Bureaucratic jargon of the day.
Work with me here; I want to reach out to the community and dialogue about what we are doing going forward.
“Reach out”. This is a hand/arm movement often used to offer aid to someone slipping or falling or to get something from a drive through window. When/why did it become talking to someone.
“Community” Actually not a bad word, but too overused. Community has become any aggregation of people that would seem to suit the talker’s purpose. It is being used too loosely. When citing a community, we should specify it one step further
neighbourhood community
a music community (bluegrass, piping, hard rock, choir, etc)
“Dialogue”. This is a two way conversation often written. When/why did it become the word used for discuss, negotiate.
“Going Forward”. This is a description of physically moving in a direction that is basically in front of you. The car is going forward (as opposed to being in reverse and backing up). Used as in the introduction sentence is just superfluous. It seems to be used when talking about plans for the future. You can’t plan for the past and the present just is. This is a pair of words that should not be used.
And “Work with me”. Work is force times distance. It is the exertion or effort exerted to accomplish something. As we became more and more cerebral, we transferred the word to thinking and producing something. Using work with me to describe negotiations is too much of a stretch.
I was trained in a technical profession. I worked in that profession all my working life. I; however dealt with people who did not work in that profession. In order to be understood, unnecessary technical jargon was not used. The bureaucratic speak of the day was dropped and plain unencumbered language used. Discussions were intelligent and decisions arrived at from meetings, negotiations, etc had decent results.
Don’t fall for the jargon of the day. Be precise with your words.
The Plaidneck.