Latest news with #KirstinFerguson
The Age
7 days ago
- Business
- The Age
My sexist manager treats the women in my office appallingly. Should we walk out?
Each week, Dr Kirstin Ferguson tackles questions on workplace, career and leadership in her advice column, Got a Minute? This week: dealing with a misogynist manager, managing out a staff member with mental health issues and a colleague working the system. We have a new, highly paid COO at work, and he is a misogynist, even to the point where he has called senior female managers into his office as they walk past to make coffee. He constantly speaks to the males over the women, even if the information he wants is not part of their job. Our CEO is not exactly approachable, and it is creating a horrible environment for the women to work in. A lot of us have multiple degrees, and he treats us all with disdain and constantly talks over us in meetings. We do not know how to address this apart from considering all walking off the job for a day. Our HR manager is based overseas and no one can get past his executive assistant to have a private conversation. What else can we do? Sadly, plenty of dinosaurs still roam the earth, and it sounds like you have one who thinks it's still 1955. He is treating you and your female colleagues differently because you are women. Not only is that not OK, it is also likely to be in breach of your workplace policies and laws. Band together with the other women in your office and document what is happening. Then, together, try to speak to your CEO. It is your CEO's responsibility to ensure you have a workplace where everyone of any colour, gender, sexuality, age etc is treated equally. If your CEO does nothing, document that too, then seek advice from the Sex Discrimination Commission. If you have a whistleblower or ethics hotline, you can also try that. Loading Walking off the job for a day should be a last resort. Use the formal channels in your business first and if there is no success, seek external advice. We are a small business and one of our employees has consistently underperformed, with ample opportunities to improve their performance with additional training, mentorship and support. They also have significant mental health issues and while we've been supportive throughout their time with both paid and unpaid extended leave, I am concerned once they lose their job they'll spiral out. What strategies, support services can we offer, or point them to, to minimise the adverse impact of them losing their job? It sounds like you are balancing that tricky tightrope of putting people first while also trying to run your business. Clearly you do not want to suggest you are letting them go because of their mental health issues (this could well be discrimination if you did, in fact, terminate them for that reason), but you can explain that for anyone losing a job, it will be a distressing time, and you want to support them through that. I would remind them you care about them as a person, not just as one of your employees. I would have referrals for any EAP provider you have ready to go, otherwise details for them to contact a service like Lifeline or Beyond Blue. Seek legal advice before taking any action, just to be on the safe side. A lawyer who understands all the nuances of this case will be able to guide you through this termination to mitigate any potential risks for your business and can help advise practical ways to support your former employee.
Sydney Morning Herald
7 days ago
- Business
- Sydney Morning Herald
My sexist manager treats the women in my office appallingly. Should we walk out?
Each week, Dr Kirstin Ferguson tackles questions on workplace, career and leadership in her advice column, Got a Minute? This week: dealing with a misogynist manager, managing out a staff member with mental health issues and a colleague working the system. We have a new, highly paid COO at work, and he is a misogynist, even to the point where he has called senior female managers into his office as they walk past to make coffee. He constantly speaks to the males over the women, even if the information he wants is not part of their job. Our CEO is not exactly approachable, and it is creating a horrible environment for the women to work in. A lot of us have multiple degrees, and he treats us all with disdain and constantly talks over us in meetings. We do not know how to address this apart from considering all walking off the job for a day. Our HR manager is based overseas and no one can get past his executive assistant to have a private conversation. What else can we do? Sadly, plenty of dinosaurs still roam the earth, and it sounds like you have one who thinks it's still 1955. He is treating you and your female colleagues differently because you are women. Not only is that not OK, it is also likely to be in breach of your workplace policies and laws. Band together with the other women in your office and document what is happening. Then, together, try to speak to your CEO. It is your CEO's responsibility to ensure you have a workplace where everyone of any colour, gender, sexuality, age etc is treated equally. If your CEO does nothing, document that too, then seek advice from the Sex Discrimination Commission. If you have a whistleblower or ethics hotline, you can also try that. Loading Walking off the job for a day should be a last resort. Use the formal channels in your business first and if there is no success, seek external advice. We are a small business and one of our employees has consistently underperformed, with ample opportunities to improve their performance with additional training, mentorship and support. They also have significant mental health issues and while we've been supportive throughout their time with both paid and unpaid extended leave, I am concerned once they lose their job they'll spiral out. What strategies, support services can we offer, or point them to, to minimise the adverse impact of them losing their job? It sounds like you are balancing that tricky tightrope of putting people first while also trying to run your business. Clearly you do not want to suggest you are letting them go because of their mental health issues (this could well be discrimination if you did, in fact, terminate them for that reason), but you can explain that for anyone losing a job, it will be a distressing time, and you want to support them through that. I would remind them you care about them as a person, not just as one of your employees. I would have referrals for any EAP provider you have ready to go, otherwise details for them to contact a service like Lifeline or Beyond Blue. Seek legal advice before taking any action, just to be on the safe side. A lawyer who understands all the nuances of this case will be able to guide you through this termination to mitigate any potential risks for your business and can help advise practical ways to support your former employee.
