Which also means even more opportunities to be enraged by corporate jargon. Today’s rant pertains specifically to the businessspeak tendency to misuse words. Nouns as verbs, verbs as nouns. Here are two examples that make my teeth grind.

Action (noun)

In business jargon, this word has become a verb. We always had “action items.” These were specific assignments made at a meeting to be accomplished before the group meets again. It was common for someone to ask afterwards, who owns this action? Mildly annoying but not a serious problem. But sadly, this has evolved. The question is now, “who will action this?” Or, post meeting, “has this been actioned?” Both these questions make me want to call down fire from the heavens to consume the offenders.

Ask (verb)

For reasons beyond the comprehension of normal humans, in business speak, this has become a noun. People no longer query, what are the requests? Now, it’s, what are the asks? Or, the ask is this... Also, per John’s ask, we will seek thus and so. Who will action this?

Thanks for the call out, Mook. We are fully aligned. Sorry these practices are gaining traction.

Just shoot me.