Young professionals are joining the workplace and expecting to climb the corporate ladder and build their network, only to discover that they have to learn a whole new language to keep up with their older peers.
A recent LinkedIn and Duolingo survey of over 1,000 people in the UK between the ages of 18 and 76 found that almost half of Gen Z and millennial respondents said they feel left out at work because of the use of workplace jargon like "blue-sky thinking" and "low-hanging fruit."
Over two-thirds of young people said their colleagues were going overboard with the jargon, and 60% said it feels like a different language, per the survey.
Some workers are taking to TikTok to express their frustrations about this. TikToker DeAndre Brown posted a video with over 400,000 views titled: "Gen Z responding to Corporate Jargon," where he mocks his older peers for using phrases like "elephant in the room," and "hop on a quick call."
At one point in the video, he says in response to the phrases: "Just get to the point. We don't need to do all the corporate jargon. You're wasting time."
Another TikToker who goes by the handle – @stuffkarensays – posted a mini-series on TikTok called CSL – "corporate as a second language" – lessons.
"Welcome back to corporate as a second language where we'll be learning to mask our rage using commonly used corporate jargon," she says. In one video, she jokes that "thanks for your feedback" actually means: "I don't care about your opinion and I will do nothing with this feedback."
Gen Z's main issue with corporate jargon appears to be that their older colleagues don't say what they mean, but are instead masking their views with fake niceness.
Here are eight phrases older professionals are guilty of using that Gen Z find weird: