In the modern office culture of India, especially in big cities like Gurgaon, Bangalore, and Noida, we are constantly hearing words that sound very "high-class" but actually mean nothing. These are called corporate buzzwords. Sometimes, when my boss or a colleague uses these words in a meeting, I feel like a total "NPC"—which means a Non-Player Character in a video game who just stands there and repeats the same lines. It feels like we are all following a script and nobody is talking like a real human being anymore.
The one buzzword that makes me feel most like an NPC is definitely "Synergy." Whenever someone says, "We need to find synergy between the teams," I just want to ask, "Do you mean we should just talk to each other?" It sounds like a scientific term, but in an office, it is just a fancy way to say "working together." When people use it, they look very serious, but it feels like they are just using a hollow word to fill the silence in a PowerPoint presentation.
Another word that is very annoying is "Circle Back." If I ask a question in a Zoom call and the manager says, "Let’s circle back to this later," I know 100% that we are never going to talk about it again. It is a polite way of saying, "I don't have the answer right now, so please stop talking." It makes me feel like I am stuck in a loop, just like a character in a game walking against a wall.
Then there is "Bandwidth." Earlier, bandwidth was something we talked about for our internet connection or WiFi. But now, humans have bandwidth too! If a senior asks, "Do you have the bandwidth for this new task?" they are actually asking if I have time to work extra hours without complaining. It makes me feel like a machine or a piece of hardware instead of a person who gets tired.
We also hear a lot about "Deep Dive." Instead of saying "Let’s look at the details," everyone wants to take a "deep dive." It sounds like we are going scuba diving in the ocean, but actually, we are just looking at a boring Excel sheet for two hours. By the end of the "dive," everyone is just tired and no one has found any treasure.
Lastly, the word "Disruptive" is everywhere. Every new startup wants to be "disruptive." If you are just selling tea or clothes online, how is it disruptive? It just means you are doing business.
Using these words makes the office feel very fake. I think we use them because we want to sound professional and "global," but it actually makes communication harder. When everyone speaks in buzzwords, no one is really listening. We just nod our heads like NPCs until the meeting is over. It would be so much better if we just used simple English that everyone understands easily. That way, we could finish our work faster and go home to our real lives!
