# I am coining a new corporate buzzword- complainstorming **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 30, 2009, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-coining-a-new-corporate-buzzword-complainstorming/494841 "2009-04-30T14:26:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-coining-a-new-corporate-buzzword-complainstorming/494841/1 "2009-04-30T14:26:10Z")
I am coining a new corporate buzzword. I am going to call it **complainstorming** (n) a group phenomenon where a topic is raised in a meeting which then degenerates into an unproductive endless litany of annecdotes of negative experiences, problems, challenges and issues without providing any constructive input or suggestions. _“I asked the team where they wanted to go to lunch and we ended up in an hour long complainstorming session about how they hate every restaurant in town.”_ syn. bitch session, venting Basically it’s a play on old fashioned “brainstorming” and pretty much describes how every meeting ends up in my current job. I couldn’t find it on Google so if it takes off, you know you heard it here first. ---
**Author:** ![Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intergalactic_gladiator/32/112_2.png) [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-coining-a-new-corporate-buzzword-complainstorming/494841/2 "2009-04-30T14:29:32Z")
I think it’s a perfectly cromulent word. I hope to see it used. ---
**Author:** ![Picard\_Kills\_Kirk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/dec6dc/32.png) [@Picard\_Kills\_Kirk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Picard_Kills_Kirk)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-coining-a-new-corporate-buzzword-complainstorming/494841/3 "2009-04-30T14:35:27Z")
Sounds awesome. Now you need to get it on bullshit bingo! ---
**Author:** ![Emily\_Litella](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/emily_litella/32/3370_2.png) [@Emily\_Litella](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Emily_Litella)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-coining-a-new-corporate-buzzword-complainstorming/494841/4 "2009-04-30T17:53:20Z")
Wow, we were doing that this morning! I take the minutes of our Depart Mental meetings and I get to stop writing when the complainstorming starts. ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-coining-a-new-corporate-buzzword-complainstorming/494841/5 "2009-04-30T19:06:38Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > I couldn’t find it on Google so if it takes off, you know you heard it here first. It’s on Google now–the hits being to this thread. (Along with an unrelated article about an unmanned aerial vehicle in which the words “complain” and “storming” happen to occur together.) ---
**Author:** ![badbadrubberpiggy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/57b2e6/32.png) [@badbadrubberpiggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/badbadrubberpiggy)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-coining-a-new-corporate-buzzword-complainstorming/494841/6 "2009-04-30T19:14:01Z")
I predict that if this takes off, the noun form will become very popular, as well. “Man, that meeting was a real complainstorm” or “Don’t talk to Bob, he’s a walking complainstorm” for someone who never has anything but complaints for whoever talks to them. ---
**Author:** ![Lurking\_Quahog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lurking_quahog/32/21274_2.png) [@Lurking\_Quahog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lurking_Quahog)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-coining-a-new-corporate-buzzword-complainstorming/494841/7 "2009-04-30T19:37:56Z")
I just registered [complainstorming.com](http://complainstorming.com). Let’s hope it takes off and I can cash in on selling the URL. ---
**Author:** ![Zjestika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/8edcca/32.png) [@Zjestika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zjestika)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-coining-a-new-corporate-buzzword-complainstorming/494841/8 "2009-04-30T19:44:56Z")
Perfect. Doesn’t every department meeting degenerate into complainstorming? Every place I’ve ever worked that’s been the case. ---
**Author:** ![DaphneBlack](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/daphneblack/32/5389_2.png) [@DaphneBlack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DaphneBlack)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-coining-a-new-corporate-buzzword-complainstorming/494841/9 "2009-04-30T19:51:04Z")
An excellent word. My mother, who does research on meetings (yes, really!) will be well pleased by it. ---
**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-coining-a-new-corporate-buzzword-complainstorming/494841/10 "2009-04-30T19:58:33Z")
Smitty: “…and I’m _so_ sick of finding Warehouse Mouse’s droppings in my cereal.” Scott: “Yeah…and Nina says she doesn’t date guys with long hair. Fucking tramp…all you guys got a damn turn.” Dave: “Dude, you ain’t missing anything…she’s a lousy lay and Knit Knots listens through the wall.” Rich: “Know something guys? All this complaining gives me a great idea for a song…” Don’t expect to get it if you don’t have kids… ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-coining-a-new-corporate-buzzword-complainstorming/494841/11 "2009-04-30T20:47:01Z")
Oh man, I agree. I hate meetings in our office because we get hjacked into biching so often and so easily. I want to have a quick half hour meeting, and get things done, and we are capable of it, but instead we’re wandering off into tangents and whiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiining and bitching and being angry. Gah! I only work 8 hours a day, but I do work HARD those 8 hours! So let me go do my work! ---
**Author:** ![friggae](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/45deac/32.png) [@friggae](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friggae)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-coining-a-new-corporate-buzzword-complainstorming/494841/12 "2009-04-30T23:20:08Z")
I like it. It goes well with “nonversation” and the corollary “nonference call”. ---
**Author:** ![JSexton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@JSexton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JSexton)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2009, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-coining-a-new-corporate-buzzword-complainstorming/494841/13 "2009-05-01T15:43:35Z")
> [@Hal\_Briston](#): > > Smitty: “…and I’m _so_ sick of finding Warehouse Mouse’s droppings in my cereal.” > Scott: “Yeah…and Nina says she doesn’t date guys with long hair. Fucking tramp…all you guys got a damn turn.” > Dave: “Dude, you ain’t missing anything…she’s a lousy lay and Knit Knots listens through the wall.” > Rich: “Know something guys? All this complaining gives me a great idea for a song…” > > Don’t expect to get it if you don’t have kids… My wife and I MST3K’d an eerily similar conversation to that show the other day. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2009, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-coining-a-new-corporate-buzzword-complainstorming/494841/14 "2009-05-01T16:15:57Z")
It’s a fine word, but I doubt it will take off because there’s already a commonly used term that means the same thing. “Staff meeting.”