this post was submitted on 06 Mar 2026
483 points (99.6% liked)

Not The Onion

20945 readers
1370 users here now

Welcome

We're not The Onion! Not affiliated with them in any way! Not operated by them in any way! All the news here is real!

The Rules

Posts must be:

  1. Links to news stories from...
  2. ...credible sources, with...
  3. ...their original headlines, that...
  4. ...would make people who see the headline think, “That has got to be a story from The Onion, America’s Finest News Source.”

Please also avoid duplicates.

Comments and post content must abide by the server rules for Lemmy.world and generally abstain from trollish, bigoted, ableist, or otherwise disruptive behavior that makes this community less fun for everyone.

And that’s basically it!

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

YA THINK?

“Corporate bullshit is a specific style of communication that uses confusing, abstract buzzwords in a functionally misleading way,” said Littrell, a postdoctoral researcher in the College of Arts and Sciences. “Unlike technical jargon, which can sometimes make office communication a little easier, corporate bullshit confuses rather than clarifies. It may sound impressive, but it is semantically empty.”

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] Jhex@lemmy.world 106 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Makes sense to me... bullshitters LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE lingo... the people that really know their stuff are able to ELI6 most complex issues

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 25 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Hell, a business strategy shouldn't even be that complex. Complexity in it should stem from depth and details, not fancy words or difficult concepts

[–] probably2high@lemmy.world 6 points 2 weeks ago

I think a lot of this kind of bullshit is more of an HR strategy rather than actual business strategy, but most of those are probably just as vapid.

[–] limelight79@lemmy.world 23 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

My nemesis at my previous job was a major bullshitter and everyone knew it, except some management. Woe be to those who actually listened to him - it never ended well for them. Other managers knew better, or at least were warned.

Nice guy, but a complete moron professionally.

I recall one time he was telling a group of us about a test he and management wanted to do. "No changes to the software," he said, repeatedly. Looking around the room, I knew no one believed him (well, he believed it, I'm sure, but no one else), but we all knew it was pointless to point out that he would be proven wrong. And he was, of course. (He wasn't a liar, just an idiot.)

This dude would do everything he could to make me look bad, sometimes in front of external groups, other times in front of management. I never complained, but others complained to his supervisor on my behalf, and he'd apologize, then do it again a few months later. Again, it wasn't malice, he's just an idiot and doesn't think.

One time I got him. He asked if we had planned for a workload that was higher than some people expected, and I was able to say, "Actually we budgeted for even more than this." A woman that worked for me, when she saw I was having a bad day, would ask, "Hey remember when you showed up Bob in that meeting in front of management?" It always improved my mood. Some coworkers are gold.

One time, he was set to become my supervisor, and I was like, yeah, I'm gone if that happens. Fortunately, it didn't.

[–] one_old_coder@piefed.social 10 points 2 weeks ago

I had a guy like this at a previous job. Same story with everything. The guy was a self-proclaimed master of weird languages that no one ever used.

He actually managed to become my supervisor. I immediately went to the big boss and told him I would quit if it happened. The boss confirmed that he would become my supervisor and it was a final decision.

I quit. What's weird is that I was the only macOS/iPhone developer at the time in a mostly Windows company. They struggled for a few months after I left, and they closed the company.

That guy is now a manager at a fast food. I pity the employees who work with him.

[–] theparadox@lemmy.world 89 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Golden.

Essentially, the employees most excited and inspired by “visionary” corporate jargon may be the least equipped to make effective, practical business decisions for their companies.

“This creates a concerning cycle,” Littrell said. “Employees who are more likely to fall for corporate bullshit may help elevate the types of dysfunctional leaders who are more likely to use it, creating a sort of negative feedback loop. Rather than a ‘rising tide lifting all boats,’ a higher level of corporate BS in an organization acts more like a clogged toilet of inefficiency.”

[–] grissino@lemmy.world 25 points 2 weeks ago

The "clogged toilet of inefficiency" is my new favourite metaphor!

