Apparently…

I think every group of people who spend a lot of time together end up developing their own jargon, or attaching out of the ordinary meanings to ordinary words.

This is also true in most workplaces…(probably because we spend so much time there?).

Take my own workplace for instance. I’ve already mentioned to you that “basically” is worse than a swear word in our office, and that saying it will get you a “B” on the forehead for the day (see illustration below of the new girl learning the hard way), and that the word “but” is seen as a fighting word by the BigBoss and will earn you burning ears from the severe talking too he will unleash upon you.

Another such word which has forever been ruined enhanced for me in this way is “apparently”.

There are certain words that we have to use when dealing with our customers and to ensure that everyone is having more or less the same sort of conversation, These words/conversations are to a certain extent scripted. It’s not the be all and end all of the conversation, however it is the skeleton upon which you build the rest, depending of course on the responses of the particular client. These words are the holy cows in our organisation and at least once a week we have to write a script test to ensure that we know it 100%. You can in fact get fired for not using the holy cow words properly.

In both scripts that I’ve had to know by heart the word “apparently” feature quite prominently. It’s got to the point now that if I hear someone use it in a regular conversation it’s like a giant red flag to me and I pay very special attention to whatever follows after it and treat that statement with extreme suspicion.

If you use the word “apparently” in the company of the people I work with they will all burst out laughing even if it’s a serious story you’re telling them.

Do you have any words like these where you hang out or work?

*clicking on this image will take you to DeviantART where you can learn more about the artist and the art