|
They Say |
They Mean |
| That’s very interesting. | I disagree. |
| I don’t disagree. | I disagree. |
| I don’t totally disagree with you. | You may be right, but I don’t care. |
| You have to show some flexibility. | You have to do it whether you want to or not. |
| We have an opportunity. | You have a problem. |
| You obviously put a lot of work into this. | This is awful. |
| In a perfect world. | Just get it working and get it out the door. |
| Help me to understand. | I don’t know what you’re talking about, and I don’t think you do either. |
| You just don’t understand our business. | We don’t understand our business. |
| You need to see the big picture. | My boss thinks it’s a good idea. |
| My mind is made up. I am adamant on the subject. There is no room for discussion. But if you do want to discuss it further, my door is always open. | F%^$ you. |
| I appreciate your contribution. | F%^$ you. |
| We’re going to follow a strict methodology here. | We’re going to do it my way. |
| I didn’t understand the e-mail you said you sent. Can you give me a quick summary? | I still can’t figure out how to start the e-mail program. |
| Cost of ownership is a significant issue. | We want all of the benefits and none of the costs. |
| We have to leverage our resources. | You’re working weekends. |
| Individual contributor. | Employee who does real work. |
| Your project is on hold. | We’ve put a bullet in it. |
| Wrong answer. | You didn’t tell me what I wanted to hear. |
| You needed to be more proactive. | You should have protected me from myself. |
| I’d like your buy-in on this. | I want someone else to blame when this thing bombs. |
| We want you to be the executive champion of this project. | I want to be able to blame you for my mistakes. |
| We need to syndicate this decision. | We need to spread the blame if it backfires. |
| We have to put on our marketing hats. | We have to put ethics aside. |
| It’s not possible. It’s impractical. It won’t work. | I don’t know how to do it. |
| It’s a no-brainer. | It’s a perfect decision for me to handle. |
| I’m glad you asked me that. | Public relations has written a carefully phrased answer. |
| I see you involved your peers in developing your proposal. | One person couldn’t possibly come up with something this stupid. |
| There are larger issues at stake. | I’ve made up my mind so don’t bother me with the facts. |
| I’ll never lie to you. | The truth will change frequently. |
| Our business is going through a paradigm shift. | We have no idea what we’ve been doing, but in the future we shall do something completely different. |
| Value-added. | Expensive. |
| Human Resources. | A bulk commodity, like lentils or cinder blocks. |
| The upcoming reductions will benefit the vast majority of employees. | The upcoming reductions will benefit me. |