Bad Things Have Happened

[peristaltor]

Last night, I heard about a horrible case of English abuse at the corporate headquarters of a large retail clothing outlet.

There the corporate-speakers refer to the points raised and the conclusions reached at various meetings as learnings!My friend, who has worked there for years, always thought this improper usage a bit grating, but was so used

Comments

[mcfnord]

Last night we were standing in line to get into a techno club that opens at 1am. In line I used the word "meritocracy" and the guy behind me said, "That's not a word." Thus began a night of New York hijinx.

But "meritocracy" is widely used in corporations, and I do think it's a real word. A good meeting (at least at my level) concludes with a list of "action items". Sensible enough.

[peristaltor]

I think you're right there. It's a word. I've used it.

"Action items" sounds frighteningly close to "actionable items", a term used in law to define things that happened that can form the basis of a lawsuit. Of course, maybe that was the intention. . . .

[olego]

My company has a policy:

"Consistence above everything."

Unfortunately, it spreads into "make errors consistently", which means that if there's a bug with our code, then it's almost better to keep reproducing it than to fix it--if the bug happens consistently. Makes it hard to work on new features, especially since 1/2 the time must be spent checking widths and heights and colors and fonts etc...

[peristaltor]

Hey, if you're going to be wrong, go whole hog.