Wednesday, 6 February 2013
Issues
London Underground has come up with a new form of words to explain (or
not) 'minor delays' on its lines: they are invariably 'due to
operational issues'. You don't say so! The phrase really doesn't add an
awful lot to our understanding of the situation, does it - indeed, you
might well say that the 'minor delays' are themselves the 'operational
issues' here. 'Issues' is invariably a word used to - well, actually, to
dodge the issue. 'Issues' sound somehow easier to deal with than
problems or difficulties or (often the reality) cockups; issues can be
'addressed', they can be 'explored', and they have that endearing habit
of clustering 'around' things. I find it's a sound rule that, whenever
you hear someone using the phrase 'issues around', they have nothing
useful to say on whatever those issues are so companionably surrounding.
Meanwhile, I don't think anyone would feel they had been short-changed
if London Underground were just to report that there are 'minor delays'
and leave it at that.
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Once you have explored issues around things, you can always set a date many months hence for a meeting to explore how to address them. By that time, you'll have forgotten the issues around those things so you can explore them all over again, and set another date to discuss ways to address them. That way, many explored issues can remain, thankfully, unaddressed for years.
ReplyDeleteYour post made me laugh a lot. The issues you address in it are so gruesomely familiar.
Thanks Mary - I realise now how many 'jobs' involve precisely the process you describe. Not mine, happily...
ReplyDeleteEveryone is always around-ing things these days, it is particularly irritating at work. Let's have a meeting around issues around diversity, that sort of thing.
ReplyDeleteWhats really needed I'd suggest is a few clips 'around' the ear.
ReplyDeleteI find I sound more like my dad every day.
"Everyone is always around-ing things these days, it is particularly irritating at work. Let's have a meeting around issues around diversity, that sort of thing."
ReplyDeleteIt's very, very annoying - I suspect it originates from scribbling 'ideas' down on flip charts in 'workshops' (not workshops where anything is made or people get their hands dirty of course).
There's only one thing for it - we're going to have to have a meeting to address some of the issues around the issues raised in this post.
ReplyDeleteCan we just run through what were they again?
ReplyDeleteSorry Mary, I have issues around that - we'd best have a pre-meet to address them...
ReplyDeleteI'll bring the chocolate hobnobs.
ReplyDelete