Office Jargon and Sayings You May Not Know About

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By Jailene Adorno 

 

Have you received any emails from colleagues lately that had weird jargon or acronyms you weren’t familiar with? If so, you’re not alone! There are many of us scratching our heads wondering what some of it all means. Here are a few we found particularly interesting…

  1.   “OOO”

About a month or so ago, I received an email from someone saying that they were “OOO.” I had no clue what it meant, so I asked some of my colleagues. Unfortunately, they, too, had no idea what it meant. After a quick Google search, I found that “OOO” means “out of office.”

 

  1.   “Thought Shower”

Show off that you, too, know some office lingo. Instead of saying that you’re going to go brainstorm ideas, say that you’re going to “take a thought shower.” While it may just be a fancy way of saying brainstorm, it’s fun to use and it’ll definitely keep people guessing.

 

  1.   “COB”

When I saw “COB” in an email, I felt really out of the loop. But when I looked it up, I saw that it meant “close of business.” However, this then took me for another turn until I realized that “close of business” meant “end of day.”

 

  1.   “Al Desko”

If someone asks if you’re going “Al Desko,” they’re asking if you’re going to be eating your lunch at your desk. It’s a play on the phrase “al fresco,” but a creative one at that.

 

  1.   “Boil the Ocean”

If you’re ever given a task that seems nearly impossible, you might have been asked to “boil the ocean.” Seeing as to how boiling the ocean would be an unimaginable thing to do, the phrase is very fitting.

 

Did you know about all of these different sayings? Which ones have you used?

@colormagazineusa