Definition

To delegate responsibility to someone else, ideally someone more junior who can't refuse. The art of making other people own your problems.

Example Usage

I'm going to assign this tedious task to the new intern.

Source: Corporate business terminology

Related Terms

Advanced

open kimono

To share information transparently with partners or stakeholders, using a culturally appropriated metaphor that HR desperately wishes would disappear.

💼 Corporate / Business
Beginner

diversify

To sprinkle variety into something like you're seasoning a bland corporate strategy, making it more palatable by adding different elements, perspectives, or investment types. In business and finance, it's the sacred principle of not putting all your eggs in one basket—whether that's hiring practices, product lines, or stock portfolios. The grown-up version of "mix it up a little."

💼 Corporate / Business
Beginner

bearings

In navigation and everyday parlance, your spatial orientation and sense of direction—where you are relative to everything else. It's the difference between confidently striding forward and wandering into a wall. Also, literally the mechanical gizmos that let your wheels spin without grinding to a halt.

💼 Corporate / Business
Intermediate

complement

That thing or person that makes something else better by completing it or improving it—the peanut butter to your jelly, the milk to your coffee. Not to be confused with a compliment, which is what you say to make someone feel good.

💼 Corporate / Business
Advanced

cone of uncertainty

A project management concept representing how forecast accuracy improves as you get closer to a deadline, visualized as a cone narrowing over time. It's why your six-month estimate is essentially a dart throw blindfolded.

💼 Corporate / Business
Beginner

proactive

The corporate buzzword meaning you're supposed to anticipate problems before they happen, rather than frantically fixing them afterward like a normal person. It's the opposite of 'reactive,' and using it in meetings makes you sound strategic even when you're just guessing about the future. Every manager wants proactive employees, preferably ones with actual psychic abilities.

💼 Corporate / Business

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See “assign” in Corporate Speak, Gen-Z Slang, Pirate Speak, and more.

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