Working in turnarounds can be hard work. Tensions often run high and it is easy to find yourself in a business meeting trying to explain something by providing that perfect comparison, only to realise, just after the words have come out, that it has gone completely wrong.
Oxygen presents the best mixed metaphors and linguistic lapses overheard by the Endless staff over the last few months. Interestingly, most of them originate from the same member of our team - though we could not possibly divulge who...
“It’s all smoke and daggers” - as a confusing situation turns dangerous.
“It’s like a three sided triangle” - to distinguish it, clearly, from those non-three-sided triangles in the marketplace...
“It’s the 80/30 rule” - because sometimes, 100% just isn’t good enough.
“It’s six of one and seven of the other” - for where a choice isn’t actually 50:50...
“There’s more than one way to skin a chicken” - as pet owners look for alternatives to their beloved animals in the world of idiom.
“Let’s have a catch up to catch up” - as we begin to border on “blue-sky” thinking and similar “management speak” nonsense.
“It’s like herding sheep” - presumably meaning a very easy task?
“Pick any number from the alphabet” - presumably meaning a very hard task?
“He’s a wolf in cheap clothing” - possibly referring to a sharp dealer in poorly fitting tailoring?
“It’s not rocket surgery” - raising the question, of course, of which part of a rocket could you operate on?