According to new research by LinkedIn and Duolingo, jargon at work can have a negative impact on company culture—and your career.
How well can you “talk shop”?
Workplace jargon—defined as terms that are non-transparent, require explanation and are specific to the corporate world—is the subject of a new study by LinkedIn and Duolingo. This research uncovered the most common jargon used in U.S. workplaces, the terms that people find most confusing and which phrases are the most cringeworthy.
The survey, which interviewed more than 8,000 working professionals across 8 countries, showed that 58% of workers feel jargon is overused in their workplace. Almost half (46%) wish jargon would go away altogether, 57% say misunderstanding jargon wastes time and 40% have had a misunderstanding or made a mistake because they didn’t know the meaning of workplace jargon.
To better understand the concept of workplace jargon and its effects on company culture, I connected with Andrew McCaskill, LinkedIn Career Expert and creator of The Black Guy in Marketing newsletter, and Dr. Hope Wilson, Duolingo Senior Learning and Curriculum Manager.
I wanted to know: Why do we use jargon? How is jargon created? Why can jargon be confusing? And, do we have to ditch jargon completely to create an inclusive workplace? Here’s what we discussed.
The rise of jargon
I’ll be the first to admit I sometimes use jargon; it’s become a mental shorthand for expressing feelings and describing situations quickly. And that’s fine—as long as the person on the other end of the conversation is familiar with the terms. But that’s exactly where the overuse of jargon can become a problem.
“One-third of working Americans think jargon is being used because it’s more convenient, because it makes people feel like they’re part of the team, and because it can help build workplace culture,” says McCaskill. “But its use is double-sided, and while likely not intentional, overuse of jargon in the workplace can actually do more harm than good by excluding those without a grasp on the terms, while favoring those who understand and use jargon.”
Dr. Wilson agrees. “People use language (both consciously and unconsciously) to perform the persona they see as appropriate to the situation they’re in,” she says. “By using jargon, an employee can demonstrate that they’ve mastered the language of their professional circle, and therefore imply expertise and a long history of belonging to the professional community.”
Of course, this is not necessarily a bad thing—unless it turns into a tool for exclusion. “When a person is surrounded by language they don’t understand, they will feel like they don’t belong; they will feel like they are not part of this professional circle,” says Dr. Wilson.
Such instances of jargon excluding those who are less “in the know” are often not intentional, but can have the same effect as if they were.
Where jargon comes from
“In American work culture, jargon frequently starts out as a metaphor or anecdote,” says Dr. Wilson. “Sports are a particularly rich source of metaphors that turn into corporate jargon (e.g., “hit it out of the park,” “fumble the ball”).”
Then, she says, a word or phrase must be used by people with social clout, who then are imitated by others. “This is why a lot of jargon spreads from the C-Suite,” says Dr. Wilson. “The social power of executives gives jargon a lot of momentum.”
As newcomers to the workforce, Generation Z is not a fan of language they don’t understand, with 60% of this generation wanting jargon to be eliminated altogether. Yet at the same time, nearly 85% of Gen Z workers in the U.S. self-identify as using workplace jargon. “While the youngest workers are struggling most with making sense of jargon at work, they’re also bringing their own work-related terms and a less formal communication style to work,” says McCaskill.
“Gen Z employees tend to be more junior, and so the jargon they bring to the workplace is going to have less social capital behind it compared to the jargon used by the more-senior Millennial, Gen X, and Boomer employees they work with,” adds Dr. Wilson. “So give it a few decades, and Gen Z jargon will be dominating the workplace.”
Confusing our terms
Imagine the scene: it’s your first day at a new job, you’re being shown around—and you don’t have a clue what anyone is talking about. Not a fun experience, right?
“Most workplace jargon is already in use by the time people start a new job, causing many to feel like their colleagues are regularly speaking a language they don’t understand, and leaving new employees to figure out this lingo on their own,” says McCaskill. “Those newest to the workforce, like Gen Z, feel even more on their own in figuring out what their co-workers are saying, and jargon is also especially confusing amongst those for whom English is a second language.”
The nature of jargon, says Dr. Wilson, is that it’s not clear or transparent. “The first time you hear a piece of jargon, you’re probably not going to understand it. And unfortunately, jargon often stands in for complex and business-specific ideas, and it can frequently be quite hard to understand what the jargon means from the words alone.”
The upside of jargon
To be fair, the use of jargon is not all bad. Jargon can create efficiencies, says McCaskill, but only when everyone interprets it consistently. “There can be benefits to knowing the jargon used in your workplace, with many U.S. workers believing that having a better grasp on workplace jargon will help them get ahead at work,” he says.
Dr. Wilson believes that jargon can benefit you when used appropriately. “Strategic use of jargon can help position you as someone with their finger on the corporate pulse, so to speak,” she says. However, this comes with a warning: “Using jargon you only half-understand can clearly illustrate a lack of belonging, just like how misusing slang can make you seem out-of-touch,” she says.
Additionally, Dr Wilson says that if you’re using a piece of jargon that isn’t in your colleague’s repertoire, you’re very likely positioning them as an outsider, which can reduce their sense of belonging or isolate you from them.
Picking up jargon
It’s unlikely that we will ever eradicate jargon entirely—and even if we did, Dr. Wilson believes that as long as people work together in the same professional circle, they’re going to invent ways of projecting a professional, in-group identity. “If it’s not jargon, it’ll be something else.”
Simple awareness of the downsides of workplace jargon can help us use more accessible language. “It is unfortunately common and well-documented that humans are prone to unconscious bias against those who speak ‘differently’ from them,” says Dr. Wilson. “This in turn can lead to exclusionary behaviors and even discrimination in the workplace.”
Instead, we can all take two actions to make workplace jargon a tool of inclusion rather than exclusion:
First, we can ask what jargon means when we don’t understand it. “The majority of professionals find workplace jargon confusing, so don’t be afraid to ask clarifying questions,” says McCaskill. Our co-workers and supervisors are the best resource to pick up workplace jargon. “This is one of the many reasons to seek out mentors and peers to create a community around yourself at work,” McCaskill says.
Secondly, we can all pay more attention to the jargon we may be falling into and ask ourselves if everyone listening can understand it. “Keep in mind that not all professionals come from the same background,” says McCaskill. “Be mindful of this learning curve to help professionals of all backgrounds and levels feel included and understood.”
After all, the purpose of communication is to understand and be understood. If jargon gets in the way of that goal, it’s time to reevaluate how and why we’re using it.
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