Regional buzzword bingo

A survey published today by TipTopJob.com suggests that different buzzwords wind people up differently depending on where they work in the UK.

In Wales, workers have voted "touch base" the most annoying piece of management jargon; in Scotland, it is "at the end of the day"; while in London, "play it by ear" gets our goat and our vote.

Whether this a true reflection of the annoyance of certain terms or whether these words are used more frequently, and therefore, are more likely to be more annoying in these areas, I'm not sure. But here is the full run down of what annoys people most:

Wales

1. Touch base

2. Believe you and me

3. Play it by ear.

Scotland

1. At the end of the day

2. There is no I in team

3. Play it by ear

London and South East England

1. Play it by ear

2. There is no I in team

3. Touch base/ moving forward

South West England 

1. Believe you and me

2. At the end of the day

3. There is no I in team.

The Midlands

1. There is no I in team

2. Moving forward

3. At the end of the day

North West England

1. There is no I in team

2. Moving forward

3. In terms of

North East England

1. Moving forward

2. Touch base

3. To be honest

Comments

[Tracey]

I think "There is no I in team" has to be the most irritating.

It's funny how they differ between area's so maybe some of it does come to more frequently used words.

[Jackie Dauncey]

I agree with the Scots "At the end of the day" gets my vote for the most irritating and annoying phrase.

[Tom Putnam]

I would be intruiged to know whether these phrases are thrown about tiptopjob. At our job board there seems to be a habit of qouting the latest tv sensation, so much so that it almost brings about a sudden death to that tv show. Popular favourites such as Bo Selecta (hee hee, check ya bad self!) and more recently Fonejacker (I'm calling from your bank!) have been great viewing up until the point when you begin to hear them shouted across the office.

[Rahila Awan]

I have heard of a really funny game called "boardroom bingo" where people go into the boardroom for a meeting and have a list of phrases written down like the ones above. When the person conducting the meeting says a word, they then tick it off their list - once a certain word is said 3 times - they shout "bingo!" HOW FUNNYY!

The most annoying phrase I find in my sales environment is "in terms of"

[Steve Michaels]

At the end of the day is a classic. Why at the end of the day, why cant we say at the beginning of the day. Suppose it just doesnt have the same ring to it. Either way, i find this very annoying as it is over used.

[Justin]

There's no "u" in team either...