There's that word again. I'm hearing the word, but I can't quite figure out its meaning. I suspect the problem has more to do with the agenda of this conference call than my mere ignorance of terminology. The call is also right in the middle of my nap time, so there’s that.
As a leadership team member, the monthly conference calls are held on the final selling day of the month after the stock market closes. We call it commission close, which means that there is nothing more I can do to affect my paycheck for this month. Tomorrow, I start to produce the commissions that I'll receive in my paycheck next month, and so on.
Our current regional leader feels that commission closing is the perfect time to discuss regional business. He's not wrong; it's just that when the pressure to produce is gone, a lot of other motivations follow.
We've been discussing our region's newest hires, training, mentorship, progress, and performance. The term I'm not quite understanding is "onboarding."
I've long considered myself the twelfth man on the totem pole when it comes to corporate politics, and (by design) my office location in Cedar City, Utah, is far removed from the corporate lifestyle (and terminology, apparently) used daily in the hustle and bustle of a Fortune 500 company.
I finally asked what "onboarding" means, and thankfully, no one laughed (out loud). After a brief explanation from the regional leader, I was better able to follow the conversation.
I give this long explanation of my ignorance because it has become something of a game to identify corporate buzzwords. Corporate buzzwords have become more accessible and much more popular, especially to our new CEO, of whom a fellow advisor once asked if she could speak plain English so he could understand what she was saying to the salesforce.
"Lean in" has recently become a favorite of mine. It is easy to adopt, and the trickle-down effect from leadership to conference calls and fellow advisors has been swift and thorough.
The game of identifying new corporate buzzwords took a new twist last month (July 2024) when a Wall Street Journal article identified "double-click" as the latest (cringeworthy) buzzword.(1)
Authors Te-Ping Chen and Nicholas G. Miller identified it as one of the fastest-spreading buzzwords in recent years. I was excited to share the new buzzword with my branch office manager and fellow buzzword gamers; however, my excitement would have to wait. The Wall Street Journal article appeared on July 9, 2024, and I was leaving for business meetings and a vacation in Slovenia on July 10.
On July 12, during the standard business update briefing from the St. Louis host, my skin prickled when he said, "Let's double-click on this particular topic just a bit." I didn't laugh out loud; however, as I looked around the room, no one else seemed to catch the buzzword.
By July 25, before I could mention the new buzzword to my friends, I had read about it in articles and witnessed its usage in a dozen different formats. As the Los Angeles-based marketer Annie Mosbacher quoted in the Wall Street Journal article, "I guess this is a thing now?"
Written August 4, 2024
Editorial assistance is provided by Grammarly.
Footnotes and References
(1) Te-Ping Chen and Nicholas G. Miller. (July 9, 2024). "Let's 'Double-Click' on the Latest Cringeworthy Corporate Buzzword." Wall Street Journal. Retrieved from: https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/workplace/double-click-corporate-buzzword-cringe-421e8cce?mod=Searchresults_pos1&page=1