgusting thing to do. This phrase has the same naming as the navel-gazing comment but it’s obviouslymore…poignant.
Later x
Related articles
- Navel Gazing (sandystrachan.wordpress.com)
- self-portrait without the gazing navels (theartofencouragement.wordpress.com)
Tagged: comedy, funny, humor, humour, jokes, life, postaday, postaweek, work