The Advertiser
03-06-2025
- General
- The Advertiser
Why a good leader must banish their biases and baggage
Years ago now, I ran into Kirstin Ferguson at one of those networking events. She had what I thought was strong school captain energy* combined with wildly curly hair and an air of extreme calm. You could tell, just from a five-minute conversation, she had a wise centre. A few months later, she wrote to me asking if I would be part of a campaign of hers, #celebratingwomen. God knows why I said no but I was just at the end of my PhD and barely coherent - and had no desire to be the centre of anyone's attention. It ended up, with author Catherine Fox, designed to celebrate women supporting each other and became the book Women Kind. We've kept in touch since then. When she wrote her award-winning book about leadership, Head and Heart, she suggested I do the accompanying questionnaire to see what kind of a leader I was. Headish? Heartish? I ran from that too. Impulsive. Grumpy. Intense. Not exactly sure how my family survived me (although, spoiler alert, they have). Now, I've come good. In Ferguson's latest book, Blindspotting, I've found myself. What is a blind spot? Blind spots, says Ferguson, are really those flaws in our thinking where we've done something really well in the past and we plan to stick to our knitting. And she's got advice for the politicians in our two major parties. She fears the Labor Party's capacity for self-reflection may have been buried under its landslide victory. "Hubris can absolutely become a blind spot where you think that you now know what people want, you think you now know the answers," she says. And the Coalition? "I don't know that they're truly being honest with themselves about why they had such an appalling result, and unless they do that by seeking views outside of their own circles, then they'll just continue to perpetuate the blind spots that got them into this position in the first place. "They need to be able to disentangle their egos and really put that aside, to put the party first if they want to have any hope of succeeding in the future." That might take them at least another couple of election cycles. *So was I right about Ferguson's school captain energy? Nope, nope, nope, as one of our former prime ministers with major blind spots famously said. Ferguson went straight from school to ADFA. She was the first woman to become dux of an Australian air force graduating class at ADFA (in her year, women made up less than 10 per cent of the class). That's where her leadership began. As part of her first job, straight out of ADFA, she was appointed to a job which would break so many of us, the base burials officer in the Royal Australian Air Force, organising funerals for serving members who died because of illness, car accidents, misadventure. And for those who died by suicide. Years later, she undertook a Churchill Fellowship to talk to bereaved military families, to find out how our defence forces could do better with support. Doing better is what she's about. Being pleased with ourselves, though, can be a bit of hurdle if we really want to do well. But what's the problem with being pleased we've done well? Says Ferguson: "We think we'll do it well again. It can come through prejudice, not wanting to believe others can achieve something or do something. It can come through power, through being someone who can't put themselves in the shoes of others. "These are flaws in our thinking that we all have. Absolutely no one is immune from blind spots, and they're fuelled by biases and baggage we bring with us and a lack of curiosity about the world around us." Ferguson, now in her early 50s, says she has blind spots herself. She says she was a real advocate for working from home. She loves working from home herself. But it was only when she started listening to her own daughters, 23 and 25, and reading correspondence responding to her column, Got A Minute, in the Nine newspapers, she realised she needed to open up. "People miss working in the office, they get a lot out of being present, that camaraderie and culture. "I talk about needing to hold our convictions lightly, and on that one, I did, because it's not as though I've gone full tilt the other way. I still think we should have working from home, where it's feasible. The position should be made for people to have a choice. But it's no longer as black and white as I perhaps thought it was." How do we get past our blind spots? Ferguson has a training regime. Be honest with yourself. Be curious. Be flexible. Which is fine for her to say. The rest of us struggle. Her tips? (Dear god, they read like the first week back at the gym after a holiday). "We have to be honest about the fact that we have biases, and we have to be able