Jargon Bombing: Creating a Communication Barrier

Similar to  the meme creators on social media, there is a tribe of people who have flooded our lives : The “Jargon Creators” and the “Word Bombers”! Nothing is more irritating than wading through mails or messages laden with uncalled for jargons and important sounding words. One has to sift through all the permutation combination of words and phrases to understand what the mail is all about.

This morning I was pretty grumpy, having to navigate through a plethora of messages; including forwards and inspirational quotes which I never read. My robotic, rather mechanical, “select and delete” motion suddenly came to a standstill, as I chanced upon something that forced me to think!

Sharing  it:

I initially laughed and then realised that it was hardly a joke! I could recall numerous snippets of conversations with diverse sets of people and most of it did sound like the “257” and “568” mentioned above.

Whoever said that “Life is simple, we complicate it”, must have also had in mind, the excessive usage of jargons or complicated language. There may have been instances where we ourselves have used a never ending  mix of jargons and huge, important sounding words on unsuspecting folks, only to appear intelligent . For some due to usage over a period of time, it might’ve become a habit! Most of us might have faced a situation, where unnecessary jargons and complicated language was  being showered on us, even in harmless conversations.

There are numerous articles and debates on the pros and cons of using complicated language. I am not going to comment on something which we are all aware of. However, I do hope that people re-think on it's excessive usage. How difficult is it to keep things simple? Wonder if  simplicity is becoming outdated and if that is helping us.

As kids we have all laughed upon a restaurant’s “steamed fine long grained white rice hand-picked in the emerald green lap of the Vindhyas, accompanied by a creamy golden lentil soup....” kind of language for the basic rice and lentil. And did we grow up to become just what we had ridiculed ? Do we all need instances where a “farrago of distortions" or a “Kerfuffle” on a tweet, makes us  lunge for the thesaurus?

There’s a reason, complicated usage of words or jargons has been termed as one of the greatest communication barriers. Who on earth can figure out that “verbal contact with Ray regarding the attached notification of promotion has elicited the attached representation intimating that he prefers to decline the assignment ”, simply means “Mr. Ray didn't want the job”!

I recall receiving a job description, which was just a mix of evil sounding words and unintelligible jargons. I had to get on a call with the line manager to understand it. Now, did that kind of ambiguity help either the organisation or the recruiter? If the line manager ended up having to explain the JD over a lengthy call, more time was wasted due to the unnecessary complexity.

There are instances where excessive usage of jargons or using complex language for basic stuff, only creates fear in the minds of the youngsters.  I know a fresh MBA, a class topper, who had earned glorious feedback from her seniors within a few weeks of joining. A month down the line, I received a frantic call from her. She was panicky, had self-doubts and was almost certain, that she didn’t know anything. After a lot of analysing and dissecting, we arrived at the conclusion, that her reporting manager was a firm believer in pompous sounding words and jargons and hence she was finding it too stressful to understand even basics! While this could be an extreme example, it is a fact that complicated language at the workplace can actually be a dampener for new entrants.

I understand that every discipline will have terms which convey a particular meaning and that is fine. While usage is necessary it is also important to draw a line where we keep inventing words and phrases which just obfuscate the meaning.

My thoughts on this are interrupted by a call. My friend, who heads a large organisation is on the line...

Hey , what’s up!

Nothing much!

Let’s facetime sometime at your convenience? I’ll ring fence a slot....

Can’t you use simple language ? Whatever happened to “keep it short and simple” ?

Knowing him I was expecting – “Oh that! I know! I mean, why use a big word when a singularly unloquacious and diminutive linguistic expression will satisfactorily accomplish the contemporary necessity!”

Had he said that, I would have been forced to indulge in an “unlawful and arbitrary deprivation of life” !

Thankfully he didn’t! Simple language still has takers!

Anupreeta Lall