[–] partial_accumen@lemmy.world 63 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

The results of this study will undoubtedly produce a sea change in corporate culture while simultaneously creating opportunities for cross functional collaboration resulting from this paradigm shift. /s

[–] Speculater@lemmy.world 15 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (2 children)

Now I'm going to piggyback off this and open the cupboards on a few more details. When we approach a shift of this magnitude it's important to fail fast and fail often. Tightening those decision loops will really embrace a lean model needed to get the seismic action we're after, think Wozniak, Gates, Musk here. Let's put our best ideas into the meat grinder and make some fucking sausage!

[–] ScoffingLizard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Jesus H. I thought they probably skipped corporate shitspeak at those particular companies. That's the cringiest mental pic of the night.

Ouch.

Mad respect for making me cringe so hard.

[–] Speculater@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago

I was just going after names a dude bro management type would know. They're so full of shit, lol. I like that they can't tell when you're mocking them though, they hear their language and accept it.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] azertyfun@sh.itjust.works 38 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

The purpose of a system is what it does.

If an organization rewards empty bluster and ChatGPT-driven corporate drivel, then that it is because those things are the organization's purpose.

Corporate lingo is a social filter for humanoid shitweasels to identify their peers and control eventual threats.
Nothing is more menacing to an incompetent manager than an underling speaking the truth. Thankfully corporate lingo allows underlings to be dismissed out of hand because either:

  • they didn't use the correct lingo ("Steve fired the only guy who knew how that machine worked and ain't nobody got time to figure it out because every other machine is falling apart as we speak" -> you get muted on teams and a meeting is booked with HR)
  • they did use the the correct lingo which is - entirely by design! - devoid of negative turns of phrase ("our rightsizing efforts mean that other team members will have to step up and synergize" -> sounds fine, deal with it, next topic).
[–] phoenixarise@lemmy.world 29 points 2 weeks ago (5 children)

I’m sorry, but “synergizing” and “paradigm”, aren’t these just buzzwords that dumb people use to sound important? Not that I’m accusing them of anything like that—

I’m fired, aren’t I?

[–] osaerisxero@kbin.melroy.org 16 points 2 weeks ago

The worst part about it is that if they were actually good at that, they would be extremely valuable. Getting different, unrelated groups who all function in different ways pointing in the same direction is like herding cats, and cat herders are highly sought after in most industries.

It's just anyone who's good at it would never call it 'synergizing paradigms'.

[–] limelight79@lemmy.world 8 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

Oh yes. The rest of you, get to work on thinking of a name. Like Poochie, but more proactive.

load more comments (1 replies)

Paradigm by itself is useful in computer science. A lot of corpo speak comes from terms initially created for agile, but eventually scrum masters were not the engineers and the useful words that were used a describers are now used as content. Agile is a mistake.

[–] ICastFist@programming.dev 5 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

I’m fired, aren’t I?

Now now, we don't use that kind of language here, this is a family company, because our bonds create greater amplification of the synergies between the aligned areas. ~~HR~~ Family Relations will have a constructive discussion about your behavior paradigm within the family

[–] lolola@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 2 weeks ago

So... Everybody okay with synergizing this paradigm then?

[–] RobotToaster@mander.xyz 28 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

To analyse the impact of this study I recommend that we set up an interdepartmental committee with fairly broad terms of reference so that at the end of the day we'll be in the position to think through the various implications and arrive at a decision based on long-term considerations rather than rush prematurely into precipitate and possibly ill-conceived action which might well have unforeseen repercussions.

[–] Bane_Killgrind@lemmy.dbzer0.com 21 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

Your connection from premise to results is too tangible, vague it up a bit

[–] MyTurtleSwimsUpsideDown@fedia.io 17 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

We need to empower a multidisciplinary workgroup to establish a performative analysis of our process capabilities from a data driven perspective relative to this newly published benchmark.

[–] Bane_Killgrind@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 2 weeks ago

This is what I'm talking about

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Tar_alcaran@sh.itjust.works 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

If you need anyone to operationalize our assets for a best-in-brand technology assessment, feel free to drop me a bilateral session to set up preliminaries!

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
[–] MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip 19 points 2 weeks ago

Corporate bullshit is done by talkers, not by makers.

[–] MagnificentSteiner@lemmy.zip 19 points 2 weeks ago

Corpospeak serves an important purpose though. It's how they identify the correct people to fail upwards.

