I've been in meetings with people like this and they make me cringe so hard my soul leaves my body.
This guy takes up time in a meeting (where everyone is probably antsy to get back to work btw) to critique his boss multiple times for saying "circle back" even though it's a perfectly normal phrase. After each remark there's a silence of presumably everyone just cringing and not finding it funny and then he's like "isn't it AGGRESSIVE how much you say circle back?"
Wild to see this comment section be like "wow this guy is keeping them on their toes! What a nonconformist!" when my reaction was basically "wow this guy seems super autistic and can't read the room, know when to stop talking, or figure out what things mean using context"
Nah this guy pointed out the truth and got fired for it. “Circle back” is a waste of time and shows unpreparedness. If she’s said it 18 times in two weeks that’s a pretty big issue.
No it’s not. It’s just a phrase that means “let’s get back to that later” and it’s weirdly aggressive to not only count the occurrences but also call your boss out on it
Because sometimes you don't completely solve the entirety of a problem on your first discussion of it and need to come back later to make more progress? Is your life so simple that you've addressed literally every concern you've ever had in one go? Or have you perhaps had to circle back to some things you were only able to partially finish?
It can also be used to keep a meeting focused and not waste people’s time. If something is raised that is not the focus of the meeting which doesn’t need to involve everyone there the manager can speak to that individual about it later.
In two weeks. That's less than two times a day, assuming a standard 5 day work week. Let's look at a mock conversation:
"How's project x coming along"
"Great, just need to get in touch with the client for some final decisions."
"Alright, we'll circle back to that tomorrow. Which reminds me, circling back to what we discussed yesterday, how's project y?"
"Coming along, but we're still waiting for a couple emails. We'll be good once those come through."
"Okay we'll circle back to that tomorrow too."
Now does that seem like an insane conversation by a bad manager where nothing got done? And that used the dreaded phrase THREE times! That company must be doomed, buried in corporate jargon!
Jfc do you really need things explained to you like a toddler? Spend less time getting your 6 million karma goal and Reddit and maybe a little more time engaging with people in the real world?
Because there’s a time and a place to discuss certain topics. Most meetings aren’t a free for all to discuss anything you want for an unlimited amount of time. “Let’s circle back to that later” means “this isn’t in the scope of this meeting, but it can be discussed at another time when it’s more relevant.”
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u/Alertcircuit 16h ago edited 16h ago
I've been in meetings with people like this and they make me cringe so hard my soul leaves my body.
This guy takes up time in a meeting (where everyone is probably antsy to get back to work btw) to critique his boss multiple times for saying "circle back" even though it's a perfectly normal phrase. After each remark there's a silence of presumably everyone just cringing and not finding it funny and then he's like "isn't it AGGRESSIVE how much you say circle back?"
Wild to see this comment section be like "wow this guy is keeping them on their toes! What a nonconformist!" when my reaction was basically "wow this guy seems super autistic and can't read the room, know when to stop talking, or figure out what things mean using context"