When did “getting in touch” morph into “reaching out”

Have you three considered seeing somebody about your anger issues. Its just a bloody turn of phrase. You know what it means. Is your vocabulary full and unable to contemplate any “new” ways of wording something?

You sound inordinately cross about some other people being inordinately cross tbh.

back in the 90s

If you’re new school but think you’re old school you’d have said back in the day.

I’m sorry to say that even back in the 90s I was a long way away from any kind of school.

Let me revert on this, whilst I take a through investigation. Taking in all macros and analsing on a macro level.

Unfortunatley i dont have the bandwith available to advise on this till the end of this current sprint

KR

Mr bullshit

I’m going to morph out to you now: think of it this way, your hatred for an otherwise harmless sequence of words is as much irrational nonsense as your perception of the sequence of words themselves.

Old man shouts at cloud?

Really.  Who gives a shit?  Getting in touch, in contact, reaching out.  At least the latter is less words.  It just doesn’t matter.

“Lean in” seems to be contagious at work at the moment. As does “holding the pen”. Bullshit bingo.

I’m going to have to ‘decompress’ after reading this thread!

I don’t care, far too busy right-sizing my value proposition.

You sound inordinately cross about some other people being inordinately cross tbh.

I am glad to see the irony was not lost on you 😉

We probably need to do a deep dive on this subject.  Maybe some blue sky thinking, it could be a game changer.

We need to think outside the box, let’s take it offline and touch base later.

While my memory isn’t what it used to be, I’m pretty certain that a search by someone who knows how to do such things will probably turn up a number of threads on this very topic, the conclusion is, inevitably, that language changes, has done for as long as there’s been language, so fighting against it is like putting lipstick on a pig – it wastes your time, and annoys the pig.

I read somewhere that there were loud complaints being made in government circles in Washington, about the number of English terms being used in American speech – some time in the late 18th, early 19th century. Accept the fact that language changes, and get over it, you will lead a happier, less stressful life.

Nobody says it anymore where I work. Before that is was “going forward” and people starting every sentence with “So” but they have also disappeared. It is almost like phrase fashion.

I’ve happily left the workplace where these phrases flourish, though I still do point out my wife’s “opportunities for improvement “. Which she greatly appreciates as I’m sure you can imagine.

It has acquired a kind of knowing, snide edge though.  So not the Four Tops meaning, but to send a communication to someone who hates you (probably you hate them also) and who you do not expect to reply.  As in the journalist who has just done a complete hatchet job on someone saying “we reached out to President Assad for comment but have not had a reply”.  The better class of journalist just says “contacted”  of course, but to me the phrase does have this edge of knowing insincerity about it.  Which means that it is now useless when the Four Tops meaning is in fact intended.

ETA maybe “reach out for” and “reach out to” are different in this respect

right-sizing

This was used during redundancy announcement at my work yesterday.

Far more irksome than “reach out”.

It’s not just language change, it’s a lazy degradation of the language. ‘I was like…, he was like…’, ‘can I get…’, ‘I’m good’ just projects the speaker as not very bright, doesn’t read much and is unable to put together an interesting or funny sequence of sentences.  Language is political, as reflected by all the euphemisms around eg redundancy or warfare, and being inarticulate reduces your chances of fighting your corner. Just think of all the linguistic mumbo-jumbo that helped Trump get elected.

+1

Anyone who puts ‘like’ ‘out’ ‘so’ etc in a sentence where its not needed – bellends

It’s not just language change, it’s a lazy degradation of the language. ‘I was like…, he was like…’, ‘can I get…’, ‘I’m good’ just projects the speaker as not very bright, doesn’t read much and is unable to put together an interesting or funny sequence of sentences. Language is political, as reflected by all the euphemisms around eg redundancy or warfare, and being inarticulate reduces your chances of fighting your corner. Just think of all the linguistic mumbo-jumbo that helped Trump get elected.

Whereas you come across as a pompous arse that can’t recognise a contradiction in his own argument.

as reflected by all the euphemisms around eg redundancy

I got in trouble a while back when replying to my boss saying ‘there’s going to be a consultation on headcount’ I said ‘you mean redundancies?’ I was told I was not to use that phrase because it would upset and distract the rest of the team, especially the younger members. To which I replied ‘do you think they’re idiots?’ which got me in even more trouble.

@squirrelking

You sure? Depeche Mode might have got there first.

Ha ha, I was about to erroneously correct you that Johnny Cash was the originator of the song, but fortunately I googled before making a complete arse of myself on t’internet. For once.