to disentangle our ego from thinking that we have to be right," she says. I hope our politicians are reading this as we speak. The next one is easy, at least for me. I'm a native-born nosy parker. "Be willing to question for insights rather than trying to win arguments," says Ferguson. And finally, we need to be flexible. "That is all about being willing to change our mind in the face of new information, it's being able to embrace ambiguity, because the world is uncertain," she says. Too many of our leaders across all sectors pretend they are certain. "When we look at some of the political leaders we have, some of the business leaders, other people that we celebrate, so often they're exactly the kind of vacuous people that operate off charisma. "But for time immemorial, these people have consistently failed us in the end - but we continue to be caught out by the ease with which they can convince us they know what they're talking about when they really don't." Ferguson's right about this: "They convince us that they've got our best interests at heart when they really don't." Love books? Us too! Looking for more reads and recommendations? Browse our books page and bookmark the page so you can find our latest books content with ease. Years ago now, I ran into Kirstin Ferguson at one of those networking events. She had what I thought was strong school captain energy* combined with wildly curly hair and an air of extreme calm. You could tell, just from a five-minute conversation, she had a wise centre. A few months later, she wrote to me asking if I would be part of a campaign of hers, #celebratingwomen. God knows why I said no but I was just at the end of my PhD and barely coherent - and had no desire to be the centre of anyone's attention. It ended up, with author Catherine Fox, designed to celebrate women supporting each other and became the book Women Kind. We've kept in touch since then. When she wrote her award-winning book about leadership, Head and Heart, she suggested I do the accompanying questionnaire to see what kind of a leader I was. Headish? Heartish? I ran from that too. Impulsive. Grumpy. Intense. Not exactly sure how my family survived me (although, spoiler alert, they have). Now, I've come good. In Ferguson's latest book, Blindspotting, I've found myself. What is a blind spot? Blind spots, says Ferguson, are really those flaws in our thinking where we've done something really well in the past and we plan to stick to our knitting. And she's got advice for the politicians in our two major parties. She fears the Labor Party's capacity for self-reflection may have been buried under its landslide victory. "Hubris can absolutely become a blind spot where you think that you now know what people want, you think you now know the answers," she says. And the Coalition? "I don't know that they're truly being honest with themselves about why they had such an appalling result, and unless they do that by seeking views outside of their own circles, then they'll just continue to perpetuate the blind spots that got them into this position in the first place. "They need to be able to disentangle their egos and really put that aside, to put the party first if they want to have any hope of succeeding in the future." That might take them at least another couple of election cycles. *So was I right about Ferguson's school captain energy? Nope, nope, nope, as one of our former prime ministers with major blind spots famously said. Ferguson went straight from school to ADFA. She was the first woman to become dux of an Australian air force graduating class at ADFA (in her year, women made up less than 10 per cent of the class). That's where her leadership began. As part of her first job, straight out of ADFA, she was appointed to a job which would break so many of us, the base burials officer in the Royal Australian Air Force, organising funerals for serving members who died because of illness, car accidents, misadventure. And for those who died by suicide. Years later, she undertook a Churchill Fellowship to talk to bereaved military families, to find out how our defence forces could do better with support. Doing better is what she's about. Being pleased with ourselves, though, can be a bit of hurdle if we really want to do well. But what's the problem with being pleased we've done well? Says Ferguson: "We think we'll do it well again. It can come through prejudice, not wanting to believe others can achieve something or do something. It can come through power, through being someone who can't put themselves in the shoes of others. "These are flaws in our thinking that we all have. Absolutely no one is immune from blind spots, and they're fuelled by biases and baggage we bring with us and a lack of curiosity about the world around