My boss talks in corporate-speak riddles. Am I obliged to join in?

Each week, Dr Kirstin Ferguson tackles questions on the workplace, career and leadership in her advice column “Got a Minute?” This week: circling back on corporate speak, rants from an ultra-conservative boss and a confusing back pay.

I recently started a new role in a consulting firm after 20 years in a different corporate field. My new manager has an unfortunate tendency to over-use corporate speak, which confuses me and our clients. Do I mirror his language to ingratiate myself with him, or do maintain my pledge to speak in plain English at work, and risk him thinking I am a simpleton?

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Speak plainly. Say what you mean, be understood clearly by those you work with, and never, I repeat, never, use corporate speak like you are playing a game of buzzword bingo. Far from you sounding like a simpleton, I assure you the smartest people in the room speak so that others understand what they are saying.

I am going to go out on a limb and suggest your manager may be feeling insecure about how little he actually knows and the corporate speak is a way for him to try and appear smarter than he is. Little does he realise it just makes him sound like a muppet, and more than that, makes him ineffective. If clients and employees have no idea what he is talking about he isn’t doing well as a manager anyway. So, to repeat, stick to plain English, always.

I’ve been in my new role for seven months and have come to discover my manager is very right wing and shares his take on trans people, climate change, First Nations rights, and the rest, as though it is gospel. Other team members fall over themselves to agree with him and prop up his deluded views, but I just stay quiet. Is this the right thing to do? The people who agree with him have been promoted or favoured, but the people who disagree or stay silent are given less favourable work and no career growth. I’ve never discussed such topics in the office, nor do I want to, but I feel uncomfortable with his rants.

I don’t blame you for feeling uncomfortable and frankly, your working environment sounds pretty unpleasant. Regardless of his views, sharing the same views as the boss should not be a pre-condition for promotion. He is, of course, entitled to have an opinion on whatever he likes, but he is not entitled to discriminate, vilify, harass or bully people at work over his views. It sounds like his comments may potentially be breaching workplace laws – or at least be skirting the edges – and it needs to stop. I realise this will be difficult, but you might like to see what your workplace policies say about this kind of behaviour and make a complaint before it escalates further. If you are feeling uncomfortable, there are sure to be others who feel the same way.

I’m a shift worker and one of my colleagues discovered we were being incorrectly paid some of our shift penalties. He successfully fought the company, with the assistance of the Fair Work Ombudsman, and recovered his back pay. The company sent individual letters to all employees impacted, which included a lump sum payment to offset the underpayments. I don’t trust the company and I have asked for a breakdown of how they came to the amount. So far, they have ignored my request. Am I entitled to this information?

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