‘Pompous arse’? Someone taught you to write a celebration of inarticulacy and illiteracy in complete sentences in standard English. Now there’s a contradiction, innit!

Any email communications that start “Hi team……” and people using the word “share” all the f****** time. Stabbing is too good for them.

Yes, username definitely checks out!

I grimace when I hear that this train is formed of eleven carriages.

And the 2024 edition of the TDF. Who edited it? Surely it was curated?

All this nonsense comes from America. All of it.

In every other Teams meeting I’m in, someone either asks “who’s got a starter for 10?” or states “here’s a starter for 10.”

Pretty sure we can’t blame that on America, but I could be wrong

Theres a load of phrases like this in the workplace. Sweeping generalisation but they tend to come from the people I have pretty low opinions of who float around and never seem to do much actual work…

In every other Teams meeting I’m in, someone either asks “who’s got a starter for 10?” or states “here’s a starter for 10.”

Guilty as charged.

But people know what it means and it’s much quicker than saying “I’ve written a first draft but it’s a bit rough and will need refining with input from others”.

IT bods went through a phase of calling impromptu working groups ‘scrums’.

Nope, I’ve no idea either.

As long as they don’t say or write ’tis, or of this parish, then they can do what they want.

I’ve just been informed at work that this year we are not having a christmas party. Instead we are having an end of year party. The world has gone mad.

“Mind Blown”

This is beginning to irk…!

IT bods went through a phase of calling impromptu working groups ‘scrums’.

Didn’t that arise from the “agile” fad ?

People started using “reach out” rather than contact or get in touch with when it became acceptable to just wang across an email or teams message and hope that it gets picked up in the mass of others that are received at any point in time rather than actually speaking to people.

Bane of my working life, staff starting now (and for a good while actually) are so averse to just picking up a phone and calling someone. Passive communication doesn’t get a response.

I’d gladly just give people a ring, but they’d likely be horrified.

Office etiquette demands these things be arranged in advance, and some do everything they can to just send teams messages instead

Reminds me, when the frig did a departmental meeting at work become a sodding “Town Hall”? My last 2 companies have used this stupid description. I bet its another **** Americanism

Nope, I’ve no idea either.

Scrum – it’s figurative.  And I thought us IT workers were meant to be the literal minded ones.

It’s not just language change, it’s a lazy degradation of the language

Language evolves, get used to it Gramps. The language you use is what you acquired as a young person which is different to that which your elders used, and so on.  Ever wonder why we aren’t all speaking Old English?  Did you really think there was always one official standard English from the distant past and only now it’s being ‘degraded’?

You can’t call it illiteracy when it’s adding new stuff all the time.  If you want to be a smart arse, they’re neologisms.  You know who’s credited with the most neologisms in the English language?  John Milton, and he died in 1674.

I counter this **** with as many military-isms as I can possibly muster.

People need to screw the nut, stop crowing it and get work nipped. This websters chat is painful, leads to terrible dits and lots of lantern swinging.

It’s not just language change, it’s a lazy degradation of the language. ‘I was like…, he was like…’, ‘can I get…’, ‘I’m good’ just projects the speaker as not very bright, doesn’t read much and is unable to put together an interesting or funny sequence of sentences.  Language is political, as reflected by all the euphemisms around eg redundancy or warfare, and being inarticulate reduces your chances of fighting your corner. Just think of all the linguistic mumbo-jumbo that helped Trump get elected.

See my post a little way back up the page. Then get over yourself. Language, like life, the environment and a whole host of things, continually changes. Apart from the French, and the Quebec Governments obsession with the purity of their language, which is frankly like pissing into the wind.

Language, like life, the environment and a whole host of things, continually changes.

It does but a lot of BS bingo phrases in the workplace are fashionable to use for a few years and then they are no longer used. My example from earlier was “going forward”. 10 years ago it was used all the time, now I never hear it.

A current one being used is to “double click” meaning the person is going to look into it a bit deeper. Within 5 years nobody will be saying that as just sounds cliched and old fashioned.

Not recent. It was used when I was in London new media in the mid-noughties.

Even the joke about the Four Tops has been around for years now.

Have fond memories of American colleagues using it then and giggling away with a similarly minded (female) colleague having cracked a Four Tops joke. GREAT times.

I’ve just been informed at work that this year we are not having a christmas party. Instead we are having an end of year party.

We do that.  Or have one in Jan.  It’s a ton cheaper than in early Dec..