us." Ferguson, now in her early 50s, says she has blind spots herself. She says she was a real advocate for working from home. She loves working from home herself. But it was only when she started listening to her own daughters, 23 and 25, and reading correspondence responding to her column, Got A Minute, in the Nine newspapers, she realised she needed to open up. "People miss working in the office, they get a lot out of being present, that camaraderie and culture. "I talk about needing to hold our convictions lightly, and on that one, I did, because it's not as though I've gone full tilt the other way. I still think we should have working from home, where it's feasible. The position should be made for people to have a choice. But it's no longer as black and white as I perhaps thought it was." How do we get past our blind spots? Ferguson has a training regime. Be honest with yourself. Be curious. Be flexible. Which is fine for her to say. The rest of us struggle. Her tips? (Dear god, they read like the first week back at the gym after a holiday). "We have to be honest about the fact that we have biases, and we have to be able to disentangle our ego from thinking that we have to be right," she says. I hope our politicians are reading this as we speak. The next one is easy, at least for me. I'm a native-born nosy parker. "Be willing to question for insights rather than trying to win arguments," says Ferguson. And finally, we need to be flexible. "That is all about being willing to change our mind in the face of new information, it's being able to embrace ambiguity, because the world is uncertain," she says. Too many of our leaders across all sectors pretend they are certain. "When we look at some of the political leaders we have, some of the business leaders, other people that we celebrate, so often they're exactly the kind of vacuous people that operate off charisma. "But for time immemorial, these people have consistently failed us in the end - but we continue to be caught out by the ease with which they can convince us they know what they're talking about when they really don't." Ferguson's right about this: "They convince us that they've got our best interests at heart when they really don't." Love books? Us too! Looking for more reads and recommendations? Browse our books page and bookmark the page so you can find our latest books content with ease. Years ago now, I ran into Kirstin Ferguson at one of those networking events. She had what I thought was strong school captain energy* combined with wildly curly hair and an air of extreme calm. You could tell, just from a five-minute conversation, she had a wise centre. A few months later, she wrote to me asking if I would be part of a campaign of hers, #celebratingwomen. God knows why I said no but I was just at the end of my PhD and barely coherent - and had no desire to be the centre of anyone's attention. It ended up, with author Catherine Fox, designed to celebrate women supporting each other and became the book Women Kind. We've kept in touch since then. When she wrote her award-winning book about leadership, Head and Heart, she suggested I do the accompanying questionnaire to see what kind of a leader I was. Headish? Heartish? I ran from that too. Impulsive. Grumpy. Intense. Not exactly sure how my family survived me (although, spoiler alert, they have). Now, I've come good. In Ferguson's latest book, Blindspotting, I've found myself. What is a blind spot? Blind spots, says Ferguson, are really those flaws in our thinking where we've done something really well in the past and we plan to stick to our knitting. And she's got advice for the politicians in our two major parties. She fears the Labor Party's capacity for self-reflection may have been buried under its landslide victory. "Hubris can absolutely become a blind spot where you think that you now know what people want, you think you now know the answers," she says. And the Coalition? "I don't know that they're truly being honest with themselves about why they had such an appalling result, and unless they do that by seeking views outside of their own circles, then they'll just continue to perpetuate the blind spots that got them into this position in the first place. "They need to be able to disentangle their egos and really put that aside, to put the party first if they want to have any hope of succeeding in the future." That might take them at least another couple of election cycles. *So was I right about Ferguson's school captain energy? Nope, nope, nope, as one of our former prime ministers with major blind spots famously said. Ferguson went straight from school to ADFA. She was the first woman to become dux of an Australian air force graduating class at ADFA (in her year, women made up less than 10 