In the Loop & Up to Speed: Clever and Useful Business Terms Every Go-Getter Needs

by Caroline Taggart

The bottom line is The workplace is a minefield of business jargon that people exchange on a daily basis, and it can all start to sound like everyone around you is speaking another language. So if you have ever wondered whether you have hit the glass ceiling or if a cubicle monkey will respond to mushroom management, become bogged down in the marzipan layer or are confused about what to do about the elephant in the room, this is the book for you. From indecipherable abbreviations and business terminology to buzzwords, motivational phrases, and more, In the Loop and Up to Speed uncovers the origins and meanings of many useful?and some not so useful?phrases that can be heard in the workplace and in everyday life, such  ·        level playing field                       touching base·        reinventing the wheel                 firing on all cylinders·

Genres: Nonfiction

176 pages, Hardcover

First published October 11, 2012

About the author

I was an editor for 30 years before Michael O’Mara Books asked me to write what became I Used to Know That. I think its success took everyone by surprise – it certainly did me – but it led to my writing a lot of other books and finally, after about three years, feeling able to tell people I was an author. It's a nice feeling.

Until recently the book I was most proud of was The Book of London Place Names (Ebury), partly because I am passionate about London and partly because, having written ten or so books before that, I finally felt I was getting the hang of it.

Now I have to confess I’m really excited by my first venture into continuous narrative. For A Slice of Britain: around the country by cake (AA) I travelled the country investigating, writing about and eating cake. From Cornish Saffron Cake to Aberdeen Butteries, I interviewed about 25 people who are baking cakes, biscuits and buns that are unique to their region, part of their heritage – and pretty darned delicious. The Sunday Times reviewed it and described me as ‘engaging, greedy and droll’, which pleased me enormously.

Reviews

[Peter Geyer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like reading about words and phrases, particularly jargon, the latter mainly because I dislike it and I enjoy a bit of ridicule in that direction. It's amazing (to me) how so many people can mindlessly pick up these kinds of terms and phrases.

Caroline Taggart appears to be a voluminous producer of this kind of thing, from what I gathered when searching for this book on the Goodreads website. By that I mean not only words and phrases but things you either used to know or should know.

Business terms are ripe for this kind of book, as well as for dismantling and derision, perhaps embarrassment too, if you find yourself using particular terms instead of actually communicating (my view).

The book is well-organised and presented, written in a kind of blend of American and British English; some terms are clearly one or the other. Coming from neither country, this can be a little confusing, although I have a personal preference for British English and the associated perspective.

Some of the entries appeared historically incorrect, to me anyway, which may reflect coming from an older age group, as I can remember earlier uses, and of course there are Australian language idiosyncrasies. Earlier entries seemed to be more humorous than later ones, which was disappointing, but then Don Watson is the master of dissecting language and it's hard to get past his trenchant and witty examinations.

This was a discounted purchase (Book Grocer) and so worth the price paid, and it was light and relaxing reading at an appropriate time.

[Adrian J. · Rating 2 out of 5]

I value this book as a convenient one-stop reference to a lot of silly jargon. Unfortunately, it seems largely American-focused; very few of the words and phrases detailed here are used in Australia (or anywhere outside of the US) so it was not as useful as it could have been.

It contains a heck of a lot of errors. Most of Taggart's books for Michael O'Mara are error-free; the errors in this really drew my attention away from the text. I think I can remember the errors better than the content proper.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not "in the know" on these terms, hence the reason I picked up this book!

Snarky/dry humor kept things interesting but honestly, with English having so many ambiguous and/or dual meanings 2 clearly defined examples (or contrasting examples) of each term would have really clinched it (5 stars).

[Lloyd Downey · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've always been fascinated at the way a language evolves within business. I remember one of my managers telling a group of slightly gob-smacked underlings that we were to: "Fish-hook the opportunities over the gunwales into the opportunity-capture-crucible". And I bought this book with the idea that I might get a few laughs from it and maybe be able to use some of the words and phrases in a comic book I produce once a year for former work colleagues. Actually, it's a much more serious work than I had anticipated and even treats terms like "proactive" in a serious way...."tending to initiate change rather than reacting to events".
Nevertheless , I've been able to distill some lovely corporate-speak out of the words Caroline features: "So he had to get into bed with HR by proactively buying-into the revolving-door policy. This was really pushing the envelope for a non self-starter, going-forward, and he found he wasn’t in the loop or on-message with his work-life balance."
Not a great book. But mildly useful to me for my purposes. I give it two stars.