Office jargon has been around for decades, with plenty of terms becoming everyday lingo. But like everything else, workplace jargon evolves with every passing year—are you up to date?

Here’s what we found out:

  • ‘Circle back’ and ‘synergy’ are the most criticized terms. 
  • Entry level workers hate jargon the most, as 85% of their LinkedIn posts about it are negative.
  • Our experiment shows that jargon reduces understanding, trust and recall.
  • Jargon might cost a mid size business $6 million a year, according to our calculations.

Circle back, Synergy, and Low hanging fruit: the most-hated terms

If you’re part of the corporate world, chances are you’ve used jargon here and there. It’s just how language works. When a phrase becomes common in your team, you might start saying it too—this is how cliches are born! But repetitive use can cause phrases to lose their value, prompting eyerolls.

This is exactly what happened to jargon like “circle back” and “low hanging fruit”, and both phrases are now widely discussed (and mocked) on LinkedIn. According to our research, “circle back” and “synergy” are the target of 35% of LinkedIn posts that poke fun at the terms.

We also found that “low hanging fruit” (which means to go after easy wins) is dubbed the “most-hated” jargon. This might be because it's overused in office settings, turning it into an annoying cliché.

It turns out that LinkedIn isn’t the only social media platform that regularly discusses office jargon, X (formerly Twitter) users share their thoughts too. We found that popular hashtags like “#CorporateSpeak” and “#BuzzwordBingo” are used to laugh with others about thoughts on popular office jargon.

Our team analyzed 100 tweets from 2023-2024 to see which jargon terms are the most talked about (and criticized) on social media. Here are the top 15 debated jargon phrases:

We found that a whopping 85% of tweets about office jargon were negative. It seems like most people are tired of hearing repetitive jargon thrown about left and right.

Entry-level professionals are jargon’s biggest haters

According to data we found using LinkedIn, younger professionals were revealed to dislike jargon the most. We found that 85% of posts about office-speak made by entry-level employees were negative, with many saying they made mistakes due to misunderstanding jargon. An additional 60% described corporate lingo as “like a different language”— which is not ideal.

Mid-level employees are not jargon fans either, with 80% of their posts reflecting that. Still, many admit to using it themselves, but aren’t proud of it!

It’s those in senior positions that see the good in jargon, as this group has mixed opinions. We still found 60% to have a negative outlook like their junior counterparts, but some do see value in certain terms. 

Perhaps these senior workers have just gotten used to the jargon in their industry over time, so it no longer bothers them. High level executives may also feel the need to use jargon to appear professional and serious to their colleagues and clients.

How useful is jargon? Our experiment says: not very

Jargon can have its uses for sure, and many professionals working in tech rely on acronyms and jargon to communicate properly. However, jargon in other contexts may just prove to be unnecessary, and actually unhelpful.

We carried out an experiment to test how well people understand jargon, and if plain language is the better option. To do this we created two versions of the same memo, one in plain language and the other jammed full of office-speak. 

The jargon version read: “We are leveraging operational synergies to paradigm-shift our workflow vis-à-vis productivity enhancements” and the one in plain language simply read “We are combining teams to work more efficiently and be more productive.”

We then rounded up 50 participants and split them randomly into two groups, with one reading the jargon-filled version and the other the plain version. We then tested their comprehension, perception, willingness to act, and recall of what they read. 

The result? The group who read the version in plain language outperformed the jargon group in all 4 tests by a mile. In the comprehension test, those who read the plain language memo answered 8/10 questions correctly on average, whereas the jargon group answered just 5.

It was a similar story in the perceived clarity & trust test, as the jargon group rated the clarity of the memo a 2.8/5 on average. The plain language group had a much higher average score of 4.5/5.

90% of the plain language group said they would be able to act on the memo with understanding, whereas just 60% of the jargon group felt confident in what they were being asked. 

An hour later, the participants were asked to recall key points from the memo. The plain language group recalled 34 accurate key points, but the jargon group remembered only 12 points, and some were distorted.

These results suggest that jargon is not always needed, and reducing how much you use it can actually improve communication and efficiency.

Too much jargon could cost you in the long run

Office jargon can go beyond being just mildly annoying—our research found complicated jargon could cost companies money over time.

Complex business lingo can leave some employees feeling confused and unclear about things. These employees might need to ask for clarification before they can get started on a task, which only slows them down. A totally preventable back-and-forth explaining the meaning not only wastes time, but can end up wasting money too. 

By analyzing data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and industry research, we've come up with a "cost of jargon" calculator that tells us how much productivity can be lost to confusing jargon, and how much organizations could save by simplifying things.

A report by Grammarly and The Harris Poll found that teams lose an average of 7.47 hours per week per employee due to poor communication, which is nearly an entire workday each week!

The average private-sector U.S. wage is almost $36 an hour, which is about $270 in labour costs per employee per week, which translates to around $12,500 per employee per year lost in productivity. This means that a mid-size company of around 500 employees could be losing $6 million a year from miscommunication!

Final Thoughts 

Overall, it seems like office jargon is a widely debated topic in corporate America. Workplace lingo definitely has its place in tech industries, but for most, it’s become a complication that causes confusion more than anything. 

Our research suggests it could be a good idea for companies to rethink their language choices. (It may be time for “circle back” to head into retirement.) Too much jargon can overcomplicate matters rather than speed things up. Although jargon can be a way to foster a sense of community at work, it might just leave some employees scratching their heads.

Methodology

We researched office jargon trends, to find out the most popular phrases and idioms circulating the corporate world. Our team analyzed data from LinkedIn and X to find out what America really thinks about office jargon. We used a sample of 100 tweets from U.S based users from 2023-2024, and a sample of 100 jargon-related LinkedIn posts from 2023-2025 from U.S.-based professionals across various industries and career levels.

Note

Kickresume collected data from LinkedIn and X to discover user sentiment towards discourse about office jargon. Additionally Kickresume used analyzed data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and other industry research to create a “jargon calculator”, offering insight into how much companies could save by eliminating office jargon. 

About Kickresume 

Kickresume is an AI-based career tool that helps candidates source jobs and raise salary with powerful resume and cover letter tools, skills analytics, and automated job search assistance. It already helped more than 6 million job seekers worldwide.