Corporate cliches
 
You don't have to be a rocket scientist to recognize that corporate America is a leading-edge recycler of tired phrases.
To avoid being left out of the linguistic loop when colleagues touch base with you, try working in a word or two from the Devil's Dictionary:

TEAM PLAYER
An employee who substitutes the thinking of the herd for his own good judgement.

VISION
Top management's heroic guess about the future, easily printed on mugs, T-shirts and posters.

PARADIGM SHIFT
A euphemism companies use when they realize the rest of their industry has expanded in Guangdong, while they were investing in Orange County.

RESTRUCTURING
A simple plan instituted from above in which workers are right-sized, downsized, surplused or, in the business jargon of yore, fired.

EMPOWERMENT
A magic wand management waves to help survivors of restructuring suddenly feel in control of their futures.