pet peeves

Reading the thread on Black vs African American highlighted how some things, even very little things, can annoy you ALOT. Do you have any pet peeves involving employees or work? If so, how do you handle it?

For instance, some word usage annoys me. I moved here in 1986 and couldn't believe people were still using the term Workman's Comp. Which they continued to do, by the way, until a few years ago. When I saw a lawyer advertising to help people with 'Workman's Comp' on TV my husband got an earful. At work, I tried correcting people until I realized that they were just speaking from habit and bit my tongue afterwards. I rarely hear it now, but am feeling more and more comfortable about correcting people again. I definitely will if it is an HR person.

What about you?

Comments

  • 21 Comments sorted by Votes Date Added
  • I'm with you on the word usage, Nae. One of the ones that bugs me a lot isn't specifically an employee/HR thing, but I hear it a lot from employees because we are a bank: "safety deposit box". The correct term is "[U]safe[/U] deposit box", so named because it is a box inside a safe.

    Another thing that bugs me is that we have two employees who tend to jump in and finish other peoples' sentences for them. I just had a fairly lengthy phone conversation with one of them and half the time she was talking over me, jumping in to try to finish my sentences, and it drove me nuts! I found myself talking faster and faster just to get my thoughts spit out before she started saying what she thought I was going to say. I have to wonder how much of any given conversation they miss because they're doing that?
  • cnghr - and don't forget about the ATM machine.
  • Nae, to your point, our company is in the work comp industry, and even the industry itself often refers to it as "workman's comp." It is definitely aggravating! Also aggravating in my industry (not so much in HR) are people who will still write "HIPPA" instead of "HIPAA." I always make the joke that it's not a law about a female hippo.

    In HR one of my pet peeves is people who say they want to "go on FMLA." One doesn't "go on FMLA," on "goes on FMLA leave." But, I think "going on FMLA" is becoming so standard now in our language that I'm overruled by the majority :)
  • I actually say "going on FML". If you say it out loud, without abbreviating, it seems correct... but I'm the only one who says it that way. :(
  • You see, to me, FML has a completely different meaning, and it sure as H-E-Double-Hockey-Sticks isn't work appropriate. :angel:
  • I couldn't find the "LIKE" button for Coffee's last post so I just hit the "REPORT POST" button a couple times.
  • Ha! And yet I'm still here.....muah ha ha ha.....\:D/
  • How long will I have to think about Coffee's post before I understand what FML means to her?
  • i was thinking Former Mother in Law. .
  • People improperly substituting "fewer" for "less" and vice-versa. I even hear it in some national television commercials which have aired recently.

    Also, people who overuse the word "myself," especially when they really mean "I" or "me." I.e. "Myself and Bob filed the sales report."

    Oh, and I too wonder what Coffee's definition of "FML" is! I need an education on that! :p
  • The word usage one can drive you crazy. One of mine is advice and advise. You give someone advice (noun) and you advise (verb) someone. Many people use advise when they mean advice.

    One that I sometimes use that drives others crazy is irregardless. It is not even a word, but I grew up hearing it so...
  • I agree with the advise and advice peeve! Also, don't feel bad Nae-- the local "word" which I have to stop myself from using is "brang." As in, "Who brang the chips to the party?" I've been all the way through law school, for Pete's sake, yet I still find myself trying to say that. My late father's pet peeve was people using the non-word "unthaw." To un-thaw would mean to freeze, not to defrost.

    Oh, and Cnghr, the "safety deposit box" is akin to people who say "chester drawers" when they mean "chest of drawers."

    The only HR peeve that comes to mind is people thinking HIPAA (Coffee, note use of the proper acronym;)) applies to everyone and everything.
  • Like Nae irregardless drives me NUTS
  • [quote=sonny;724027]Like Nae irregardless drives me NUTS[/quote]
    Me, too. I used to work in a cubicle next to someone who loved that word. She managed to work it into nearly every conversation, and I was ready to jump right over the cubicle wall and throttle her. Thank goodness, they moved my desk to another area of the department before I was forced to commit assault over word usage!
  • I agree with jdarrough on people mixing up fewer and less and will add to that how "more" and "over" are often used interchangeably.

    When I was teaching freshman comp, I once had a student argue with me that flustrated was a word. I told her if she could find me a non-slang dictionary that had that word, I would give her an A for the semester. She did not get an A.
  • Flustrated? I would have refudiated her assertion.
  • Hey! I resemble that remark!
  • Let me just say, I make up words all the time -- with family and friends. It's fun and our own special language.

    And I get that "flustrated" has a good descriptive quality to it as a combo of flustered and frustrated. But you can't turn it in for a freshman composition paper.
  • Our family has always made up words or used words in different ways, amongst themselves, but I agree there are places for that sort of thing (and a freshman composition paper is not one of them)!

    One of our current favorites is actually a grammatical error my granddaughter made when she was about 3. She was trying to explain to me that she has trouble sleeping when her older sister isn't there (they've shared a room pretty much since she was born). She wanted to say "it makes me nervous" but she couldn't figure out how to word it so she said "I have a nervous when my sister's not there." We thought that was so cute, we use it all the time now. One day I was upset about something and my husband asked me "are you having a nervous?" and I said "no, I'm having a p***ed off!" So there are many other applications for it, also.

    I just have to remind myself not to use it around people who aren't in on the joke, because they tend to look at me like I'm crazy if I do!
  • My current pet peeve is passive aggressive behavior.
  • cnghr,
    Glad to know I'm not alone! Every once in a while, I'll slip and use some of our inner circle slang outside of the inner circle. Then I get the, "Aren't you supposed to be an editor?" blank stare.

    One example, most of my friends were born in the late 70s and grew up in the 80s, so a lot of our slang is in direct reference to that shared experience. Long before the remake of the movie came out, we would refer to the Internet as "the Tron." That can take on many variations. For example, I am currently "tronning" (using the Internet) on my "tron machine" (laptop), but I can also use my trusty "tron phone," to "tron," as well.
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