by Mike O’Mary

In the past, I’ve occasionally talked about how to get ahead in the workplace. I’ve also talked about the preponderance of clichés and buzzwords in the business world. So you can imagine my feelings of horror when I recently sat in on a meeting and heard people talking about “takeaways” and “deliverables.”

When it comes to buzzwords, I have one simple question: Talk to me in English!

Okay, that wasn’t a question. But can somebody explain to me why people are using the word “takeaway” when what they really mean is that they learned something useful? Or why people use the word “deliverable” when what they are really referring to is a product or a report?

You can talk about takeaways and deliverables if you want, but it would be a whole lot easier on the rest of us if you simply had the words “Recent MBA grad” tattooed on your forehead.

Life used to be so simple. I had an “in” basket and I had an “out” basket. In order to keep up with the times, I relabeled my baskets to say “takeaways” and “deliverables.” But that just seemed to confuse people. I was constantly finding deliverables in my takeaway basket and vice versa. To me, that was the real test. The buzzwords fell short. So I went back to the old in and out. Seems to work fine.

I still use the terms deliverable and takeaway though. “Deliverable” as in “I’d like a pepperoni pizza—and make that deliverable.” And “takeaway” as in “If Dick has three things in his in box and Jane takes away two, can Dick leave early and pick up the pizza on his way home?”

Mike O’Mary is founding dreamer of Dream of Things, a book publisher currently accepting creative nonfiction stories for anthologies on 14 topics, including an anthology titled “Cubicle Stories: Life in the Modern Workplace.”