per cent of the class). That's where her leadership began. As part of her first job, straight out of ADFA, she was appointed to a job which would break so many of us, the base burials officer in the Royal Australian Air Force, organising funerals for serving members who died because of illness, car accidents, misadventure. And for those who died by suicide. Years later, she undertook a Churchill Fellowship to talk to bereaved military families, to find out how our defence forces could do better with support. Doing better is what she's about. Being pleased with ourselves, though, can be a bit of hurdle if we really want to do well. But what's the problem with being pleased we've done well? Says Ferguson: "We think we'll do it well again. It can come through prejudice, not wanting to believe others can achieve something or do something. It can come through power, through being someone who can't put themselves in the shoes of others. "These are flaws in our thinking that we all have. Absolutely no one is immune from blind spots, and they're fuelled by biases and baggage we bring with us and a lack of curiosity about the world around us." Ferguson, now in her early 50s, says she has blind spots herself. She says she was a real advocate for working from home. She loves working from home herself. But it was only when she started listening to her own daughters, 23 and 25, and reading correspondence responding to her column, Got A Minute, in the Nine newspapers, she realised she needed to open up. "People miss working in the office, they get a lot out of being present, that camaraderie and culture. "I talk about needing to hold our convictions lightly, and on that one, I did, because it's not as though I've gone full tilt the other way. I still think we should have working from home, where it's feasible. The position should be made for people to have a choice. But it's no longer as black and white as I perhaps thought it was." How do we get past our blind spots? Ferguson has a training regime. Be honest with yourself. Be curious. Be flexible. Which is fine for her to say. The rest of us struggle. Her tips? (Dear god, they read like the first week back at the gym after a holiday). "We have to be honest about the fact that we have biases, and we have to be able to disentangle our ego from thinking that we have to be right," she says. I hope our politicians are reading this as we speak. The next one is easy, at least for me. I'm a native-born nosy parker. "Be willing to question for insights rather than trying to win arguments," says Ferguson. And finally, we need to be flexible. "That is all about being willing to change our mind in the face of new information, it's being able to embrace ambiguity, because the world is uncertain," she says. Too many of our leaders across all sectors pretend they are certain. "When we look at some of the political leaders we have, some of the business leaders, other people that we celebrate, so often they're exactly the kind of vacuous people that operate off charisma. "But for time immemorial, these people have consistently failed us in the end - but we continue to be caught out by the ease with which they can convince us they know what they're talking about when they really don't." Ferguson's right about this: "They convince us that they've got our best interests at heart when they really don't." Love books? Us too! Looking for more reads and recommendations? Browse our books page and bookmark the page so you can find our latest books content with ease. Years ago now, I ran into Kirstin Ferguson at one of those networking events. She had what I thought was strong school captain energy* combined with wildly curly hair and an air of extreme calm. You could tell, just from a five-minute conversation, she had a wise centre. A few months later, she wrote to me asking if I would be part of a campaign of hers, #celebratingwomen. God knows why I said no but I was just at the end of my PhD and barely coherent - and had no desire to be the centre of anyone's attention. It ended up, with author Catherine Fox, designed to celebrate women supporting each other and became the book Women Kind. We've kept in touch since then. When she wrote her award-winning book about leadership, Head and Heart, she suggested I do the accompanying questionnaire to see what kind of a leader I was. Headish? Heartish? I ran from that too. Impulsive. Grumpy. Intense. Not exactly sure how my family survived me (although, spoiler alert, they have). Now, I've come good. In Ferguson's latest book, Blindspotting, I've found myself. What is a blind spot? Blind spots, says Ferguson, are really those flaws in our thinking where we've done something really well in the past and we plan to stick to our knitting. And she's got advice for