# Office slang **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 22, 2001, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/office-slang/69764 "2001-06-22T11:57:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Ace309](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ace309/32/1050_2.png) [@Ace309](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ace309)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2001, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/office-slang/69764/41 "2001-06-24T18:47:15Z")
When anything goes wrong with the film we’re trying to develop, we always blame the “DAMN GERMANS!” Just because most of the film is manufactured there. ---
**Author:** ![Fogglethorpe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecd19e/32.png) [@Fogglethorpe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fogglethorpe)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2001, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/office-slang/69764/42 "2001-06-24T19:11:36Z")
I have 2, from a former in air conditioning and refrigeration. When a customer would come in to have their system put into a vacuum and recharged with refrigerant, we called it “a suck and a blow”. Also, when the job was done,it was said to have “all the zaklees”, meaning everything was exactly right. * * * I’m not a trained professional…I’m just nuts. ---
**Author:** ![stofsky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dfb087/32.png) [@stofsky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stofsky)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2001, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/office-slang/69764/43 "2001-06-24T22:31:05Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Brynda \* > \*\*Where I work, we call the good parking **the sweet spots,** but I like **Rock Star Parking** even better. We also talk about **parking karma** as in, “I got a sweet spot today. Parking karma loves me.” > \*\* We call that “parkma.” ---
**Author:** ![Iguana\_Boy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ed655f/32.png) [@Iguana\_Boy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iguana_Boy)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2001, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/office-slang/69764/44 "2001-06-24T23:12:15Z")
A particularly nasty set of papers, or a difficult case that is passed to someone with little notice, is known in our office as a “hospital pass”, because that’s where you’d like to send the person that gave you them. ---
**Author:** ![Ringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/779978/32.png) [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2001, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/office-slang/69764/45 "2001-06-24T23:59:19Z")
“Turning to the right” means making hole, or drilling ahead. “A third for a quarter” is a common trade wherein someone buys a drilling deal on the basis of paying one third of the costs to receive one fourth of the revenue produced. If one is “carried to casing” they don’t have to start paying their share of well costs until it’s drilled and the decision has been made to complete it (i.e., it appears to be a producer). Being “carried to the tanks” is an even better deal where said party doesn’t pay their share until after the well is completed. “Tire kicking” occurs when someone goes to look at a deal or some data with no intention of actually consumating a trade. A “land shark” is a guy who notices your leasing activity and goes out and leases little tracts in amongst your leases in an attempt to force you to pay him a higher price for those tracts. “Laying in the weeds” means pursuing an area while being careful not to do any of the many things that can tip off your competitors. To “tight hole” somebody means to keep information from them (comes from a significant well whose results are to be kept confidential being referred to as a tight hole). To “swab” a well means to apply suction to casing or tubing in attempt to draw fluid out of a reservoir. To swab a person means to get him talking to the point that he reveals information that is not readily available. To swab data means to acquire data by illicit means. “Squeezing” means to pump cement behind casing in order to block off or isolate a portion of a borehole. An “override” is a royalty. A “Christmas tree” is the assemblage of valves and pipes at a flowing wellhead. A “boomer” is a strong seismic event. “Railroad tracks” describes the appearance of an electric log run through a long shale section (no activity, so the curves all run parallel to each other). If another company or individual “has a hard on” for you it means they are willing to make efforts to fuck with your endeavors that go beyond normal competition. A “stripper” is a well that just barely pays for itself (very low production). To “spud” a well is to begin drilling. A “bust” is an inconsistency in a dataset or an interpretation thereof. I’ll stop. Last one; if all the sand in a well is wet, the well is dry. ---
**Author:** ![Ringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/779978/32.png) [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2001, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/office-slang/69764/46 "2001-06-25T00:10:29Z")
Ok, ok, I’ll leave after just one more. “Pud” comes from “proven undeveloped” meaning sufficent penetration and ancillary data exist to describe a leasehold as proven productive, even though the well necessary to begin producing it has yet to be drilled. It has its verb form; to pud a property is to enter its assumed value on the books as an asset of the company. Many properties will never be drilled once they’ve been pudded since their assumed value helps the company’s bottom line - these are usually not big reserves, just a whole bunch of little ones that add up. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Big\_Cheese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8baadc/32.png) [@The\_Big\_Cheese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Big_Cheese)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2001, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/office-slang/69764/47 "2001-06-25T01:13:06Z")
When one takes a computer training course they really don’t need, just to take time off from real work, we call it ‘being a tourist’. ---
