30 Translations From Blunt Insults And Angry Emails Into Professional Language, Shared By This TikToker
The work environment requires not only for us to be polite but also use professional jargon that can be confusing and not quite necessary. But that’s just corporate culture and people go with the flow, creating over the top, politically correct ways of saying things that in real life would be said as bluntly as possible to make sure the other person got it.
Not all of us have the gift of coming up with intricate ways of hiding their true feelings behind layers of seemingly respectful words that couldn’t offend people, but we have our virtual work bestie to help us.
She created a fun TikTok series in which she gives her colleague some phrases to translate into professional jargon and it is quite impressive how a casual phrase filled with annoyance can be turned to something sounding so civil.
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The virtual work bestie, or loewhaley on TikTok and Instagram, is actually Laura Whaley, an IT consultant from Toronto, Canada. She now has 1.7 million people following her on TikTok and 1.4 million followers on Instagram.
On her social media, Laura is known for her work-related content. She started creating videos in 2020 when a lot of workers moved their offices to their homes and had to adapt to a new style of working. She based her videos on the challenges that rose from such a sudden change and people loved her sense of humor and relatability.
I can't begin to tell you how much I HATE corporate jargon and buzzwords.
You could say that her most successful videos are the ones titled “How Do You Say” that turned into a full series. The videos are garnering millions of views and people are very impressed with the knowledge they get.
In this series, Laura sits in front of the computer and she asks her colleague who is on the call to translate various phrases into professional language to sound polite and not to offend anyone.
The colleague quickly comes up with witty and intricate phrases to express your frustrations, because we all think about them, but have to restrain ourselves from sounding them off as they are in our minds.
Not only does he make the phrases not sound mean and make you feel as if you're talking with an intelligent person, he also makes the sentences unnecessarily long. Molly Young, a writer for Vulture, says that “the point of these phrases is to fill space. No matter where I’ve worked, it has always been obvious that if everyone agreed to use language in the way that it is normally used, which is to communicate, the workday would be two hours shorter.”
I don't work somewhere we have to be professional so I shorten it to "you're gonna have to talk to [Boss] about that"
I ask so many questions because I'm not confidenr making suggestions on how to proceed. Sorry !!
However, it is hard to not pick up such language in the workplace if it’s used there, even though people don’t really like it or even understand it all. Bored Panda has an article on various buzzwords people hate hearing at work and a couple of HR experts’ opinions on the topic.
It may be that people despise corporate language, but they love the videos as they show the absurdity of it all. They are also quite useful because sometimes you don’t have a choice but to adapt to the lingo that is common to use in a company.
The series has been going strong for quite a while and it seems that Laura won’t be running out of ideas because the comments are full of suggestions on what to translate next.
What do you think of these translations? Will you try and incorporate them in your own workplace? Which one was your favorite? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!
It takes me a bit longer than most people to write an email: I organize the info and questions, reread it, edit, space it, bold and use colour if that helps. I don't like getting a lot of emails back and forth. I'd rather spend more time composing one and less on sorting a zillion emails.
Please see my prior correspondence, attached below, for the information requested....
The details of your project are unclear. Please provide clarification as to scope, impact and timeline for deliverables.
Note: this post originally had 39 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
After a dozen years in an office environment, I recently started back to school for a job that is not email reliant. This post makes me feel so good about my decision. Reading this gave me a stomachache. I just cannot stand the daily barrage of work emails anymore. But many of these seem like good advice.
These are wonderful, but sometimes I think the original (when possible) is more clear and to the point so nothing is lost in professional politeness and jargon.
These are absolutely wonderful and actually very useful. Often we get bombarded with demands and can't think straight 👍 However three Bloody photos Each bloody post is beyond overkill, for that she needs to take her own advice 😉
Don’t know specifically where in North America this tik tokker is but personal experience of “business communication” coming from the UK to Canada (not necessarily the same thing), her recommendations read a lot like the “proper, professional, communication” that was my culture for about 20 years. In Canada, I was accused of sarcasm, arrogance, condescension, passive aggression, snark… heck, I even made a colleague CRY when I suggested that “instead of re-wording your forms to be different than the forms everyone else is using to collect information for this project, why don’t you just share your improvements with all of us so we can all benefit from them?” I had to relearn how to write what I wanted to say in a “warm, friendly, non-judgmental, way” so as not to offend. Can laugh now but in the beginning, sometimes I cried because offence was never my intent, it was just how I wrote.
Nah, none of these sounds professional in any way to me. Why not simply tell the truth, in a precise and correct manner, without all these indirectness? Maybe it is an American/US thing to not speak up your mind and sugarcoat everything with evasive answers? I'd be suspicious if someone would talk to me or answer in BS emails like that
These are awesome! I wish I'd had these responses when I was working. :)
Office politics, I love it. Am self-employed now but I do miss it. It's fun when you know how to play the game.
Sometimes people don't get (or refuse) politeness, so you just have to say, "Sorry, no."
A lot of these are more overtly passive-aggressive than would be tolerated in an American corporate office environment.
Here's one I always wanted to know - how do you professionally say "Why is your coworker unconscious on the floor, and why are you trying to smother him by filling his nose and throat with cake?"
After a dozen years in an office environment, I recently started back to school for a job that is not email reliant. This post makes me feel so good about my decision. Reading this gave me a stomachache. I just cannot stand the daily barrage of work emails anymore. But many of these seem like good advice.
These are wonderful, but sometimes I think the original (when possible) is more clear and to the point so nothing is lost in professional politeness and jargon.
These are absolutely wonderful and actually very useful. Often we get bombarded with demands and can't think straight 👍 However three Bloody photos Each bloody post is beyond overkill, for that she needs to take her own advice 😉
Don’t know specifically where in North America this tik tokker is but personal experience of “business communication” coming from the UK to Canada (not necessarily the same thing), her recommendations read a lot like the “proper, professional, communication” that was my culture for about 20 years. In Canada, I was accused of sarcasm, arrogance, condescension, passive aggression, snark… heck, I even made a colleague CRY when I suggested that “instead of re-wording your forms to be different than the forms everyone else is using to collect information for this project, why don’t you just share your improvements with all of us so we can all benefit from them?” I had to relearn how to write what I wanted to say in a “warm, friendly, non-judgmental, way” so as not to offend. Can laugh now but in the beginning, sometimes I cried because offence was never my intent, it was just how I wrote.
Nah, none of these sounds professional in any way to me. Why not simply tell the truth, in a precise and correct manner, without all these indirectness? Maybe it is an American/US thing to not speak up your mind and sugarcoat everything with evasive answers? I'd be suspicious if someone would talk to me or answer in BS emails like that
These are awesome! I wish I'd had these responses when I was working. :)
Office politics, I love it. Am self-employed now but I do miss it. It's fun when you know how to play the game.
Sometimes people don't get (or refuse) politeness, so you just have to say, "Sorry, no."
A lot of these are more overtly passive-aggressive than would be tolerated in an American corporate office environment.
Here's one I always wanted to know - how do you professionally say "Why is your coworker unconscious on the floor, and why are you trying to smother him by filling his nose and throat with cake?"
