Should I speak out about jargon? I work for a FTSE energy company and have just taken part in a leadership conference update call (called "One big gossip") during which I counted no fewer than 90 pieces of management jargon used in an hour. The constant use of such phrases is creating a culture in which talking utter gibberish is the only way to demonstrate that you "see the bigger picture." The managing director, who is one of the worst offenders, frequently asks for direct feedback on the nature of these calls. Do I stay quiet or speak up and risk career suicide? Manager, male, 34 I've spent the past 20 years telling business people to cut out the jargon and in that time I have failed to persuade one single person to do so. If you tell your boss to talk more elegantly, I guarantee it won't make any difference to what comes out of his mouth but it may make a big difference to how he regards you. As a nuisance, a pedant or a person who prefers style to substance, for instance. The problem with jargon is that though everyone complains that others talk it, no one will ever admit to speaking it themselves. So telling them to stop is hopeless as they don't think that they ever started. There are lots of reasons why people start spouting this nonsense, all of them fairly insidious. It may be because they haven't worked out what exactly they want to say and talking twaddle masks this. Or because they think it makes them sound more important. Or because it is infectious and they've caught it from each other. But in your case, where a lot of colleagues are all going at it hammer and tongs together, it is probably because they are signalling to each other that they belong to the same club. In that case, the problem isn't how they talk, but how you do. By refusing to step up to the plate and put your skin in the game, you are showing that you don't belong. I'm not suggesting that you desecrate your own vocabulary, but that you acknowledge that you are a foreigner, and try to turn that to your advantage. In any case, I don't think the biggest problem with your boss is his jargon. It's the fact he wants to waste 90 minutes of everyone's time on a telephonic "One Big Gossip." This is two terrible ideas rolled into one: no gossip can ever take place in an official mass meeting. And to have such big conference calls is the best way to sap spirits and waste time simultaneously. If you want to give more helpful feedback, can't you gently suggest canning the calls altogether? If no one was allowed to talk at all, this would have the excellent side effect that they wouldn't be able to use any of the 90 banned phrases. If you think this too radical, at least you have found the ideal way of staying awake during these interminable calls: playing your own version of bullshit bingo.