the politicians in our two major parties. She fears the Labor Party's capacity for self-reflection may have been buried under its landslide victory. "Hubris can absolutely become a blind spot where you think that you now know what people want, you think you now know the answers," she says. And the Coalition? "I don't know that they're truly being honest with themselves about why they had such an appalling result, and unless they do that by seeking views outside of their own circles, then they'll just continue to perpetuate the blind spots that got them into this position in the first place. "They need to be able to disentangle their egos and really put that aside, to put the party first if they want to have any hope of succeeding in the future." That might take them at least another couple of election cycles. *So was I right about Ferguson's school captain energy? Nope, nope, nope, as one of our former prime ministers with major blind spots famously said. Ferguson went straight from school to ADFA. She was the first woman to become dux of an Australian air force graduating class at ADFA (in her year, women made up less than 10 per cent of the class). That's where her leadership began. As part of her first job, straight out of ADFA, she was appointed to a job which would break so many of us, the base burials officer in the Royal Australian Air Force, organising funerals for serving members who died because of illness, car accidents, misadventure. And for those who died by suicide. Years later, she undertook a Churchill Fellowship to talk to bereaved military families, to find out how our defence forces could do better with support. Doing better is what she's about. Being pleased with ourselves, though, can be a bit of hurdle if we really want to do well. But what's the problem with being pleased we've done well? Says Ferguson: "We think we'll do it well again. It can come through prejudice, not wanting to believe others can achieve something or do something. It can come through power, through being someone who can't put themselves in the shoes of others. "These are flaws in our thinking that we all have. Absolutely no one is immune from blind spots, and they're fuelled by biases and baggage we bring with us and a lack of curiosity about the world around us." Ferguson, now in her early 50s, says she has blind spots herself. She says she was a real advocate for working from home. She loves working from home herself. But it was only when she started listening to her own daughters, 23 and 25, and reading correspondence responding to her column, Got A Minute, in the Nine newspapers, she realised she needed to open up. "People miss working in the office, they get a lot out of being present, that camaraderie and culture. "I talk about needing to hold our convictions lightly, and on that one, I did, because it's not as though I've gone full tilt the other way. I still think we should have working from home, where it's feasible. The position should be made for people to have a choice. But it's no longer as black and white as I perhaps thought it was." How do we get past our blind spots? Ferguson has a training regime. Be honest with yourself. Be curious. Be flexible. Which is fine for her to say. The rest of us struggle. Her tips? (Dear god, they read like the first week back at the gym after a holiday). "We have to be honest about the fact that we have biases, and we have to be able to disentangle our ego from thinking that we have to be right," she says. I hope our politicians are reading this as we speak. The next one is easy, at least for me. I'm a native-born nosy parker. "Be willing to question for insights rather than trying to win arguments," says Ferguson. And finally, we need to be flexible. "That is all about being willing to change our mind in the face of new information, it's being able to embrace ambiguity, because the world is uncertain," she says. Too many of our leaders across all sectors pretend they are certain. "When we look at some of the political leaders we have, some of the business leaders, other people that we celebrate, so often they're exactly the kind of vacuous people that operate off charisma. "But for time immemorial, these people have consistently failed us in the end - but we continue to be caught out by the ease with which they can convince us they know what they're talking about when they really don't." Ferguson's right about this: "They convince us that they've got our best interests at heart when they really don't." Love books? Us too! Looking for more reads and recommendations? Browse our books page and bookmark the page so you can find our latest books content with ease.
The Age
27-05-2025
- Business
- The Age
My workplace is awash with jargon and it's driving me mad. How can I stop it?
