# When did nonsensical corporate jargon become a thing? How is it still a thing? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 21, 2025, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-nonsensical-corporate-jargon-become-a-thing-how-is-it-still-a-thing/1019958 "2025-06-21T23:09:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2025, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-nonsensical-corporate-jargon-become-a-thing-how-is-it-still-a-thing/1019958/101 "2025-07-03T14:52:37Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > > [@md-2000](#): > > > > “Running it up the flagpole” has always meant (to me) essentially the same as “trial balloon” > > Kinda. Running it up the flagpole is putting the idea out there. A trial balloon is actually initiating a policy in a limited and non-committed fashion. It may just be me but I thought the term also implied a degree of audacity or chutzpah: trying to “sell” the idea by making it seem like everyone already supports it. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2025, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-nonsensical-corporate-jargon-become-a-thing-how-is-it-still-a-thing/1019958/102 "2025-07-03T15:00:07Z")
> [@HMS\_Irruncible](#): > > I read somewhere that “keep X in the loop” originated from an ancient type of telecommunications (i.e. a copper-wire loop) used by municipal police departments. It was called “the loop” and was a wireline network Was that what old-time [call boxes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call_box) were accessing? [![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e5/Police_call_box_Wash_DC_1912.jpg/500px-Police_call_box_Wash_DC_1912.jpg) ](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e5/Police_call_box_Wash_DC_1912.jpg/500px-Police_call_box_Wash_DC_1912.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2025, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-nonsensical-corporate-jargon-become-a-thing-how-is-it-still-a-thing/1019958/103 "2025-07-03T15:56:45Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > A trial balloon is actually initiating a policy in a limited and non-committed fashion. Related to the WW1 usage “the balloon’s gone up”, meaning [the attack] is about to begin (I know people who use a North of England version - “Eyup, t’whistle’s went”) ---
**Author:** ![FluffyBob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecb155/32.png) [@FluffyBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FluffyBob)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2025, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-nonsensical-corporate-jargon-become-a-thing-how-is-it-still-a-thing/1019958/104 "2025-07-03T17:47:51Z")
I think job postings and resume copy should be considered a subset of the whole corporate jargon / bullshit thing. There is a whole world of crap to suffer through reading either of those. Services like Indeed now offer to have their AI write your posting (and I assume resume) of course. A perfect landing for what I consider use of the current state of popular AI. I make sure to write our own postings. I appreciate resumes that are simple and honest. Resumes padded with the typical fluff gey tossed before the second paragraph. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2025, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-nonsensical-corporate-jargon-become-a-thing-how-is-it-still-a-thing/1019958/105 "2025-07-03T18:02:28Z")
> [@FluffyBob](#): > > I think job postings and resume copy should be considered a subset of the whole corporate jargon / bullshit thing. Oh yes. “Passionate” - about filing invoices? A likely story… ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2025, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-nonsensical-corporate-jargon-become-a-thing-how-is-it-still-a-thing/1019958/106 "2025-07-03T18:05:38Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > Was that what old-time [call boxes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call_box) were accessing? I understood “the loop” to be more of a teletype kind of thing. ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2025, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-nonsensical-corporate-jargon-become-a-thing-how-is-it-still-a-thing/1019958/107 "2025-07-03T18:09:29Z")
> [@HMS\_Irruncible](#): > > Where I work, normal rank-and-file can barely understand conversations that VPs have with each other, or when they address their underlings in settings that are intended to reinforce their power. The point of this language isn’t to communicate, it’s to signal control of the narrative, or submission to that same control. If you don’t conform, if you’re creating value instead of talking about value, then you’re not part of the conversation, you’re just a cell on a spreadsheet, an object to be manipulated and liquidated as necessary. This is well-observed, and reflects my experience with a large corporation. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2025, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-nonsensical-corporate-jargon-become-a-thing-how-is-it-still-a-thing/1019958/108 "2025-07-03T18:25:00Z")
Ran into one described to me. It was about a presentation, a powerpoint slodeshow. The speaker started talking about the “horizontals”. The what? The bullet points. Their tables now have _verticals_ and _horizontals_ instead of columns and rows. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2025, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-nonsensical-corporate-jargon-become-a-thing-how-is-it-still-a-thing/1019958/109 "2025-07-03T18:29:48Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > Their tables now have _verticals_ and _horizontals_ instead of columns and rows. IMO, that’s actually an improvement over columns and rows. Over portraits and landscapes to boot. I mean, beside the fact that nobody would know what the hell you are talking about… ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2025, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-nonsensical-corporate-jargon-become-a-thing-how-is-it-still-a-thing/1019958/110 "2025-07-03T18:52:51Z")
I still say “ranks and files.” ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2025, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-nonsensical-corporate-jargon-become-a-thing-how-is-it-still-a-thing/1019958/111 "2025-07-03T20:33:03Z")
I haven’t found a reference to being “in the loop” in the sense of “keeping informed” any earlier than 1976 (concerning the Joint Chiefs of staff), and the article explained what it meant, so I don’t how common it was before then. ---
