Meaningless Catch Phrases You Are Sick Of

JoeJester

Joined Apr 26, 2005
4,390
I had my charges do a "self evaluation" once to determine where I needed to begin their training on "how to evaluate" as they were fast approaching the day where they would be supervising and evaluating others.

You could see the "halo effect" in some of the evaluations. It appears by the written words above, marketer's suffer from the halo effect.

Within the last decade there has been talk of 360 evaluations. Sounds like the perfect tool to enhance urinating contests with workers evaluating supervisors and supervisors evaluating workers.
 

strantor

Joined Oct 3, 2010
6,782
We just implemented performance reviews in my company. My first was a couple of months ago. My supervisor gave me a higher score in every category than I gave myself, except for one. The scores that I gave myself looked like AC, and my supervisor's evaluation looked more like DC. I was happy that I walked away with a higher score than I gave myself, but I also felt like maybe it wasn't accurate. It almost felt like a peewee soccer participation trophy. It's not like he half assed it; he took the time to put some thoughtful comments in there, but the scores didn't seem right. Oh well, I guess it's better than getting a lower score than I thought I would.

They say it isn't now, nor will it ever be tied to salary. But I can't see any point to it if the goal isn't to one day base salary on performance. Either that, or it could be for future culling of low hanging fruit. I heard the president of the company discussing something he read about the former head honcho of GE; that he strived for an annual turnover of 10%. Every year he would axe the bottom 10% of performers, whether they were good, loyal employees or not, and replace them with fresh bodies. He said this as if he thought it sounded like the best idea ever. Well, maybe it is a good strategy, maybe not. But I don't like the sound of it.
 

JoeJester

Joined Apr 26, 2005
4,390
Strantor,

When people do an honest evaluation against the standards, they typically are a little lower than what someone else gives them. It's tough to lie to that person you see in the mirror every day. They know where all the skeletons lie.

Of course that also explains the marketeers above as well. :D
 
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tcmtech

Joined Nov 4, 2013
2,867
Not so much work related but one of my biggest ones I had to put up with as a kid was,

"If you think you have it tough now just wait until your an adult."

Are you kidding me?

I love being an adult and I find it to be immeasurably times easier than being a kid.

As a kid if you disagree with someone else or just didn't want to do something you cant give them the finger and walk away saying that what they want is not your problem.

As an adult, well you know.... it can be done with a big grin followed by whistling a happy tune as you're walking away! :D
 

Brownout

Joined Jan 10, 2012
2,390
1) Need to be goal oriented. I became an Electronics Engineer. What else could I be?

2) An expert at (XYZ) Who's an expert anymore? You need to be a Renaissance Man. That is, if you expect to be employed.

3) X years of experience, where X<Y; Y is the amount of time that X has been around.



 

THE_RB

Joined Feb 11, 2008
5,438
The one that always ticked me off is "It takes two to start a fight".

NO it doesn't. It takes one complete a-hole to attack one completely innocent person.

And if some a-hole attacked me and I disciplined him and put him in his place, I have not been "fighting" at all. My actions were first innocent then morally righteous and just in retribution. Don't start acting like I'M the one that did something wrong just because the a-hole is on the ground.
 

tcmtech

Joined Nov 4, 2013
2,867
The one that always ticked me off is "It takes two to start a fight".
Ranks right up there with,

"You made me do it."

No I didn't. You chose to react and had the fair option not to but chose to anyway.
 

Thread Starter

bountyhunter

Joined Sep 7, 2009
2,512
I had my charges do a "self evaluation" once to determine where I needed to begin their training on "how to evaluate" as they were fast approaching the day where they would be supervising and evaluating others.

You could see the "halo effect" in some of the evaluations. It appears by the written words above, marketer's suffer from the halo effect.

Within the last decade there has been talk of 360 evaluations. Sounds like the perfect tool to enhance urinating contests with workers evaluating supervisors and supervisors evaluating workers.
They forget to mention in the 360 evaluations: the ones written by the manager go in your file, the one you write about your manager goes in the dumper.
 

Sparky49

Joined Jul 16, 2011
833
3) X years of experience,
This is so true.

Just this week my uni posted an email with job opportunities for undergrads.... Well, unless they have knowledge of things called; EPBD, LEED and BREEAM, experience in R&D, and experience in building design and commissioning, they don't get a look in. -_-
 

t06afre

Joined May 11, 2009
5,934
There is NO I in team. An idiotic and also a joke of a so-called team builder expert. Repeated this to the boring on a very painful team builder seminar
 

WBahn

Joined Mar 31, 2012
29,979
There is NO I in team. An idiotic and also a joke of a so-called team builder expert. Repeated this to the boring on a very painful team builder seminar
I've always wanted to find a language in this wasn't true so that I could then respond, "There is in Bundabokanese!"
 

ErnieM

Joined Apr 24, 2011
8,377
I only had one manager who used "There is NO I in team." I also firmly believe he gave his all to read "The 60 Second Manager" but only made it thru the first 29 seconds as that was the extent of his attention span.

I predated his joining the command by 5 years, and after two years he led the effort to "let me go" (don't come back, take this money, don't sue us) for my "frequent errors," due in total for me following his explicit direction over my explicit objection.

I'm sure he kept the I out of team to claim it all for himself.

 

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Markd77

Joined Sep 7, 2009
2,806
It's not a whole phrase but ".... on the ground" annoys me. It seems to be in every news report now, I think it started as a war reporting fad, but now it's everywhere.
 

WBahn

Joined Mar 31, 2012
29,979
It's not a whole phrase but ".... on the ground" annoys me. It seems to be in every news report now, I think it started as a war reporting fad, but now it's everywhere.
Yeah, I got seriously over the "shock and awe" and the "mother of all...." real fast -- like the first time they used it in any other context. Actually, while I had no problem with the original "shock and awe" statement itself, the very next time a reporter used it IN context I thought it was cheap and in poor taste.
 

spinnaker

Joined Oct 29, 2009
7,830
seed as in first seed, second seed in a basketball tournament. What is wrong with place?

stand up. As in stand up a server. I wish people would use install or bring up.
 
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