Anyone who has worked in an office knows at least one office buzzword that they would be happy never to hear again.

If you’ve sat through a meeting with your boss, you’ve probably heard speak of ‘thinking outside the box’ or ‘going forward’. For many office workers, the average company jargon leaves one wondering what is wrong with plain English? Here we offer some simple replacements for those terms which wind us all up…

Best practices – Well, using the ‘best practices’ in this case would simply be saying this phrase as all normal people would: professional procedures that are accepted or prescribed as being correct or most effective.

Don’t let the grass grow too long on this one – is simply a nice way of saying get off your a** and get moving.

Get all your ducks in a row – although this phrase might remind you of ducklings waddling behind the mother duck, in office terms it means to be efficiently organized.

Heads up – why heads up became the office in thing to say, we don’t know. What we do know is that thanks to its origin in American engineering and military circles, it’s now the basis of every offices’ “I want to tell you something” conversation.

Helicopter view – When your boss says, “Her role as a manager is to take a helicopter view of how the business is managed,” essentially what he is saying here is that her role as a manager is to take a broad view of the business.

Idea shower – meaning that your idea may be out of fashion. Surely, there must be a better way of saying this?

Leverage – no, not Leverage the American television drama series. When your boss speaks of leveraging, say, the returns, he means taking advantage of the benefits.

Not enough bandwidth – We’re not sure anymore if this is more of a common occurrence in many underdeveloped countries or the office? How about keeping it to “not enough capacity”?

Touch base – follow up, have a conversation and set up a time to talk, are all phrases that can be used in place of touch base.

Reinvent the wheel – surely saying don’t waste a great amount of time and effort creating something that already exists, makes better sense?

Revert back – What was ever wrong with saying respond, reply or answer?

At the end of the day – if this doesn’t rub you off the wrong way every time you hear someone say it, you’re probably guilty of wrapping up a point by saying the same thing. Stop it!

From annoying office jargon to bad “Late for Work’ excuses, the office never disappoints.