Originally circulated on 17 July 2020
Hi fellow Ruminants & Groupies in Lock Down Level 3
The inspiration for today’s Ruminant Pink Friday’s ™ submission comes from the Economist and is to do with objectivity and euphemisms. https://www.economist.com/books-and-arts/2020/07/15/how-objectivity-in-journalism-became-a-matter-of-opinion?utm_campaign=the-economist-today&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_source=salesforce-marketing-cloud&utm_term=2020-07-15&utm_content=article-link-1.
Objectivity is defined as the fact of being based on facts and not influenced by personal beliefs or feelings. I will take it as a given that it is a good thing to be objective. Let me ask you – Are you objective? Of course you are! The problem however is that other people often aren’t!
When we deal with difficult topics we like to start using complex language and to use euphemisms. A euphemism is a mild or indirect word or expression substituted for one considered to be too harsh or blunt when referring to something unpleasant or embarrassing. So we use words like restructuring or downsizing in place of retrenchments or head count reduction.
Can one tell the objective truth on the one hand and at the same time use a lot of euphemisms?
This week Bari Weiss, a Times editor, resigned, criticising what she said was the new consensus at the paper:
“that truth isn’t a process of collective discovery, but an orthodoxy already known to an enlightened few whose job is to inform everyone else.”
It is no coincidence that the densest crop of euphemisms centre on firing people. https://resources.workable.com/stories-and-insights/the-limits-of-euphemism
Bob Sutton, a professor of management science at Stanford, set himself and readers of his Work Matters blog the task of collating all the popular euphemisms deployed to let you know you’ve lost your job. He collected 24 and there is a palpable difference between the genteel or technocratic euphemisms that were spoken down from management to employees: where there is a “reduction in force” and organizations are “right-sized” or “simplified.” And the sideways euphemisms of colleagues who note that Harry was “shit-canned,” “whacked” or “walked out the door.”
Please keep the submission ideas flowing.
Regards
Bruce
Ruminant Pink Friday 