[mcrwfrd]

> Office Space, Fight Club, American Beauty, and I Heart Huckabees satirized the dreary emptiness of white collar life. Didn’t my coworkers realize how ridiculous it sounds to use this jargon?

Fight Club had an enormous influence on me during my teenage years. It would kill the younger version of myself to learn the kind of white collar environment I operate in every day.

On one hand, Corpspeak is one of the most consistent forces of office life that beats the dying young punk voice that still whispers to me from time to time. Why don't we all just quit the tip-toeing and cut to the heart of each interaction? This way we would all be acting in our most authentic form. This would be a hardcore way to build something great together.

On the other hand, as the author describes, Corpspeak allows me to gloss over any bad feelings that may be felt or insinuated by myself or my colleagues. Although it feels inauthentic and may increase existential dread if pondered too closely, this "glossing over of feelings" makes the job less tiring, and enables me to show up for 40 hours, week after week. It also leaves me with tons of energy leftover to live the other 128 on my own terms — as long as I don't think too deeply about it all.

[zmgsabst]

I think you’re ignoring that those 40 hours of corporate speak don’t allow you to live the other 128 on your own terms:

- they’re how we ended up with technology panopticon, authoritarianism, etc

- they’re how we ended up with Wall St looting the nation, executives committing open crimes, etc

- they’re how we ended up with ever worsening products, nutrient depleted foods, etc

CorpSpeak is the emotional balm to never consider you’re creating hell on Earth for yourself, your peers, and your children — to emotionally disconnect yourself as the cause of your own suffering.

That emotionally numb 25% of your life is why the other 75% sucks and is on a downward trend.

[TurkishPoptart]

>Why don't we all just quit the tip-toeing and cut to the heart of each interaction?

I get your point. I don't "like" Corpspeak, but working in the public sector in IT infrastructure, I like indirect language which doesn't presuppose "finger-pointing". I don't want to hear anyone snap or get emotional on a Zoom meeting on a DNS resolver upgrade event at 4am.

In most English discussion, the bias is in favor of "who did what", which has its place. When troubleshooting with people, the indirect Corpspeak makes it easier to talk about "what's happening" and "what is needed". I want to focus on the fact or "the what" that packets are being dropped, because I know all the engineers I'm talking to are also focused on "the what".