360 Degree Thinking

I read an article on the BBC News website the other day about 'office-speak phrases you love to hate' And, unsurprisingly, I found myself nodding and smiling at many of them.

Thirty years after I first began working - jings, that makes me old as I still recall my first day as a working man, 1st June 1978 in a ramshackle furniture store -the world is a much different place. In the late 1970s, you were bawled out if you made a mistake, the ever-present threat of an on the spot sacking loomed large, sexism was commonplace and the words 'grievance' and 'procedures' were about as common as hairdressers refusing to do perms because they looked ludicrous.

Three decades on and much has changed for the better in today's working environment. But the downside of better working conditions is the jargon which has not so much crept into today's working vocabulary as swept in.

In the BBC list was the use of idea showering instead of brainstorming - less this offended people who have epilespy. That's one used in the company I presently work for, the head office of which is in Preston and whose regular guidelines on what to say and how to behave cause much amusement to us plebs north of the border. Thinking outside the box and blue sky thinking are others. I recall doing some blue sky thinking while at school in the 1970s -only for my teacher to believe I was merely gazing out the window and throw a chalk duster which struck me on the back of the head. She wouldn't get away with that today (principally because I'm now 46 and the fact she's probably scrawling away at a blackboard beyond the Pearly Gates. Can I say 'blackboard'? Is that politically correct?)

I particularly like my door is always open which emanates from our office - particularly as we're in an open plan office and the only door is the one heading for the way out. Of course, senior managers may be trying to tell me something - and my appraisal is tomorrow...

Anyway, I suspect I don't have enough bandwith to carry on with this nonsense and the end of this rant is now in my radar. I've just received an e-mail from someone who wants to touch base about something off-line.

So I'm turning the computer off...