Now, THIS I heartily approve of. Keep up the good work.
“But I digress”. Don’t like it and I always will.
“You’re an inspiration.” Well, maybe, but it’s not because I’m buying toilet paper. The term has lost any and all meaning. Its something people say to make themselves feel good.
In an employment situation, I can tell the boss what he needs to hear or I can tell him what he wants to hear. If I need the social construct of using that phrase in combination with information that might effect his or her decision, then pretty much I am throwing him/her under the bus and the conversation is for the purposes of the next conversation with his or her next in chain of command.
In my case, I hate myself so criticism meshes well with my self-image.
I agree with a mix of good and bad feedback, particularly in my performance review, it’s just when someone uses the sandwich in a way that suggests they were told it in a management seminar.*
OTOH, I brought it up in another training about personal style and conflict, and the instructor said it was a sign of politeness, that the person took the time to reflect on their feedback and not just blurt out the criticism. It made me realize it is a part of social lubrication and I am trying to look at it in that light.
*A course on communication and email etiquette was given at work and one of the points was some sort of greeting and not just launching into a demand or whatever. One guy, who seems socially awkward, now has been beginning every email ever since then with “I hope everything is going well.” Do you, do you really? 
That’s cool. I don’t want to belabor the issue, I’ve just found that techniques like the feedback sandwich have helped me defuse potentially volatile situations.
I try not to go ballistic when some passive aggressive fuckwit (who’s most likely butthurt about something) tries the “Can I ask you a question?” gripe on me.
I respond “Nope. Lawyers. Talk to my lawyers.”
Yeah buzzwords can get pretty BS-y indeed.
I think I’d go batshit insane if I tried to toe that line. Perhaps if I was bringing in $750,000 annually (after taxes) I could entertain the idea of prefacing everything I said with “respectfully”.
Maybe.
Especially the “Stay Calm and…” meme*. I think it’s been a couple years now, but I still bristle at the thought of t-shirts, bumperstickers, douchenozzles…
Nope. Try again:
“You’re the in-spuh-raaaaaayyyy-shun”
*Sorry, Procustus. 
When my kids were tweens they had a habit of saying “I have a question…”
My response was always “I have an answer, let’s see if they match.”
They would then ask a perfectly normal question, to which I replied “My answer was ‘squid ink’…I guess they didn’t match. Oh well.”
Yeah, that’s a real old response to that (and one that I use, too, from time to time if I’m feeling silly or dickish), probably dating from shortly after the question was first used.
To be honest, and with all due respect (sorry, couldn’t resist), I rarely hear the ‘bless your heart’ upfront. It’s almost always at the end, IME.
I am SO going to use this, the next time I have the opportunity. ETA: Preferably with the Firebug, who’s in his pre-teen years, but not limiting myself to him. 
That song’s gonna be running through my head all day, isn’t it? Yer evil, you are. 
Two pet peeves.
The first is appending “…and you know it!” to any tendentious assertion of fact or opinion in the course of a debate, such as “Star Trek is by far greater than Star Wars, and you know it!”
The clear implication is that my opinion to the contrary is not honestly held, but it’s a clumsy and downright odd way to say it. Maybe noobs who hear it for the first time are goaded into defending their honesty and distracted from advancing their position on the contentious issue, but most people don’t fall for that, surely.
Second peeve is the non-apology apology. “I’m sorry if you were offended by what I said” is just blaming the offended person for their reaction, and not apologising at all. It’s become such a cliche that everyone immediately spots it. Should be sent to a farm upstate where it can run and play…
With all due respect, when that song was released, it was truly the night Chicago died.
I also believe referring to any adult with an IQ above 70 should never be referred to by a stranger as “Champ” or “Killer”. So those two words should be banned from being used as nicknames in adult discourse.
Dom Irrera has similar ideas in this clip (start about the 1 minute mark).
I wish people would quit using “As a this, that, or other…” and just get on with the inevitable chiding or bragging.
I dislike the phrases “Having said that…” and “That being said…” and the like. They’re superfluous, annoying, and often used incorrectly.
“To be fair…” is a meaningless preamble that seems to be very popular with young people here at the moment. I think it serves no more function than to allow interruption without the first few words of the interruptor’s actual spoken intent being lost.
There are legitimate examples for many of the phrases people have listed here (usually in a more formal setting); for example, I’ve seen things like:
“With all due respect to Mr Buckett’s quote and plan, Policy insists that we obtain three comparative quotes before proceeding”. Whilst not strictly necessary, the preamble does help to clarify intent.
“Of course” is one of those expressions that seems to be used without any regard for what it might actually might mean as far as the logical course of an argument.
Eg.
To be fair, Mr. Trump does hide his bald spot well unless, of course, there is a strong wind.
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