**Author:** ![Rasa](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rasa/32/3578_2.png) [@Rasa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rasa)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2001, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/office-slang/69764/48 "2001-06-25T01:17:50Z")
Damn you, **Astroboy** , for introducing another slang term into my vocabulary! Every “ick thing” the past couple days has become a juliebitch! ::goes off to clean the juilebitch out of her keyboard:: ---
**Author:** ![Booker57](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Booker57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Booker57)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2001, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/office-slang/69764/49 "2001-06-25T02:26:08Z")
Some of the shops that deal with us are not as sharp as they should be. One shop has a parts manager that is so bad at his job, I started to call him the ADR. My boss asked and I told her it stood for Asshole Down the Road. She laughed. We use this term a lot now. ---
**Author:** ![brachyrhynchos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brachyrhynchos/32/376_2.png) [@brachyrhynchos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brachyrhynchos)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2001, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/office-slang/69764/50 "2001-06-25T02:38:39Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by brachyrhynchos \* > **The Ladies** : EEE surveillance chickens. > > \*Originally posted by Brynda \* > I sense there is a good story here. Wanna explain? It’s a bit mundane: These Leghorn chickens are kept in each NJ county, in the woods in a rabbit coop and are regularly bled to monitor eastern equine encephalitis. As you approach the cage, they start that old lady sound of disapproval. These are generally very nice chickens that poduce THE BEST eggs I have ever had but are cannabalistic psychopigs when it comes to broken eggs. Not very ladylike but deserving of respect for the job they do. ---
**Author:** ![Eo\_Echo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ebca7d/32.png) [@Eo\_Echo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eo_Echo)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2001, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/office-slang/69764/51 "2001-06-25T04:56:15Z")
I work in the auto repair industry and have picked up a few bits of jargon and made up a few more: loose nut behind the wheel: when the problem is the driver, not the car. Driving the bus: when you pass along a problem deliberately, as in throwing someone under the bus. CFIP: clusterfuck in progress. Speaks for itself, I think. Go to Las Vegas: go to hell, you dick. Also phrased as “So-and-so is from Las Vegas.” (apologies to anyone from Las Vegas) Putting gizass in the vizann: When I refuel the shuttle van. Squack: a crazy lady, as in “whacked-out squack.” Downstairs: where any particularly stupid person lives. Creative Parking 101: the class that all mehanics seem to have gotten A’s in. Also: Tailgating 101, which seems to be popular in the police academy. ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2001, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/office-slang/69764/52 "2001-06-25T05:33:59Z")
**Unplug the coffee machine.** Bring the company network back online. Comes from a “helpdesk from hell” story in which the entire network goes down because the system administrator deliberately unplugged the server so he could make coffee. **Three-legged dog.** Any employee who is both completely useless to the company and impossible to get along with. Comes from a co-worker’s observation that a certain staff member was “useless as a three-legged dog with its ass shaved.” (Note: absolutely no disrepect intended toward actual injured pets or their loving owners) **A fly.** An incompetent web designer (web, spider, fly… get it?). **Victoire de Napoleon!** from _Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure_ when Napoleon throws a tantrum at being beaten by a computer chess game. After working unsuccessfully at a particularly annoying problem, I’ve seen more than one tech guy stand up, scream in frustration, smack the monitor halfway across his desk and shout “Victoire de Napoleon!” before going for a much-needed Jolt break. –sublight. ---
**Author:** ![Astroboy14](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/df705f/32.png) [@Astroboy14](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Astroboy14)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2001, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/office-slang/69764/53 "2001-06-25T05:45:49Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Rasa \* > \*\*Damn you, **Astroboy** , for introducing another slang term into my vocabulary! Every “ick thing” the past couple days has become a juliebitch! > > ::goes off to clean the juilebitch out of her keyboard:: \*\* Glad to be of service!😃 ---
**Author:** ![Pammipoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/87869e/32.png) [@Pammipoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pammipoo)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2001, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/office-slang/69764/54 "2001-06-25T08:23:53Z")
There’s upping the lot, as in picking up the trash from the parking lot. As in “I’ll be back, I’m going to up the lot.” There’s travel paths, which are code for managers to go have a cigarette. We’re supposed to circle the store at least once every half hour, including checking outside. Nobody ever checks outside though, unless they want a cigarette. Trash runs are the same way. There’s the hole, referring to the back drive thru booth. As in, “Hey Pat, when you come on, you’re stuck in the hole.” It’s back in the back, and pretty isolated. Nobody like being in the hole. Pulling a mid means working a 9-5,10-6, 11-7, or the worst, 12-8. They’re long dragging shifts, and you catch all the busiest parts of the day. Oh yeah, and my favorite. We’re right by the woods, so we get a lot of field mice running around. When one slips in the back door and sets up nest in the stockroom, we all say that Mickey’s back. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/office-slang/69764.md?page=2)