by Colleen McCarty, VP Talent & Organization

Google the term “annoying business phrases” and you will find plenty of reading material so I’m not sure I need to add more to the canon.  While figurative language is colorful and helps communicate meaning, it can be overused to the point it ceases to have meaning or be interesting.  Recently, I ran across two phrases that I’d never heard before so they stood out for me.

In one of our earlier blogs was the following quote:

Speaking of the keynote address, Jason S. from Seattle Tweeted, “...Marc melted my face off!”   

I must confess I’m not sure what “melted my face off” means.  I googled it and I still don’t know.  Is it me?  Do lots of people know that term or is it too bleeding edge?  If so, is it good business to using bleeding edge terms in business? Beyond that, is the use of pop culture phrases professional? Unless your target audience is only the hippest clients, are these phrases getting business for you?

For my second example, I recently I received an email from a previously unheard of vendor that started with:

Hi Colleen, Can we circle?

Now that just annoyed me.  I can figure out what “can we circle” means, and the answer is NO.  No, we cannot circle as that just does not sound like a good use of my time, fun, or even appealing.  So NO, we cannot circle.  I don’t know you and I’ve never heard of your product so I’m hitting the email delete button now.  I’m pretty sure my hitting the delete button was not the sender’s goal.

Do our attempts to be fresh and relevant inadvertently have the opposite effect? Do we risk turning our audience off by using phrases they don’t understand or that sound unprofessional?  Or have they worked for you?  I’d love to hear your experiences.