Are executives running out of stupid phrases to throw around the office? The Corporate Cynic says that he is starting to notice that the managers trot out the same old clichés over and over again – something that reminds him of an episode of The Flintstones in which Fred Flintstones is told by his boss to repeat three phrases as an answer to any questions he is asked.
In Fred's case, this amounted to:
- Whose baby is that?
- Let's run it up the flagpole.
- I'll buy that!
Meanwhile, the Cynics overheard a manager completely dressing-down another manager who happened to be at a lower level. While not hearing every word, he did notice there were certain phrases used that he had heard rather a lot recently.
How sad that life is imitating art. Sadder still that those in senior positions can't adopt the sort of constructive dialogue the Cynic suggests by adding phrases like these into their vocabulary:
Actually, Fred's 3 default catch phrases were: 'Whose baby is that?' 'What's your angle' and 'I'll buy that', but I saw the flagpole example used elsewhere online as a reference to Fred's sales mantra and it seems to be perpetuated by etext infringers along the way... If one plans to criticise the world's lack of creativity and ingenuity in creating sellable catch phrases, wouldn't it be wise to follow your own advise and not use as an illustration of your point, someone else's example 'cut and pasted' from elsewhere in cyberspace? Just a thought...