Ping you an email: Phrases you use that annoy your co-workers

Phrases like “touch base” and “keep me in the loop” have been recognised as some of the most annoying to come out of the pandemic era of home and hybrid working according to new research from business management solutions company, The Access Group.

As more employees have been working from home and away from the office since March 2020, the terms that have irritated them the most show there is a feeling of disconnect among employees, even though we are still “seeing” colleagues every day, albeit online.

In a survey of 1,000 workers recently conducted by The Access Group, 69% of respondents felt the impact of the pandemic had increased the amount of specialist language and terminology being used in the workplace, and a huge 90% felt that how they communicated with colleagues had changed with the increase of hybrid working.

Of those surveyed, “touch base” was deemed the most annoying phrase (35%) at work, followed closely by “keep me in the loop” (31%), while “ping an email over” was identified as the third most irritating phrase (29%) in a post-pandemic workplace. Others on the list included, “get the ball rolling”, “you’re on mute” and “on the same page”.

Claire Scott, chief people officer at The Access Group said: “Many of these phrases reflect how most employees are still working remotely from their colleagues, with a huge number of meetings still taking place online rather than face-to-face. It’s interesting how the most annoying phrases can be linked to people feeling disconnected from their colleagues and trying to find out what people are working on, or where they still fit in.”

Veronika Koller, a professor of discourse studies at Lancaster University, agreed that overused buzzwords and phrases in the workplace are nothing new, but they have changed because the “processes we go through at work have changed”.

She said: “The processes are now online and hybrid, so things that used to be communicated face-to-face are now talked about on channels where you lack some information, and there is a fear of missing out in the workplace. People want to be more informed, or want someone to get back to them, and worry that if they are not face-to-face they miss out on conversations.

“The phrases highlighted by the survey are about information flow and what you’re missing, and therefore link to a lack of those informal channels of communication that have slipped away in the workplace or become greatly reduced. You don’t bump into colleagues in the office or grab a coffee or lunch together as much anymore, so you miss out on the small talk and the relationship building with colleagues, but also the bits of information you would pick up for your work, so you are sending more emails about it.

“You have to make more of an effort with online communication, and there are fewer opportunities for communication now. Emails have to be sent, meetings have to be pre-arranged, and you receive more chasing emails, whereas before you could just walk over to someone in the office to follow something up.”

The complete list of annoying office phrases highlighted in the survey:

• Touch base (35%)

• Keep me in the loop (31%

• Ping an email over (29%)

• Get the ball rolling (24%)

• You’re on mute (23%)

• On the same page (22%)

• Moving the goalposts (19%)

• Blue sky thinking (18%)

• Face-to-face (18%)

• Let’s take this offline (17%)