It was Friday afternoon.
My manager posted a message in Teams about a feature in our CRM.
Apparently, it was “nifty.”
A couple of colleagues had a question.
“WHAT’S NIFTY?”
🤣
Oh.
We’ve got a generational vocabulary gap.
Naturally, I did what any responsible professional would do.
I Googled it.
What’s the Gen Z equivalent of nifty?
According to Google, the answer was “fire.”
Excellent.
I took a screenshot and shared it with the team.
TRANSLATION: MANAGEMENT THINKS THIS CRM FEATURE IS FIRE.
😂
Then I messaged my manager privately.
“Don’t worry, I’ve got your back. We’ll just be old people over here in the corner.”
🤣
Everyone had a laugh.
Just a little Friday afternoon humour.
But it got me thinking.
How many different languages do we actually speak at work?
Every profession has its terminology.
Every department has its acronyms.
Every team develops its own shorthand.
And sometimes, when you’re moving between teams, you realise you’ve been speaking an entirely different language without noticing.
There’s nothing wrong with having your own vocabulary.
It’s useful.
It’s part of how teams work together.
But I wonder how often we forget that someone new might not have the dictionary yet.
Not because anyone is deliberately excluding them.
Just because we forget that the words we use every day aren’t necessarily familiar to everyone else.
And sometimes, making someone feel included is as simple as translating a word.
Or explaining an acronym.
Or admitting that you have absolutely no idea what someone just said.
😂
Because you don’t necessarily need everyone to use the same words.
You just need everyone to understand each other.
And occasionally…
YOU NEED TO EXPLAIN TO MANAGEMENT THAT THEIR CRM IS FIRE.
🤣