Field Report

On Monday of last week I attended a meeting. The substance of the meeting is irrelevant to this report. In fact, the substance of the meeting may have been irrelevant to all who attended as well.

Here is a short list of phrases that made me grind my teeth in helpless frustration.

• go forward (used 3 times)


• round table (used 2 times. It turns out that it wasn't actually a meeting, it was a round table).


• pushback


• communication channel


• go around the block on this


• impact (used as a verb. This annoys me.)


• ascertain and determine (used at least twice. You shall not use these verbs by themselves. They must to be together as a pair, and in this order).


• that being said (used at least twice. Another pet peeve of mine)


• keep us in the loop


• throw/punt it over the wall


• speak offline (this means discuss after the meeting)


• touch base


• churn


• methodology


• captured (you can't just write things down in the minutes, you have to capture things)