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    Employee builds app to track how many times coworker says 'circling back' in meetings: 'Recently [he said it] 23 times in a 56 minute sync'

    Corporate jargon is everywhere… we will be circling back for all eternity.

    You all know that type of language. It's somewhere in between professional and friendly, and it has a way of sounding really hollow. We're putting a pin in it, we're synergizing, we're looping you in, and we're doing it all cross-functionally. It's a whole other language, and if you don't know how to speak it, it can feel like you're being left behind. But all of that jibber-jabber grates on your ears after some time. It's easy to feel powerless in a work environment- like you're being made to put up with all sorts of nonsense that you wouldn't tolerate on your own time. It's the sacrifice of the working person. But there are a few ways to make the day go by a little bit faster, and sometimes you need that. 

    Office pranks can range from harmless to career-ending. You should be allowed to have a little bit of fun to make life more interesting, but there's not always a great way to do that. There is a fine line between pranking and being mean, and you should avoid the latter at all costs. You would hate to create a hostile work environment for anyone else, even if that person deserved to be called out. There are proper channels and alleys to deal with that kind of situation, and prank is not one of them. What the person did in this story, though, was somewhere in between. 

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    • A man laughs holding his phone up to a room
      via Vitaly Gariev

      Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

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    • I built an app to track how many time my coworkers says 'circling back' in meetings. Now whole office uses it

      so there is a guy at work. lets call him K K says "circling back" constantly in every meeting. sometimes twice in the same sentence. "so just circling back on that, before we circle back to the main point." i started noticing it maybe 4 months ago and now i cannot unhear it. it has ruined meetings for me entirely
      via Echo-Forge
    • so as a joke, purely for my own amusement, I vibe coded a mini wabi app in 10 mins. every time K says "circling back" i tap the screen. It tracks daily counts, shows me a weekly graph, gives me a personal best notification I showed two colleagues mistake
      via Echo-Forge
    • they immediately wanted to use it too, i shared the link. Not a big deal right within two days there were 9 of us silently tapping our phones every time K spoke. we have a group chat now. someone made a weekly leaderboard for highest count. someone else added a feature request for "to be honest" because apparently kate from finance says it 11 times a meeting and felt left out
      via Echo-Forge
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    • Recently K said "circling back" 23 times in a 56 minute sync we nearly lost it,, someone had to fake a coughing fit the problem is i now look forward to meetings like genuinely. i check the group chat during calls. we celebrate new personal bests. K said "circling back" at 9:07am yesterday and i got three notifications within seconds
      via Echo-Forge
    • i built an app to cope with an annoying habit and accidentally made meetings the best part of my workday K will never know.I feel both terrible and completely at peace with this Would love to add screenshots but seems like this sub doesn't allow that
      via Echo-Forge
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    • TL;DR: Built an app-to count how many times my coworker says "circling back" in meeting and now while office uses it and it became a hot topic
      via Echo-Forge
    • A group of people sit around a white table in an office
      via Edi Kurniawan

      Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

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    • Commenters wondered if there might be more going on here.

      IHaveTheBestOpi... K is going to find out. If 9+ people are using this thing, he's either going to see it on someone's screen or someone is going to spill the beans. I give it like a week. Hopefully he's the kind of guy that will find it funny, but if not, you should be prepared for the fallout. It's going to circle back to you.
      via IHaveTheBestOpinions
    • sudomatrix > K will never know Narrator: "K will, in fact, know."
      via sudomatrix

    • This worker saw a perfect opportunity to call out a certain funny behavior of his coworker. The way he saw it, he was poking a little bit of fun at something that needed making fun of. The way some commenters saw it, he was creating undue stress in the workplace, and a potentially sticky situation if word got out. But even though it singled out one employee, it brought the rest of them together, something that is not easy to do. Keep scrolling to get a full picture of the story and see what you think about it. Then let us know your take in the comments.

    • Call_Me_ZG Bigger F.U. than you realize. They're going to find out soon enough, and while it started off as harmless, once shared it's borderline workplace bu ying. You're completely at the mercy of how well they take it.
      via Call_Me_ZG
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    • Muroid K will never know No, you hope K never finds out. We've already established that both you and the rest of your office is sh at keeping things a secret.
      via Muroid
    • propostor At least "circling back" sounds somewhat sane. At my work I cannot stand people using the word "steer" to mean confirmation/guidance/instru ction. "Just waiting for steer from management before we go. forward" Every d in day.
      via propostor
    • Ok-disaster2022 Dude, just delete the app immediately. What you're doing could be considered bu ying and creating a hostile work environment. It's not if but when he finds out. And if he has any kind of problem and reports you to HR you're gonna be SOL. You'd probably just get written up and be the first on the list when it comes time for layoffs.
      via Ok-disaster2022
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    • Dude_with_the_... When that guy finds out (and he will) you're either going to be known as the work-clown a h le forever or you'll just be fired depending on his reaction. Personally, I laugh at myself with others all the time but if I found out someone made
      via Dude_with_the_skis
    • an app to track when I say a certain word so I could be made fun of behind my back I'd be p ed. What you're doing is essentially bu ying a guy you work with.
      via Dude_with_the_skis
    • spesimen it feels like every office i've worked in had some random catchphrase that somebody said a lot that ended up everybody saying. at the last one it was 'leaning into <thing>'. one prior to that had everybody saying they needed 'buy in' instead of approval or thumbs up or whatever lol.
      via spesimen
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    • Cluelessish That doesn't sound like a nice work environment for K, though. He will never know? You can't be sure about that. And either way, he must for sure notice that a whole bunch of you are acting weird when he's talking. It could make anyone feel paranoid. You guys kind of s k for doing this.
      via Cluelessish
    • sudomatrix See, I did something like this and I didn't get fired because the first and only one I showed it to was THE PERSON himself as a minor tease. I left it up to them if they wanted to share it with others.
      via sudomatrix
    • iama_bad_person Wow. If you think the only fallout from this "f up" is other people annoyingly use your app, then I can't wait to see what you post when you are eventually fired.
      via iama_bad_person
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    • f... "I shared the link. No big. deal right" It baffles me how out of touch with common sense this is Imao. I think everyone pokes fun at their coworkers sometimes, you note their quirks, maybe mention it to a work friend and laugh, whatever.
      via fynrik
    • You went out of your way to make an APP to mock a coworker. Then shared it with multiple people. And made a secret group chat to gamify making fun of a coworker. Good luck dude. I can't imagine finding out someone created a whole
      via fynrik
    • a app to pick apart what I was saying. It wouldn't crush me but it would definitely make me uncomfortable to know that's what everyone was doing behind my back while I was just trying to get through the d in work day.
      via fynrik
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    • CnaiuUrsSkiotha Workplace bu ying and you're holding the smoking g in. Hr salivates for this kind of thing given they do nothing but look for ways to look relevant and important
      via CnaiuUrsSkiotha

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    Tags

    corporate corporate jargon toxic-workplace job work coworkers working coding workplace App
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