The most confusing workplace jargon around the world, according to workers

The most confusing business buzzwords by country

While some jargon shows up across cultures—like ASAP, which workers in Brazil, Colombia, and Japan all rate as confusing—each nation reports other differences in the specific office-isms they find most opaque. Just see where blue-sky thinkers overcome flagpole-runners, or where needle-movers beat out ocean-boilers.

Why we should all cut the corporate-speak

But while rating corporate phrases may feel like fun and games, there are drawbacks to acronymizing the all-hands. For one, jargon jams up teams from getting things done. Nearly half of workers report that the buzzwords they hear in meetings “makes them feel like their colleagues are speaking a language they don’t understand” at least once a week. And almost two-thirds (60%) say that they had to figure out what all that jargon meant on their own time.

“People are trying to use shorthand to get things done faster,” says Drew Mccaskill, a LinkedIn career expert who collaborated on the report. “But the reverse is happening. When we’re using jargon at work, one of the unintentional consequences is that it really slows down productivity.”

There’s another issue with business-y buzzwords, too: They’re exclusionary. Sure, people who have come up in corporate offices may know what you mean by asking for that ROI by EOD. But buzzwords can isolate people who are encountering them for the first time, whether they work across borders or belong to a group that’s been historically barred from the boardroom. Jargon-y phrases can enhance difference—and in some cases, they can be harmful to teammates.

Take, Mccaskill says, the “peanut gallery,” a common term with a complicated racial history. “If you don’t know where that term originated, but the African American people in the room do, you can unintentionally cause real harm to a colleague or coworker,” he says.

To create a more inclusive atmosphere, we should work to cut our corporate-speak. But some teams who have a tough time trimming back their jargon have another solution: Company glossaries, which lay out the language your team is likely to use. In these documents, managers teams define common phrases and acronyms a new hire is likely to encounter—and include it in onboarding materials.

“If you can’t change the culture,” Mccaskill says, “make the culture easier for people coming into it.” In that way, perhaps we can take down the barriers of big-business buzzwords—no matter where you’re meeting from.