[–] TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world 18 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Jordan Peterson enters the chat

[–] MagnificentSteiner@lemmy.zip 9 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I never thought of it like that before but yeah, you're right, he just spouts Manosphere Corpospeak!

[–] TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world 8 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Before he became mainstream, he was asked if he believes in god, and he started with "what do you mean by god?" and went on jibber jabber without actually answering yes or no. I didn't take him seriously since. Two years later, I was surprised he became popular. But anyway, his meandering and sophistry without addressing the main premise has always been his MO, especially with the trademark question "what do you mean..."

[–] MagnificentSteiner@lemmy.zip 4 points 2 weeks ago

he started with “what do you mean by god?”

Sounds about right lmao

[–] ThatGuy46475@lemmy.world 16 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I only know what synergy means from Balatro

[–] sundray@lemmus.org 5 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

lol, I learned it from Job Job. Who says games aren't educational?

[–] bitjunkie@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago

Former attorney Jack Thompson.

[–] rafoix@lemmy.zip 14 points 2 weeks ago

This is hilarious.

[–] Etterra@discuss.online 9 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

It's almost like the ability to confidently blather insane buzz words has no connection to the ability to do any work whatsoever.

[–] RQG@lemmy.world 7 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

In my experience people who use a lot of corporate buzzwords do it to obfuscate their own incompetence.

Try asking those people to explain their buzzwords in more detail or give an example. It'll become clear if they even know what they are saying.

[–] ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world 5 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

My most-hated blather expression is "going forward", as in "we're going to do a better job going forward". Just completely unnecessary when used with verbs in future tense -- which is the only time it's ever used. I hate it almost as much as "folks".

[–] foggy@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago

Going backward, I agree with you.

load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] malle_yeno@pawb.social 9 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Okay just for fun, I wanted to take a stab at trying to understand some of the examples mentioned in the article.

We will actualize a renewed level of cradle-to-grave credentialing.

We're gonna do a really good job of making passwords (or degrees?) that last a lifecycle.

By getting our friends in the tent with our best practices, we will pressure-test a renewed level of adaptive coherence.

By convincing people we can do our jobs well, we're gonna prove we're really good at listening.

For instance, a leaked 2009 Pepsi marketing presentation with language such as “The Pepsi DNA finds its origin in the dynamic of perimeter oscillations…our proposition is the establishment of a gravitational pull to shift from a transactional experience to an invitational expression …”

uhhh okay this is tough. how about:

Pepsi is known for waves (maybe lmao? i genuinely don't know what perimeter oscillations is trying to say). We want to make people feel like buying Pepsi isn't just buying something but is an invitation.

Our device strategy must reflect Microsoft’s strategy and must be accomplished within an appropriate financial envelope

oh this actually isn't that hard: "Corporate cut our budget."

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] jj4211@lemmy.world 9 points 2 weeks ago

Workers who were more susceptible to corporate BS rated their supervisors as more charismatic and “visionary,” but also displayed lower scores on a portion of the study that tested analytic thinking, cognitive reflection and fluid intelligence.

Guess which workers the supervisors like and want to see more and promote and which ones they really want to get rid of?

BTW, AI text also is interesting to evaluate in this context.

[–] skuzz@discuss.tchncs.de 8 points 2 weeks ago

Duh, and/or hello.

[–] luthis@lemmy.nz 7 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

This is very good news actually.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] vivalapivo@lemmy.today 6 points 2 weeks ago

You learn it, you climb the ladder, you bring your kids a higher paycheck. Literally we're conditioned to learn it like dogs

[–] Donebrach@lemmy.world 6 points 2 weeks ago

Time ago, I interacted with a vendor contact who was an expert at using such corpo-jargon—it was a masterclass in listening to English sentences devoid of meaning every time she spoke in meetings. If it was 40 years in the future she’d probably have a bunch of cyberwear and a whole team of corpo-ninjas at her disposal.

She is no longer employed by said vendor (or moved to a different project/disposed of by corpo-ninjas on their end—who knows).

Hope she’s still making the big money saying literally nothing.

Also glad I don’t gotta get talked at by her anymore.

[–] RizzRustbolt@lemmy.world 6 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)
load more comments (4 replies)
[–] GraniteM@lemmy.world 6 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)
load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›