Most irritating office buzzwords

A recent survey conducted by print technology and solutions provider Brother UK has revealed the UK’s most annoying office buzzwords and behaviours.  

According to the survey of more than 1,000 British workers, the most used irritating word or phrase was ‘holibobs’, which almost three in ten respondents found to be particularly grating. This was closely followed by the inspiring phrase ‘teamwork makes the dream work’ which over a quarter of employees said they find annoying.  

Another supposedly inspirational expression – ‘giving 110%’ – was the next most hated workplace buzzword, while two cheery greetings ‘happy Hump Day’ and ‘happy Fri-yay’ were similarly found to annoy exactly a quarter of the survey’s respondents. Over a fifth of workers also selected ‘nice to e-meet you’, a phrase that has become increasingly familiar since the pandemic and, apparently, more annoying.  

In terms of irritating behaviours, the research asked respondents which ones they would admit to doing themselves and the two most commonly cited both relate to inappropriate video call etiquette; just under a quarter of all respondents said ‘working on something else whilst on a video call’ and ‘not turning on the camera on calls’ were undesirable work traits they were guilty of.