Blah, Blah, Blah Hurts the Workplace



Dan Smolen interviews Dr. Dan Hill, who believes that “blah, blah, blah” hurts the workplace and career professionals.

And in Blah, Blah, Blah: A Snarky Guide to Office Lingo, Dr. Hill and co-author Dr. Howard Moskowitz crowd-sourced over 600 examples of workplace jargon that are typically dismissive, patriarchal, and toxic.

One cannot discuss The Great Resignation now happening in thousands of companies without first considering the impact of workplace jargon. So many people, threatened or ostracized by office lingo, are leaving their companies in droves for other firms, or to become independent contractors.

The vast array of jargon in the book helps people recognize that blah, blah, blah hurts the workplace.

In a fun and informative episode, Dr. Hill:

  • Describes Blah, Blah, Blah: a Snarky Guide to Office Lingo and the reasons for writing and editing it. Starts at 4:50
  • Offers his favorite jargon example. Starts at 6:34
  • Considers reasons why people in the workplace perpetuate the use of oppressive jargon. Starts at 7:21
  • Defines the categories created to array the crowd-sourced office lingo examples. Starts at 9:32
  • Suggests what can be achieved by breaking the cycle of “blah, blah, blah” jargon at work. Starts at 12:00

Full interview starts at 3:01

About our guest:

Dan Hill, Ph.D. is an author, podcaster, world recognized facial coding expert, and founder and president of the consultancy Sensory Logic, Inc. He received a Masters in Creative Writing from Brown University and a Ph.D. in English from Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. Further, Dr. Hill earned Facial Action Coding Systems Certification from the Paul Ekman Group. He lives and works in St. Paul, Minnesota and Palm Desert, California.

EPISODE DATE: October 8, 2021

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