Definition

To discontinue or phase out a product, service, or project, using beautiful imagery to describe something dying. The corporate equivalent of taking your pet to 'a farm upstate.'

Example Usage

We're sunsetting the old platform next quarter, which is a fancy way of saying we're pulling the plug.

Origin

Tech industry euphemism from the 1990s

Fun Fact

Products being 'sunsetted' are rarely mourned, except by the one customer still using it who will email angrily for years.

Source: Product lifecycle management terminology

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The corporate verb for bribing people with rewards to do what you want, because "motivate" sounded too human and "bribe" too honest. It's the art of dangling carrots—usually cash, equity, or pizza parties—to make employees enthusiastic about objectives they'd otherwise ignore. Management loves this word because it makes manipulation sound like science.

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When something returns to bite you in ways you didn't anticipate, usually referring to strategies, policies, or decisions that backfire spectacularly. In HR and employment, it's also an employee who left the company only to return later, often for more money. The corporate equivalent of "I told you so" in physical form.

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competitive moat

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