First Draft #22: a newsletter on public language
The language of layoffs; Sunak's buckets; medical jargon
Layoff the doublespeak
The past few weeks have seen the corporate world engulfed in a wave of job cuts. And with them a particularly nauseating category of jargon: the language of layoffs.
Goldman Sachs calls it “headcount reduction”. Coinbase opts for “letting go”. Employees at Intel must stomach “people actions”.
The most chilling example comes, predictably, from Amazon. The corporate machine behind “fulfilment centres” (warehouses) and “enhanced content” (adverts) has spawned another winning euphemism: “role eliminations”.
There’s no easy way to impart bad news. But some ways are definitely worse than others. A company in Manchester once sacked thousands of its staff via text. Another broke the news on Zoom, subjecting employees to an unknown voice from behind an empty, black screen.
The best announcements are clear and candid. In a memo to staff last week, the CEO of Salesforce lamented “the very difficult decision to reduce our workforce”. The company, he said, “hired too many people leading into this economic downturn... I take responsibility for that”.
Patrick Collison, CEO of Stripe, ranks highest of all. “There’s no good way to do a layoff,” he wrote, in a letter to employees. “We’re going to do our best to treat everyone leaving as respectfully as possible, and to do whatever we can to help”.
The very least laid off workers deserve is clarity. The English playwright, Thomas Otway, put it best. “Honesty,” he wrote, “needs no disguise or ornament; be plain”. @_alice_elliott
Beyond the pail
It was Rishi Sunak’s job, on becoming Prime Minister, to calm the nation down but that is no excuse for being so unutterably boring. In a recent interview he committed what ought to be a resigning offence when he said that economic repair, public service reform and equal opportunities were “the three buckets that I’m thinking about”. Buckets? The window of opportunity has been replaced by the bucket of opportunity. What on earth is he talking about?
The only places that actually use buckets to store separate materials are farms and pound shops. Does Mr Sunak have a row of buckets in his garage in North Yorkshire for all his important papers? One for the tax return, one for the Green Card application, one for the non-dom admin? Is he referring to the Workplace Well-being coping strategy known as The Stress Bucket?
No, he is talking pure Californian business school balls. The bizarre corporate use of “bucket” as a classification device or mental filing system has nothing in common with the “bucket list” which is a thing you tick off before you die. Though, on reflection, maybe Mr Sunak is touching on the right idea by accident here. If he doesn’t stop talking such rot it won’t be long before he will be kicking the bucket, politically speaking. @PhilipJCollins1
Jargon buster: Drive
Scores settled, bridges burned, time for Prince Harry to focus on his new organisation, Archewell. But what does Archewell actually do? The website reads: “We unleash the power of compassion to drive systemic cultural change.” Jargonistas love to drive — see also “drive results”, “drive performance”, “drive growth” and so on. And you can see why. It sounds racy, active. But it’s a cheap trick. “Drive” connotes action and forward motion while being so vague as to raise no expectations. Plus, it exaggerates. “Drive” suggests total control over the direction of something. That’s quite a claim to make of “systemic cultural change”, even if you are the world’s most famous couple. @AlexDymoke
Patients and understanding
Leveraging my skills as a key member of The Draft’s newsletter team, this morning I utilised Google to enhance my knowledge of the core effects of jargon in the workplace. Turns out corporate babble, beyond being profoundly irritating, is bad for business. It excludes the public. It diminishes trust. In many ways, across multiple industries, jargon harms performance.
But these effects are trivial compared to the damage wrought by medical jargon. A new study, which surveyed Americans’ understanding of medical terms, found patients struggle with health language. “Positive” and “negative” results are a particular source of confusion. As are acronyms. NPO, from the Latin nil per os (meaning “nothing by mouth”, i.e. no drinking or eating), was understood by only 11 percent of people. A fifth failed to grasp “your tumour is progressing”.
Into the void of misunderstanding flows suffering and substandard care. "If our patients don't understand what our treatment plan is or what we're asking them to do," warns the University of Minnesota’s Dr Michael Pitt, "we could be causing physical harm." Though the pandemic has improved medical literacy, the authors implore doctors to use plain English, particularly in the gravest cases. And to patients they say, don’t be shy: demand clarity. @AlexDymoke
A history of delivering
In his big speech, Rishi Sunak told us to judge him by five promises. But almost as striking as his five promises were 12 utterances of a single word: “deliver”. The modern “delivery” obsession began with Tony Blair. In 1995 as leader of the opposition he said Labour would “deliver what we promise” and “not promise what we cannot deliver”. But it was Blair’s focus on actually delivering, rather than merely using the word, that made it an effective message. In power, he installed a Delivery Unit, and some in the civil service teasingly christened this new obsession “deliverology”. The Unit’s founder Michael Barber wrote in his book Deliverology 101 of the “persistence, diligence and rigour” that underpinned this approach. Rishi will need all of this and more if endlessly repeating the word “deliver” is to deliver for him. @Zachdhardman
Language and beyond
“The calendar serves no purpose. There is no expected end, save the final end.” A short but haunting piece of writing from prisoner Jeffrey Shockley, who is serving a life sentence in Pennsylvania. Shockley is a star of the Prison Journalism Project, which teaches writing and journalism to the incarcerated.
Franz Kafka on the joys of milk.
Remarkable dispatch from the always excellent David Patrikarakos, who spent a year in a Ukrainian trench, a few miles from Russian positions.
The closure of Noma, one of the world’s most garlanded restaurants, warrants revisiting this excellent FT article from the summer, which exposed harsh and strange working conditions at the restaurant.
A fascinating New Yorker piece on verbal, visual and other styles of thinking.
A podcast where Economist journalists predict buzzwords and jargon that will flourish in 2023. Predictions include YIMBY (a person who supports new development where they live) and deadpool (a reservoir that can’t function thanks to a lack of water).
Veteran investor Terry Smith continued his lonely campaign against nonsensical corporate “purpose” statements in his annual letter to Fundsmith shareholders. Last year, taking aim at Unilever, he said “A company which feels it has to define the purpose of Hellmann’s mayonnaise has in our view clearly lost the plot.” This year he goes for soap brand Lux, whose purpose is apparently “Inspiring women to rise above everyday sexist judgements and express their beauty and femininity unapologetically.” With admirable restraint, Smith signs off: “I will leave you to draw your own conclusions about the utility of this.”
Read and watch Jennifer Coolidge's masterful, unfiltered acceptance speech at the Golden Globes (spoiler warning for HBO's The White Lotus).
Welcome James and Lizzie
This month we’re happy to welcome two brilliant new writers to The Draft. James joins from the Labour leader’s office, while Lizzie is days from completing her English literature PhD. Look out for their names, and glittering copy, in future editions of First Draft.
New from us
Zach’s meditation on Springsteen’s Nebraska
Phil on King Charles’s first Christmas speech
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Last thing…
At The Draft we’re specialists in writing and rhetoric. We help businesses and public figures make their case more persuasively. If you could use our help, get in touch. And if you enjoy First Draft, forward it on. Thanks for reading.