I tasted it-a metallic tang of shame, sharper than the office coffee, coating my tongue. “Let’s circle back on that synergy,” I’d just said, the words slipping out as naturally as breathing, yet sounding utterly alien to my own ears. It was a normal conversation, a casual catch-up by the coffee machine, but the corporate code had seeped into my informal speech like ink into paper. A cold shiver, like 8 tiny needles, traced its way down my spine. This wasn’t just a linguistic slip; it felt like a betrayal. A betrayal of clarity, of genuine connection, and most disturbingly, of my own mind.
I remembered a new hire, fresh out of university, her eyes wide with earnestness and a desperate desire to understand. She’d asked a simple, direct question in a meeting, something about project timelines. The senior manager, a man who seemed to breathe acronyms, had leaned back, a slight smirk playing on his lips, and declared, “We need to leverage our core competencies to operationalize a paradigm shift.” The new hire just nodded, her smile fixed, a mask of feigned comprehension. I could see the confusion ripple behind her eyes, the fear of appearing unintelligent for not grasping what felt like a secret handshake. It’s a scene I’ve witnessed, I don’t know, 28 times too many.