Each week, Dr Kirstin Ferguson tackles questions on workplace, career and leadership in her advice column, Got a Minute? This week: frustrations with office jargon, an untenable work culture and understanding unfair dismissal time limits. I'm really starting to get fed up with the amount of jargon being thrown around at work. Every meeting is full of people talking about 'getting the ball rolling,' 'thinking outside the box,' or 'circling back.' Sometimes I have no idea what people are trying to say, but then I wonder if I am overreacting. Is there a polite way to stop the jargon without sounding like I'm being difficult? I really want to keep the workplace positive, but it's getting harder when every sentence sounds like a corporate bingo card. Loading You're definitely not overreacting – you're just trying to future-proof your sanity while others are busy blue-sky thinking their way into oblivion. (Just helping with that bingo card!) I am with you: I really dislike the mumbo jumbo that seems to make no sense at all. One of my (least) favourites is being told to put a pin in it, or let's circle back to that idea. I know what it means but to me, you sound like someone who has read too many MBA textbooks. Enough, please. One simple way to push back is to lead by example. When you're speaking, use clear, plain language. If someone fires a jargon phrase at you, it's perfectly fine to ask for them to clarify (preferably in plain English): 'Just to be clear, are you saying…?' And if they come back with something like, 'Ping me, and we can run your idea up the flagpole to close the loop', I'd run. I landed a fantastic role a few months ago; it pays well and is very close to home. However, the office is made up of long-term employees who are proving extremely difficult to work with. One of them sits at my desk in my absence, looking through my work. They listen to my phone calls, continually ask me questions about my finances and personal life, and another made a comment about the street I live on. My boss seems scared to approach them and told me just to give it time. I am thinking about resigning as I cannot work in this environment. I asked about the culture in the interview too, and the manager said it was great and everyone got along really well. Should I resign now? I really don't want to hang around and train anyone. To be honest, I feel like walking out. Loading Personally, I think I would last about an hour in your workplace, so you have done well to last a few months! This is not a workplace environment you should have to put up with. It might be convenient, but it is not worth it for the damage it will do to your mental health and wellbeing. Trust your instincts. If your gut is telling you that staying will just prolong your unhappiness – and it doesn't sound like this culture is going to change any time soon – I would get out of there. Rather than just walking out (and I don't know if you mean that literally, since in your circumstances I can understand why you might want to), try to leave on a clean, professional note. That isn't for them, but for you. I suspect the sooner you put this job behind you and move on, the better.
Sydney Morning Herald
27-05-2025
- Business
- Sydney Morning Herald
My workplace is awash with jargon and it's driving me mad. How can I stop it?
Each week, Dr Kirstin Ferguson tackles questions on workplace, career and leadership in her advice column, Got a Minute? This week: frustrations with office jargon, an untenable work culture and understanding unfair dismissal time limits. I'm really starting to get fed up with the amount of jargon being thrown around at work. Every meeting is full of people talking about 'getting the ball rolling,' 'thinking outside the box,' or 'circling back.' Sometimes I have no idea what people are trying to say, but then I wonder if I am overreacting. Is there a polite way to stop the jargon without sounding like I'm being difficult? I really want to keep the workplace positive, but it's getting harder when every sentence sounds like a corporate bingo card. Loading You're definitely not overreacting – you're just trying to future-proof your sanity while others are busy blue-sky thinking their way into oblivion. (Just helping with that bingo card!) I am with you: I really dislike the mumbo jumbo that seems to make no sense at all. One of my (least) favourites is being told to put a pin in it, or let's circle back to that idea. I know what it means but to me, you sound like someone who has read too many MBA textbooks. Enough, please. One simple way to push back is to lead by example. When you're speaking, use clear, plain language. If someone fires a jargon phrase at you, it's perfectly fine to ask for them to clarify (preferably in plain English): 'Just to be clear, are you saying…?' And if they come back with something like, 'Ping me, and we can run your idea up the flagpole to close the loop', I'd run. I landed a fantastic role a few months ago; it pays well and is very close to home. However, the office is made up of long-term employees who are proving extremely difficult to work with. One of them sits at my desk in my absence, looking through my work. They listen to my phone calls, continually ask me questions about my finances and personal life, and another made a comment about the street I live on. My boss seems scared to approach them and told me just to give it time. I am thinking about resigning as I cannot work in this environment. I asked about the culture in the interview too, and the manager said it was great and everyone got along really well. Should I resign now? I really don't want to hang around and train anyone. To be honest, I feel like walking out. Loading Personally, I think I would last about an hour in your workplace, so you have done well to last a few months! This is not a workplace environment you should have to put up with. It might be convenient, but it is not worth it for the damage it will do to your mental health and wellbeing. Trust your instincts. If your gut is telling you that staying will just prolong your unhappiness – and it doesn't sound like this culture is going to change any time soon – I would get out of there. Rather than just walking out (and I don't know if you mean that literally, since in your circumstances I can understand why you might want to), try to leave on a clean, professional note. That isn't for them, but for you. I suspect the sooner you put this job behind you and move on, the better.
