84 per cent of Brits say that office jargon has infiltrated their personal lives during lockdown

17 November 2020, 08:21

Promoted by TalkTalk

As millions continue to work from home during the pandemic, it is no surprise the lines have become blurred between work and personal lives.

A huge 84 per cent of Brits have admitted that office jargon has become commonplace in their personal lives.

After months in lockdown and working from home becoming the new norm, is it any wonder we're losing the line between work talk and home talk?

Phrases that you'd hear regularly in the office like 'touching base', 'deep dive', and 'singing from the same hymn sheet' are now being heard more and more over the dinner table and around the home.

New research from TalkTalk has revealed just how much working from home is blurring the lines between colleague conversation and chats with your family and friends.

The poll found that the most common workplace jargon phrases being heard in the home are 'going forward', 'touch base', 'no brainer' and 'brainstorm'.

'Thinking outside the box', 'on the same page' and 'on my radar' were also among the phrases creeping into home life.

While the changes are not ideal, the research did find that only two-fifths of people find the transition of phrases annoying – however, this could be because 46 per cent of people admitted to doing it themselves.

As it turns out, there is a very good reason why we're merging our work and home lives at the moment.

Caroline Taggart, author of Misadventures in the English Language explained: “We pick up an expression at work or in the media and unconsciously begin using it ourselves.

"We’re stuck with it before we realise we’ve even adopted it, no matter where we are.

"Our lives are more blurred than ever and with no commute to help our brain switch from work-to-home mode, it’s no surprise we forget to ditch the jargon when we log off.”

TalkTalk have seen a 40 per cent increase in Internet usage this year as most of Britain set up office at home.

This rise is set to continue as they also saw a huge spike in network traffic on the first day of 'second lockdown'.

Usage last Thursday peaked at 6.46Tb/s – the equivalent to delivering 540 hours of HD video per second – which is significantly higher than the surge brought on by the start of the first lockdown in March.

Sian Doyle, TalkTalk Consumer Managing Director, said: "Many of us have discovered the benefits to more flexible working this year, although we may want to spare ourselves from all the office jargon at the dinner table.

"As the home office looks set to stay, we’re constantly striving to provide the UK’s home workers with fast, reliable connectivity that gives them the flexibility to work wherever they want in the home.

"Our new Homeworker package provides peace of mind for those who want to ‘touch base’ with colleagues over Zoom, without having to worry about the housemate’s Netflix binge or kid’s gaming marathon interrupting their internet connection.”

TalkTalk’s Homeworker package offers a separate business-grade fibre line into your home, which means, for those of you who want to ‘swim in your lanes’ or ‘hit the ground running’, you can rest assured knowing that your usage won’t interrupt your family’s, partner’s or housemate’s connection.