Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
At The Back => Time Out => Topic started by: bucketshred on November 03, 2010, 11:07:05 AM
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... is 'actioned' an actual word?
Paddy
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Well it's on dictionary.com so I guess so..
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its used constantly in business.. so whatever the dicitionary may have to say about it, its commonly used and definitely a word
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only for idiots :)
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We use it all the times in business terms ("it's been actioned"), but it's never recognised in my spell check. Tell your colleages that the English language is bigger than a spell check suggests. :lol:
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It's manager's lingo.
It is designed to make managers look smarter.
I have learned the whole vocabulary but I prefer to use terms everybody understands. Bad for the ego but good for implementation......eeehhhhmm..... I mean making stuff happen.
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Well it's on dictionary.com so I guess so..
Apparently so is 'aa'.
A Hawaiian word for lava, or some such nonsense.
Just becuase 'Dictionary.com' says it's a word, doesn't make it a word. It's like this stupid 'scrabble words'. I'm sorry, you have a Q and no U. Get over it.
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I had my manager use 'defenestrate' in an email to me the other day regarding multiple discounts for a client. I had to look it up. I think he used it in the wrong context but I can't be arsed to contradict him as he's always right.
He also said a while back that my other half - who's been a journalist since graduating with her PhD in English - that she can't write when she offered to help him with some marketing and PR. Microsoft hired her just before he said that. Amused me no end.
I think most bosses/managers are tw@ts.
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I think most bosses/managers are tw@ts.
We're not all arseholes PDT_002
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I think most bosses/managers are tw@ts.
We're not all arseholes PDT_002
I'm head of department so I'm counting myself! ;)
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I think most bosses/managers are tw@ts.
We're not all arseholes PDT_002
As a company director you could escalate this my way but I'd defenestrate the lot of you if you fail to meet your KPIs.
You should seek 360 feedback if you disagree... :? :lol:
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I think most bosses/managers are tw@ts.
We're not all arseholes PDT_002
I'm head of department so I'm counting myself! ;)
Although my bosses are tw@ts :lol:
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ah marketing speak. I hate it. Basically you just make nouns into verbs ("incentivise/ize") to make yourself sound smarter.
Though I guess you could play buzzword bingo... :lol: Do something proactive as an incentivisation.
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Americanisms creeping up on British English I suspect... Shows that language is a living thing and not something that is static forever in time.....
The 'defenestrate' one made me laugh though, as I imagined the guy throwing someone out of the window..... Presumably an awkward customer?
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I always assumed that "actioned" instead of "acted" was backformed by somebody a little less bright than they thought they were. If a situation is "actionable" then you must be "able" to "action" it. Of course, I objection strongly to such abuses of plain English, but then I'm a serf, not a manager.
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Personally I've always thought the plain english brigade was infinitely more annoying than any management lingo I've come across. Scientists and philosophers coin terms all the time to suit there needs, why can't managers? Because they're hated is the only reason that springs to my mind.
Also, 'actioned' isn't interchangeable with 'acted' - its closest rival term is probably 'done'.
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I'm no fan of the plain english brigade, but i think there's a bit of a difference between management speak and scientific terms. Normally in science it's a term which we don't have a word for yet (and in fact often words are used which already exist). In management speak it's normally something which we already do have a term for, but it's perceived as being too simplistic.
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I think most bosses/managers are tw@ts.
We're not all arseholes PDT_002
I'm head of department so I'm counting myself! ;)
management tossers
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Verbising words is pretty hideous. Not 'proper' English, but ultimately English is defined by it's usage it'll probably be recognised at some point.
I have to admin that I occasionally drop this in to e-mails out of having-to-deal-with-American-managers-ism. :?
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Personally I've always thought the plain english brigade was infinitely more annoying than any management lingo I've come across. Scientists and philosophers coin terms all the time to suit there needs, why can't managers? Because they're hated is the only reason that springs to my mind.
Also, 'actioned' isn't interchangeable with 'acted' - its closest rival term is probably 'done'.
