This being my first corporate job, it's been a big adjustment. I was a non-profit (or not for profit) kid until taking on this post, and when I did it was for specific reasons: take a risk career-wise, end a long commute into Boston, higher pay to help out while P is in her residency, check out the business arm of a PhD program I had considered attending (still considering it...). I'm not sure if it is this corporate environment, or the corporate world in general, that I find weird and sterile.
Given that I have been here for a while and still wonder when I will start to feel at home, I don't think it will ever happen.
From an anthropological perspective, I have discovered people really do use buzz words in actual conversation. Here are some sentences from the past week:
"I wanted to touch base with you on [insert topic]"
(translation: "Can we have a conversation?")
"What's your bandwidth like these days?"
(translation: "Would you be able to take on more?")
"We need to align priorities to create synergy"
(translation: I have no idea... this just sounds like sound filling space)
Here's one of my favorite examples from a memo I wish I could simply copy and past into this entry. It literally makes you tired trying to sort out all the letters strung together:
What are the complete [client] internal timelines that affect the process of delivering [product] in [initial] release and [subsequent] release and the data issues and answers appurtenant thereto
I bet you had to read it three times at a minimum to see that it was actual words being used, and not just one big vowel movement.
PS - HIllary, my current power song is "Ride" by The Vines. More on that another time...
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