Writing Boots

On communication, professional and otherwise.

One new corporate term I like: “pause”

05.15.2019 by David Murray // Leave a Comment

In meetings and conference calls with corporate communication folks, I'm hearing a term in the last year or two that I don't remember hearing before: "pause."

As in, "We put the Employee Engagement Measurement program on pause. We'll revisit it after the merger goes through."

Until recently, the only thing to do with a program, initiative, negotiation whose relevance was decreasing was to:

cancel it

mothball it

put it on the back burner

forget it was ever a thing and never speak of it again

Now, you can pause it.

I think that's sane, because though it may well mean the same as cancel, mothball, back-burner and forget-about-it—it doesn't necessarily have to.

The program was a good idea at the time, and it may have even seemed like an urgent idea at the time. And (like wide lapels or skinny ties), it may be a good and urgent idea again. But right now other ideas take precedence. So the idea is on pause.

Often, jargon hides a homely reality behind a sheen of world class excellence. 

In the case of "pause," I think jargon acknowledges the reality that good ideas shouldn't be shamed into oblivion just because something else has come up, or something shinier has temporarily blinded us.

Do you agree?

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