| What they say | What they mean |
| Thank you everyone for coming into the call | I know you would not have if you had the choice |
| That is a good question | I don't know the answer |
| That is a very good question | I don't know the answer – I wish you had not asked the question |
| That is an excellent question | I DON'T KNOW THE ANSWER! |
| Let's take that offline | I don't know the answer / the other idiots on the call can't be expected to understand / Let's forget about it |
| If your boss is on the call and tells you "let's take that offline" | I'll talk to you tomorrow morning about this |
| Can you please repeat the question | I was not listening |
| Yes | I confirm / I was not listening |
| That's a good point | I'm just letting you know that I'm still here though I was not listening |
| That's an excellent suggestion | I agree |
| That's an excellent suggestion | I don't agree |
| That's an excellent suggestion, but… | I think you have gone nuts |
| I don't agree | I have gone nuts |
| This is a very important initiative | I don't know who wants it and why it's required |
| It's a project driving towards our strategic objectives | I don't know what this project is all about |
|
| Not agreeing will involve ten more calls – agreeing is far easier |
| We would like everyone to come on the same page | One more call spent in discussing context – I am quite willing to do that for the rest of my life – so long as there are no action points |
| Sorry about that | Just to underline that I am very polite |
| What you are saying is correct | People who live in glass houses don't throw stones |
Monday, June 24, 2013
What they say and what they mean - Conference Calls Part 2
Continuing on the subject of conference calls, it is wonderful to observe how a person's entire vocabulary undergoes a change when he/she enters into one. It is expected that one should be extremely polite on the calls, beyond the bounds of normal civility. Everyone is saying a lot of things, but often, they are not really saying anything. You have to go through quite a few of these before you learn to interpret what the other person means when she tells you...
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1 comment:
Apart from good, very good, excellent ... there is one more "That's a GRREATT question" means "You moron, go find out yourself."
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