Olde English Words for Today's Work World
The debate and discussion around where and how we should work has probably never been as fierce as it is today. Some companies want everyone back in the office, some companies have gone full-on remote work and many others are hybrid. For now, no single solution seems to be preferred.
In my work as a cultural (digital) anthropologist I do a lot ethnographic research in companies, helping them better understand their workplace culture and technology, as well as UX research. This provides insights from both direct workplace study and how people are talking about work in digital forums like LinkedIn. So given todays kerfuffle around work, maybe some of these words should be put back to work!
Old English Words for The New World of Work
Fudgel (v): Basically, this means pretending to work when we're really not doing any work at all...like maybe when we're on video meeting calls...playing solitaire and no one can see us?
Quomodocunquize (v): That's a tongue twister! Simply put, it means to make money any way that you can. Side hustle anyone? I can't imagine a hashtag for this word!
Zwodder (n): Means a drowsy and stupid state of body or mind...like after a thousand video meetings all day and you're just feeling zwoddered out...
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Ergophobia (n): A morbid fear of returning to work...that's going to be familiar to many!
Spuddle (v): To work tirelessly without achieving anything of worth or putting in a great deal of effort and achieving very little...I'm sure we've all experienced projects like that. What a spuddle that project was!
Jargogle: Been here at the end of a work day? It means to confuse or jumble words...especially switching between so many video meetings!
Uhtceare (v): A lot of folks did this during the pandemic and we still do...basically, this is lying awake worrying before dawn. (pro: oot-key-are-a)
Ultracrepidarian (n): You know, those co-workers who find every chance to share their opinion on things they know nothing about. Ah, so much social media!
Any words here you'd use? Should we invent some new ones?