RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
The world of business, of course, has its own jargon, much of it complex financial terminology. But many of the phrases that pepper the speech of analysts and business executives are meaningless, and it drives Lucy Kellaway nuts.
Lucy Kellaway is a columnist at the Financial Times newspaper and we spoke to her about her crusade to read the world of phrases like going forward.
Ms. LUCY KELLAWAY (Columnist, Financial Times): Hello.
MONTAGNE: Why don't I begin by asking you, what is so horrible about the phrase going forward? Obviously it just drives you mad. For me, though, it doesn't faze me that much.
Ms. KELLAWAY: Renee, I'm really shocked. I'd always had you down as a woman of judgment. So let me just tell you what's wrong with it. First of all, when you hear it, it doesn't add anything. It's like a sort of yeah, right. So if you say, what's our plans going forward? That's just a slightly more waffly way of saying what are our plans. So that's reason number one.
Reason number two: It's become a sort of - like a verbal tick. People who say going forward say it's about six times in one simple utterance. So you may not mind it. But when I'm with a real going forward addict, I feel that I want to scream.
MONTAGNE: Now, I know there's another expression - and this one actually does bother me more - and that is reach out.
Ms. KELLAWAY: I can't stand reach out. I mean again, it's got this sort of emotional charge to it that makes one feel so nauseous. You know, you get a sort of cold-call e-mail from maybe someone you've never met that says, Lucy, I wanted to reach out with some new research that you're doing. You're not reaching out. You're just telling me something and maybe something I don't even want to know anyway.
MONTAGNE: Well, there's a delicious sort of pain discussing these. Are there any other expressions that we can...
Ms. KELLAWAY: Yeah.
MONTAGNE: ...all like squirm a little bit more listening to?
Ms. KELLAWAY: Yes, I mean, you know, once one starts, one hardly knows where to stop, and one that I just cannot tolerate is at the end of the day. You know, I even heard Prince Charles was speaking about something. He said it a few times in some speech...
MONTAGNE: At the end of the day? At the end...
Ms. KELLAWAY: I didn't mind saying at the end of the day I have a hot chocolate before I go to bed. I'm perfectly happy with that. But at the end of the day, let's look at our metrics going forward and I'll reach out to you with the results is not something that - well, it does set my blood pressure rate racing, but in the wrong way.
MONTAGNE: Why do people in the financial world use these phrases and why is it so hard to get off them?
Ms. KELLAWAY: Yeah. Well, I think why they use - I mean it's partly a sort of locker room chat. We structure our language to show that we belong to a particular gang. So if everyone else is doing it, we do it. And I also think that it is quite hard in business to know precisely what it is you're supposed to be saying. So to pepper your language with fillers sort of makes sense, but it would be nice if they were a little bit more varied and slightly less annoying ones.
MONTAGNE: Well, do words like liquidity count?
Ms. KELLAWAY: Yeah. I have no - I mean, liquidity is fine because it means something. And I think you would be hard-pressed to explain what it meant in just one word.
MONTAGNE: Do you feel like you've gathered a lot more supporters? Because I get the impression that the more you bring it up, the more likely it is for people to think, oh, there's a good expression for me to use.
Ms. KELLAWAY: You know, I've been - for 13 years I've been writing a column urging people to sort of say and think more simply. And during that period matters have got worse and worse and worse, so I think I've been fantastically ineffective.
MONTAGNE: Does that mean you've thrown in the towel going forward?
Ms. KELLAWAY: I think I might have to reconsider my position going forward. However, I'm not throwing in the towel generally. There'll be lots of other phrases that I will - the optimism will triumph and I'll continue to rail again.
MONTAGNE: Lucy Kellaway writes a column on the workplace among other things for the Financial Times.
Thanks very much for joining us.
Ms. KELLAWAY: Thank you.