corporate email speak, work gibberish tweet, corporate email speak tweets

People Are “Translating” The Corporate Email Speak That Drives Them Nuts

The corporate world is baffling to me, as someone who has never managed to have a corporate job, but the culture there is so pervasive that many of the ways we professionally communicate are direct from the handbook. Culture writer Delia Paunescu made the observation on Twitter that there are a lot of language ticks and phrases that people use in emails to soften what they’re really trying to say. She wrote:

i’ve recently become obsessed with all the insane corporate ways we say normal things to each other. “I’m a little confused” is by far my favorite – it’s absolute rage masked as a professional pleasantry.

Then she asked her followers, “What are some of your best/most insufferable work gibberish phrases?”


There are so, so many responses, and even without the job context, I understood the meaning behind so many of these polite and formal words. It’s basically how you tell someone you’re going to choke them out if they don’t give you the work/money/time/response that they should. Or that you’re going to get choked out—these emails go both ways. Read below and rediscover corporate speak.

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