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&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Forbes &lt;/em&gt;is holding a &quot;Jargon Madness&quot; bracket (in the style of the NCAA basketball tournament) to track what readers think is the most obnoxious, useless, and just plain lame corporate expressions.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;We at Vault highly approve.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In fact, if we had our way, all offices would institute a system like Schmidt&#39;s D-bag jar on &quot;New Girl&quot; (where he has to pay a penalty saying tool-ish things such as &quot;I can&#39;t find my driving moccasins ANYWHERE!&quot; or, &quot;Has anyone seen my other time piece?&quot;). Employees would be forced to chip into an office Starbucks fund for saying awful things like &quot;lots of moving parts,&quot; &quot;learnings,&quot; and &quot;reach out.&quot; Ugh.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But beyond being obnoxious to everyone else, why is jargon so bad?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Frankly, it&#39;s very the opposite of sounding informed. Common knowledge dictates that if you know what you&#39;re talking about, you&#39;ll talk about it. You won&#39;t fall back on vague catch phrases.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Which is kind of ironic and unfortunate, considering most people pull out the jargon to sound smart, in-the-know, and high level.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The truth is, though, that at best, business-speak sounds a little lame. At worst, it can seem purposefully dishonest.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;An interviewer might wonder if you actually performed any of the functions listed on your resume since you can&#39;t talk about them plainly; your boss might think you&#39;re exaggerating the progress you&#39;re making on that project (saying you &quot;reached out&quot; a lot doesn&#39;t really communicate much whether you found buyers or not).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;And your coworkers? They&#39;ll just flat out want to kill you.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Do yourself a favor—and everyone in your weekly meetings—and remove the following nonsense phrases from your vocabulary. Replace them with thoughtful word choices, specificity, and most importantly, truthiness. (Kidding!)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Here&#39;s the list of no-no words and phrases, according to Forbes. Meanwhile, what&#39;s the jargon you love to hate? Let us know in the comments section!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;-&quot;Core Competency&quot;&lt;br /&gt;-&quot;Buy-In&quot;&lt;br /&gt;-&quot;S.W.A.T.&#160;Team&quot;&lt;br /&gt;-&quot;Empower&quot; &lt;br /&gt;-&quot;Open the Kimono&quot; &lt;br /&gt;-&quot;Bleeding Edge&quot;&lt;br /&gt;-&quot;Lots of Moving Parts&quot;&lt;br /&gt;-&quot;Corporate Values &lt;br /&gt;-&quot;Make Hay&quot;&lt;br /&gt;-&quot;Scalable&quot;&lt;br /&gt;-&quot;Best Practice&quot;&lt;br /&gt;-&quot;Think Outside the Box&quot;&lt;br /&gt;-&quot;Solution&quot;&lt;br /&gt;-&quot;Leverage&quot;&lt;br /&gt;-&quot;Vertical&quot;&lt;br /&gt;-&quot;Over the Wall&quot;&lt;br /&gt;-&quot;Robust&quot;&lt;br /&gt;-&quot;Learnings&quot;&lt;br /&gt;-&quot;Boil the Ocean&quot;&lt;br /&gt;-&quot;Reach Out&quot; &lt;br /&gt;-&quot;Punt&quot;&lt;br /&gt;-&quot;Impact&quot;&lt;br /&gt;-&quot;Giving 110%&quot;&lt;br /&gt;-&quot;Take It To The Next Level&quot;&lt;br /&gt;-&quot;It Is What It Is&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Read More:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.forbes.com/sites/groupthink/2012/01/26/the-most-annoying-pretentious-and-useless-business-jargon/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&quot;The Most Annoying, Pretentious And Useless Business Jargon,&quot; Forbes.com&lt;/a&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoLqc8tA7BA&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&quot;The D-bag Jar,&quot; Youtube&lt;/a&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoLqc8tA7BA&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Most Overused Phrases on LinkedIn&lt;/a&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.forbes.com/special-report/2012/annoying-business-jargons-12.html&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Forbes&#39;s &quot;Jargon Madness&quot;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;--&lt;/em&gt;&lt;em&gt;Cathy Vandewater, Vault.com&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

Cathy Vandewater

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