Why can't managers? Because scientists (I include myself in this category) discover things for which no word or phrase exists, managers don't! Incidentally, it's 'their needs' :P
With that said, much of the management 'lingo' doesn't distress me too much. I am more annoyed by people using words of whose meaning they have no notion, or using far more complicated words than are necessary.
As a scientist, a good deal of my training has focussed on the ability to communicate complex ideas - I need to be able to tell non-scientists what my results mean! If I start using phrases like 'heterologous gene expression was induced with arabinose', there will be lots of blank faces. I'd have to come up with something like 'in order to make the bacterial cells start converting the DNA of interest into our target protein, a chemical called arabinose was added.' But you know what? that's something I would do! Yes, it's longer, but to be able to describe what's going on in a simplified way without using unfamiliar words, that is what's necessary.
But I suppose, time is money :)
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I would say 'in order to make the bacterial cells start converting the DNA of interest into our target protein, we actioned a chemical called arabinose.'
or maybe i wouldn't.
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Americanisms creeping up on British English I suspect... Shows that language is a living thing and not something that is static forever in time.....
The 'defenestrate' one made me laugh though, as I imagined the guy throwing someone out of the window..... Presumably an awkward customer?
It was related to bulk discounts for a potential hosting client. I work in IT and my bosses (3 founders, or flounders as I like to refer to them) are all developers who live for the job. They tend to be verbose bar-stewards most of the time and will take an essay to tell you something that could have been stated in a dozen words or so. Plus they think they're gods gift to everything they turn their hands to.
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Americanisms creeping up on British English I suspect... Shows that language is a living thing and not something that is static forever in time.....
The 'defenestrate' one made me laugh though, as I imagined the guy throwing someone out of the window..... Presumably an awkward customer?
It was related to bulk discounts for a potential hosting client. I work in IT and my bosses (3 founders, or flounders as I like to refer to them) are all developers who live for the job. They tend to be verbose bar-stewards most of the time and will take an essay to tell you something that could have been stated in a dozen words or so. Plus they think they're gods gift to everything they turn their hands to.
i know the type. i feel for you
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I think most bosses/managers are tw@ts.
We're not all arseholes PDT_002
I'm head of department so I'm counting myself! ;)
management tossers
Hey, I'm a manager :lol:
But I am getting closer to a move to IT. Will that make me less of a tosser? :D
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Personally I've always thought the plain english brigade was infinitely more annoying than any management lingo I've come across. Scientists and philosophers coin terms all the time to suit there needs, why can't managers? Because they're hated is the only reason that springs to my mind.
Also, 'actioned' isn't interchangeable with 'acted' - its closest rival term is probably 'done'.
Oh, believe me, I'm no fan of people who don't understand the difference between useful technical/professional terms and what can only be described as obfuscatory verbiage. I accept that "acted on" would have been a better synonym, or perhaps "fulfilled" or "completed" or just plain "done". Others have made the point that scientists and philosophers tend to coin new words to express concepts in shorthand or because a precisely correct word doesn't exist up to that point (or, yes, just to show off). My problem is with people who speak or write unnaturally because they think it doesn't sound "professional" to use a short, common word if they can find a longer one.
I have the same problem with newspaper words, the words that nobody uses unless they're writing newspaper headlines; "Police slam yobs after fracas" and so on. It usually indicates that not a lot of activity is going on in the brain of the person speaking or writing, if they can string together whole sentences and paragraphs from these snippets. It's more or less the same as the pentatonic noodling I do in guitar shops, only with words.
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I think most bosses/managers are tw@ts.
We're not all arseholes PDT_002
I'm head of department so I'm counting myself! ;)
management tossers
Hey, I'm a manager :lol:
But I am getting closer to a move to IT. Will that make me less of a tosser? :D
i'm afraid you'll all still represent The Man
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lKT9vi8cQk
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It's not really a problem for me as not much of my work seems to get 'actioned' :D
I think I need to incentivise; take it to the next level and really understand my core competencies. I need to be be proactive not reactive and really conentrate on the deliverables. I need to climb the strategic staircase then helicopter, before going forward and focusing on the high priorities. I need to do this ASAP, give 110% and be a real team player. This will hopefully facilitate my team in acheiving the KPI's and client expectation.