**Author:** ![Tripler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripler/32/21807_2.png) [@Tripler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tripler)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2025, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-nonsensical-corporate-jargon-become-a-thing-how-is-it-still-a-thing/1019958/112 "2025-07-03T20:55:32Z")
Seriously . . . there seems to be a proliferation of vomitous, corporate, jargonistic nonsense in my current industry’s LinkedIn pages that just blows my frakkin’ mind .. . For example: _“I’m excited to leverage my next-generation capabilities to optimize mission-critical deliverables across multi-domain operational environments spanning air, land, sea, space, and cyberspace. My synergistic approach enables my collaborators to right-size our human capital while maximizing stakeholder value through innovative solutions that enhance warfighter lethality and survivability across the full spectrum of operations. By utilizing agile methodologies and best-in-class technologies, I position teams to deliver transformational outcomes that provide overmatch capabilities against near-peer adversaries in contested, degraded, and operationally limited environments. My proven experience in integrated C4ISR architecture provides end-to-end situational awareness and actionable intelligence to support decision-making processes from the tactical edge to strategic command centers. I remain committed to driving operational excellence through continuous improvement initiatives that align with joint all-domain command and control objectives while maintaining information dominance in the electromagnetic spectrum. Moving forward, I’ll enable teams to continue to ideate scalable solutions that demonstrate value proposition across kinetic and non-kinetic effects in multi-threat environments. I have led cross-functional teams that are still dedicated to pursuing win-win partnerships and creating sustainable competitive advantages in anti-access/area-denial scenarios while ensuring interoperability with allied force structures. My holistic approach ensures maintenance of a position as a trusted mission partner while delivering superior force multiplication effects for our joint, interagency, intergovernmental, and multinational stakeholders.”_ This reminds me that I need to really update my LinkedIn page, which is already decidedly _ **non** _-jingoistic, to something much simpler, to just say, “_I have experience in getting your dangerous sh%t done._” Tripler “I appraise antiques.” ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2025, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-nonsensical-corporate-jargon-become-a-thing-how-is-it-still-a-thing/1019958/113 "2025-07-03T20:59:26Z")
> [@Tripler](#): > > reminds me that I need to really update my LinkedIn page, which is already decidedly _ **non** _-jingoistic, to something much simpler, to just say, “_I have experience in getting your dangerous sh%t done._” Getting dangerous shit done sounds very [jingoistic](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/jingoism) to me. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2025, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-nonsensical-corporate-jargon-become-a-thing-how-is-it-still-a-thing/1019958/114 "2025-07-03T21:28:18Z")
Your LinkedIn cite/quote is exactly what we all get when HR’s all over every industry use an automated buzzword filter to filter out resumes lacking certain buzzwords. The problem for the applicant is they don’t know which buzzwords any particular employer considers “need to have”. So they _must_ just dump them all in there. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2025, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-nonsensical-corporate-jargon-become-a-thing-how-is-it-still-a-thing/1019958/115 "2025-07-03T22:06:30Z")
Which Heinlein novel contained a passage where people were analyzing the text of a proposed treaty and determined that stripped of jargon and high-sounding phrases, at bottom it was guaranteeing exactly nothing? ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2025, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-nonsensical-corporate-jargon-become-a-thing-how-is-it-still-a-thing/1019958/116 "2025-07-03T22:17:09Z")
> [@FluffyBob](#): > > I think job postings and resume copy should be considered a subset of the whole corporate jargon / bullshit thing. > > There is a whole world of crap to suffer through reading either of those. Services like Indeed now offer to have their AI write your posting (and I assume resume) of course. A perfect landing for what I consider use of the current state of popular AI. > > I make sure to write our own postings. I appreciate resumes that are simple and honest. Resumes padded with the typical fluff gey tossed before the second paragraph. Oh God, I still wince when I remember my having to compose résumés when seeking work. There was no way to disguise my lackluster work history and for me résumé writing was an exercise in putting lipstick on a pig. ---
**Author:** ![Tripler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripler/32/21807_2.png) [@Tripler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tripler)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2025, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-nonsensical-corporate-jargon-become-a-thing-how-is-it-still-a-thing/1019958/117 "2025-07-04T00:32:52Z")
I stand corrected. I alway understood it to be straight outta Madison Avenue. Tripler Currently dangerous with memoranda and PowerPoint. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2025, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-nonsensical-corporate-jargon-become-a-thing-how-is-it-still-a-thing/1019958/118 "2025-07-04T01:20:28Z")
> [@Tripler](#): > > Seriously . . . there seems to be a proliferation of vomitous, corporate, jargonistic nonsense in my current industry’s LinkedIn pages that just blows my frakkin’ mind .. . For example: That reads like someone took the JSF verbage and personalized it as them doing it. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2025, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-nonsensical-corporate-jargon-become-a-thing-how-is-it-still-a-thing/1019958/119 "2025-07-04T01:34:36Z")
Really, why is this still in FQ? ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2025, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-nonsensical-corporate-jargon-become-a-thing-how-is-it-still-a-thing/1019958/120 "2025-07-04T05:48:14Z")
> [@HMS\_Irruncible](#): > > I understood “the loop” to be more of a teletype kind of thing. It was. Teletypes originally used a communications protocol called 20 mA current loop which carried over into computer connections when Teletypes began to be used as computer terminals, and it predated RS232. I’m old enough to have used computers with ASR-33 Teletype consoles connected via 20 mA current loop Molex connectors. However, I really doubt this had anything to do with the “in the loop” metaphor which more likely arose naturally from the idea of back and forth communication among staffers and up to senior management and back down again. If you were invited to meetings and copied on correspondence as an issue was being discussed, you were “in the loop” of ongoing exchanges; if you weren’t, you were “out of the loop”. Anyway, I don’t consider this to be corporate jargon, bur rather, a natural metaphor. Real corporate jargon is pretentious bullshit that often serves no other purpose than to establish the dominance of a self-selected in-group. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-nonsensical-corporate-jargon-become-a-thing-how-is-it-still-a-thing/1019958.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-nonsensical-corporate-jargon-become-a-thing-how-is-it-still-a-thing/1019958.md?page=7)