Australia’s most hated corporate jargon

We surveyed 1,000 Australian office workers to determine how many Aussies are using corporate jargon at work and their general attitude towards corporate jargon.

Australian workers have a love-hate relationship with corporate lingo

In offices across Australia, ‘touching base’, ‘thinking outside the box’ and ‘picking up the momentum’ are all common phrases thrown around daily that typically would not be used outside of the workplace.

We wanted to get the ‘big picture’ on how many Aussies are using corporate jargon in the workplace. To do so we ‘leveraged’ the opinions of 1,000 Australian office workers using a survey. Let’s ‘deep dive’ into the results.

Key findings

Seven out of ten office workers in Australia use corporate jargon to communicate in the workplace. Those aged 25 to 35 years old are most likely to use corporate jargon, with 80% of those surveyed stating they use corporate jargon at work, compared to only 64% of 55 to 64-year-olds.

The most common reasons Australians gave for using corporate jargon were ‘to save time and have more efficient communication in the workplace’ (52%), ‘[they] picked it up from colleagues naturally and don’t realise [they] use it’ (48%) and ‘to fit in with colleagues and stakeholders’ (36%).

While a third of office workers enjoy using corporate jargon or like using it when appropriate (39%), a fifth (21%) express negative feelings towards the use of corporate jargon in the workplace. A quarter (24%) also find corporate jargon confusing or difficult to understand.

The most frequently used corporate jargon in Australia

‘Touch base’ has been named the most commonly used corporate jargon phrase in Australian offices, with almost half (48.4%) of Australians using the phrase regularly. This was followed by ‘get the ball rolling’ (47.8%) and ‘think outside the box’ (45.3%).

While ‘touch base’ is the most commonly used jargon among women (54.2%), ‘get the ball rolling’ was the most frequently used phrase among men (45.8%). Interestingly, the biggest difference between genders was the use of ‘I hope this email finds you well’, with 44% of women using the phrase, compared to only 19% of men. This suggests that women focus more on friendly communication and building emotional connections in the workplace compared to men.

‘Touch base’ was also the most used corporate jargon among Gen Z (40%), followed by ‘get the ball rolling’ (39%) and ‘I hope this email finds you well’ (38%).

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What corporate jargon do Australians hate the most?

‘Ducks in a row’ is named the most hated corporate jargon in Australia, disliked by almost a fifth (17%) of participants. This was followed by ‘reinvent the wheel’ (15.7%) and ‘put a pin in it’ (15.1%).

‘Ducks in a row’ topped the list of least favourite phrases across nearly all age groups. However, those aged 18 to 24 dislike ‘reinvent the wheel’ the most, those aged 45 to 54 hold the most negativity towards ‘blue sky thinking,’ and those over 65 find ‘break down the silo’ the least appealing. ‘On my radar’ had the greatest gender gap, with 67.7% of those who hated the phrase being men, compared to 32.3% of women.

On the other hand, ‘In the loop’ is revealed as the least-hated jargon, with only 5.3% of Aussies stating they dislike the phrase. While ‘touch base’ was named the most commonly used jargon, one in ten Aussies stated they disliked the phrase.

Industries most likely to use corporate jargon

Of course, different industries have their own take on corporate lingo, and our research shows that some lean more heavily on jargon than others. The tech industry topped the list as the biggest users of corporate jargon, with 85% of those surveyed using industry-specific terms. The most popular phrases included “bandwidth” (43%), “get the ball rolling” (42%), and “deliverables” (41%).

Legal services, engineering and architecture, and finance and banking all tied for second place, with 81% of respondents using corporate jargon. On the other hand, the real estate sector had the lowest usage, with just 43% of workers relying on corporate lingo.

ABOUT THE DATA

We commissioned survey company Pureprofile to conduct a study of 1004 Australians on their attitude toward corporate jargon.

The survey consisted of 9 questions to determine if and why different types of workers in Australia used corporate jargon in the workplace.

In order to crown the most used and hated corporate jargon, we nominated 42 commonly identified corporate words and phrases in which respondents could select as many options as necessary.

The survey was conducted in September, 2024, with sample proportions in line with the nationally representative percentage targets for age, gender and state.

Due to sample sizes, some work industries have been excluded from the data.