Although it's hard to give a timescale or ETA, hopefully the heads up will give us some leverage with the bottom line.
Failing that we should conduct a SWOT analysis and see what can be communicated. It is a client driven market after all.
Good to touch base
Best and kindest thanks and regards
T. G. Jackson BSc (Hons) MRICS, CLAS, CBCI, CGRCP-IT, CISSP, CISSP-ISSMP, CISM, CISA, CSOX, BSI ISMS LA
Senior quality control management project analyist of deliverable business engineering and quality
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It's not really a problem for me as not much of my work seems to get 'actioned' :D
I think I need to incentivise; take it to the next level and really understand my core competencies. I need to be be proactive not reactive and really conentrate on the deliverables. I need to climb the strategic staircase then helicopter, before going forward and focusing on the high priorities. I need to do this ASAP, give 110% and be a real team player. This will hopefully facilitate my team in acheiving the KPI's and client expectation.
Although it's hard to give a timescale or ETA, hopefully the heads up will give us some leverage with the bottom line.
Failing that we should conduct a SWOT analysis and see what can be communicated. It is a client driven market after all.
Good to touch base
Best and kindest thanks and regards
T. G. Jackson BSc (Hons) MRICS, CLAS, CBCI, CGRCP-IT, CISSP, CISSP-ISSMP, CISM, CISA, CSOX, BSI ISMS LA
Senior quality control management project analyist of deliverable business engineering and quality
yes..! I think you should form a tiger team too. search for those new verticals and hit the ground running.
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Sh!t and p!ss I forgot to hit the ground running. I've not made the grade have I?
Will have to review my PDP and see where we can go from here.....
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off topic...
My favourite ever newspaper headline concerned an air ambulance being called following a rural animal attack:
Day Of High Drama As Lama Harms A Farmer! (no shite that genius was in the metro) :lol:
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Arse. I'm at work and I've just wrote an email with "proactive" in it. Maybe I am a w**ker after all :lol:
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Maybe it's the different fields in which we work, but I think a more suitable synonym for 'actioned' would be 'assigned', rather than 'done'. Either way, it's still not a real word :D
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Ah, yes, reminds me of my heady days at sellafield
Actioned = done/doing/told someone to do it/hasnt been done yet, but we want to sound more clever than incompetent.
Its not a real word because 'action' is a noun (mass noun, according to oxford english disctionary, but I dont know what the distiction is), whereas 'actioned' requires 'action' to be a verb, and its not. This stems from another incorrect use: action as a verb 'I'll action that' and the like.
My personal favourites
Incentivise. This means 'bribe'. But 'bribe' doesnt sound nice or clever.
Projectisation. This means $%&# all, and is a word designed to create work that doesnt need to be done.
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Incentivise. This means 'bribe'. But 'bribe' doesnt sound nice or clever.
We use "Consideration Payment" as in "While you consider your position, would you also like to consider this big bag of money?"
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Why can't managers? Because scientists (I include myself in this category) discover things for which no word or phrase exists, managers don't! Incidentally, it's 'their needs' :P
With that said, much of the management 'lingo' doesn't distress me too much. I am more annoyed by people using words of whose meaning they have no notion, or using far more complicated words than are necessary.
As a scientist, a good deal of my training has focussed on the ability to communicate complex ideas - I need to be able to tell non-scientists what my results mean! If I start using phrases like 'heterologous gene expression was induced with arabinose', there will be lots of blank faces. I'd have to come up with something like 'in order to make the bacterial cells start converting the DNA of interest into our target protein, a chemical called arabinose was added.' But you know what? that's something I would do! Yes, it's longer, but to be able to describe what's going on in a simplified way without using unfamiliar words, that is what's necessary.
But I suppose, time is money :)
Bugger. There/their/they're mistakes are a massive pet hate of mine, I'm amazed I let that slip.
