Do you have any idea what “boiling the ocean” means? If you’re confused, you’re not alone. In a new survey of 8,000 professionals across eight different countries, many workers around the world did not know what it meant either.
“Boiling the ocean” was the most confusing office jargon for U.S. and Australian workers polled by Duolingo and LinkedIn in May, according to findings they released this week.
Hope Wilson, a senior learning and language curriculum expert at Duolingo who was involved in the survey’s development, said the phrase provides an example of the complex meanings that business language can have, depending on where you work.
“The most common definition of the phrase ‘boiling the ocean’ is taking on a task that’s far too large or ambitious to be reasonable. It’s generally something to be avoided,” she said.
“However, a friend of mine who’s a lawyer told me that at her firm, they identify particular arguments for the cases they’re working on as being worth ‘boiling the ocean’ for — meaning they exhaustively research case law to provide thorough support. So for them, it’s actually a good thing!”
In other words, just because you know how to wield a term at one company doesn’t mean it will translate to another.
“Even if you learn a piece of jargon in one place, you might still be out of luck if you change jobs,” Wilson said.
Whether you hate them or love them, business buzzwords are here to stay. See which ones are the most likely to secretly baffle your colleagues, according to the new survey:
The Top 3 Most Confusing Business Terms Around The World
U.S.
1. “Boiling the ocean.”
2. “Herding cats.”
3. “Ducks in a row.”
U.K.
1. “Blue sky thinking.”
2. “COP/EOP/EOD.”
3. “Low-hanging fruit.”
India
1. “Keep me in the loop.”
2. “Take offline.”
3. “Win-win situation.”
Australia
1. “Boiling the ocean.”
2. “Noodling.”
3. “Low-hanging fruit.”
Brazil
1. “Feedback.”
2. “Networking.”
3. “ASAP.”
Colombia
1. “By EOD.”
2. “ASAP.”
3. “KPI.”
Japan
1. “バジェット” (budget).
2. “ASAP.”
3. “アジェンダ” (agenda).
Vietnam
1. “FYI.”
2. “KPI.”
3. “Low-hanging fruit.”
In the survey, English-language buzzwords were some of the top ones listed, even in countries where English is not the dominant language. That’s not surprising to language researchers.
“English is a global lingua franca, meaning that it’s used for communication in situations where two people do not share their primary language,” Wilson explained. “So, let’s say a Japanese speaker meets a Spanish speaker at an international conference — they’ll typically use English to get acquainted and talk about their respective companies.”
It also helps to understand why professionals use jargon in the first place: It’s not about intentionally confusing your co-workers, but more about fitting in.
“Jargon is commonly used to ‘show off’ in professional contexts, especially for nonnative English speakers,” said Zachariah Brown, an assistant professor who researches jargon at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
“It’s a de facto status signal. And it’s well-documented in qualitative studies that speaking better English in international companies gets a person higher respect, status, opportunities, better appraisals of their competence.”
Brown also said that acronyms may be frequently named as confusing culprits because they are “the least forgiving form of jargon for those who don’t know the terms.”
“Not only are they foreign words, they are abbreviations of foreign words that also embody concepts,” Brown said. “So there are three levels: ‘EOD,’ ‘end of day,’ and the concept of ‘by the conclusion of your working hours on this specific date.’ So this is much more cognition required than a word in their local language.”
But should the goal be to get rid of jargon completely? Not necessarily. Consider “boiling the ocean” as an example. Brown said that as he understands it, the phrase is used frequently in the northeastern U.S. for referencing a consulting project’s aim to judiciously focus on a few important issues.
“How could you express this concept with more clarity? Well, if you’re talking to a consultant in New York City, then you can’t!” Brown said. “Those three words are the most efficient way to express the concept with maximum fluency and minimum time, because that term is commonly used for them.”
This speaks to both the fun and frustration with business buzzwords. It can be efficient to have a quick shorthand when you know the jargon, and it can be isolating and alienating when you do not.
So don’t assume that your colleague automatically knows what “boiling the ocean” means. They may be nodding their head, but inside they might be totally bewildered by what you just said.