Still, it depends in some sense what you mean by discovering things. If you limit the domain of 'thing' to purely physical phenomena (or noumena, take your pick) then you "real" scientists can hold your heads as high as you like (which in my experience is pretty high). But it seems pretty arbitrary - language has to deal with a lot more than physics and chemistry after all...
I also don't see a difference between you saying something technical at work and something in layman's terms at home, and me writing 'actioned' on a report in work, but using more traditional words at home. For both of us, when at work, time very much is money. Except perhaps that 'actioned' is infact easily interpreted, or so I thought until I came to this thread!
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oh yeah i mean in science there was a bit of using bigger words because they sounded better too, which I didn't like either (plus a little bit of business-speak too, using "novel" all the time), but it didn't seem anywhere near as bad as business speak, either. I mean if something was red, we called it red. And there was no word you could use for DNA, say, before it was discovered either (yes i know what i stands for, i cba writing it).
Actually, funnily enough, one of the things that annoyed me in science was the principle of trying to use as few words as possible- if you could say something in two words, you did :lol:
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(yes i know what i stands for, i cba writing it).
There's your problem... Deoxyribonucleic Acid is science, DNA is management jargon. :lol:
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Its not a real word because 'action' is a noun (mass noun, according to oxford english disctionary, but I dont know what the distiction is), whereas 'actioned' requires 'action' to be a verb, and its not. This stems from another incorrect use: action as a verb 'I'll action that' and the like.
Action is a verb, in my dictionary at least. (Collins 1992).
"to put (a proposal or plan) into operation."
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Examples of words that mean different things on the other side of the pond - my 'favourite' - or should that be favorite?
Momentarily - in the UK = something that occurs for a very short period of time; in the USA - in a short while
"So-and-so will be here momentarily" - to which I always want to reply - "Why are they in such a hurry to leave?"
But of course that would count as sarcasm, which would be wasted on the Yanks..
Mike
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This sums it all up for me: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7E-aoXLZGY (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7E-aoXLZGY)
:)
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There's your problem... Deoxyribonucleic Acid is science, DNA is management jargon. :lol:
maybe in adverts etc. (where I'd agree), but abbreviations are used all the time in science. :lol:
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This sums it all up for me: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7E-aoXLZGY (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7E-aoXLZGY)
:)
I enjoyed that, and agree. Words are my slaves not my masters, and perfect accuracy isnt needed for clarity. Nor is there any reason to adhere to any given set of linguistic rules in the face of the fact that language is and always has been an evolving thing.
However, my objection to various forms of managementese stand. Less for the technical reasons, more for the underlying bullshitee they represent. 'Professional' buzzwords are indicative of the exact opposite of professionality; they're an attempt to fit into a workplace by making the right noises and climb ladders by talking the right talk, dazzle listeners and impress upon them your effectiveness with a few choice bar-stewardisations of existing words and terms and liberal use of hyper-correction, as though paid by the syllable. Thats fine, I suppose, but what really gets me about this use of language is that its normally used by the less than competent; people like to use the new(ish) language of proactiveness and modern business but havent the skills or resourcefullness to back it up. Basically, they tend to be brown-nosing 'game-players' more interested than looking good than actually doing any work.
That and you really have to hear this shite spoken in person; the emphasese placed on the managementese phrases, like they just thought of the bloody word then and there, makes me nauseous.
/Rant.
It reminds me of a study I read...I wish I could remember who by now, I'd go and find it....but cant...anyway, the basic jist is that the most important factor in being accepted into a group or subculture is the use of that subculture or groups lexicon. We really do, by and large, care more that people talk the talk than walk the walk. Shame really. Managementese is one where the talk can entirely supplant the walk, however, and people that are profoundly inept can do well by making the right noises.
The other thing that pisses me off is text-speak. I can sort of understand it in text messages, where theres a limited character count and you want to get more said, but when I see it in emails or posts it makes my $%&#ing piss boil. Take the extra couple of seconds to not look like a $%&#ing retard; use actual words. And what group are people showing membership of using textese outside of a text? ASBO-holders? The sub-normally intelligent? Teenagers from 1998?
Anyway, /rant #2. As you were.