The work environment requires not only for us to be polite but also use professional jargon that can be confusing and not quite necessary. But that’s just corporate culture and people go with the flow, creating over the top, politically correct ways of saying things that in real life would be said as bluntly as possible to make sure the other person got it.

Not all of us have the gift of coming up with intricate ways of hiding their true feelings behind layers of seemingly respectful words that couldn’t offend people, but we have our virtual work bestie to help us.

She created a fun TikTok series in which she gives her colleague some phrases to translate into professional jargon and it is quite impressive how a casual phrase filled with annoyance can be turned to something sounding so civil.

More info: TikTok

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Image credits: @loewhaley

The virtual work bestie, or loewhaley on TikTok and Instagram, is actually Laura Whaley, an IT consultant from Toronto, Canada. She now has 1.7 million people following her on TikTok and 1.4 million followers on Instagram.

On her social media, Laura is known for her work-related content. She started creating videos in 2020 when a lot of workers moved their offices to their homes and had to adapt to a new style of working. She based her videos on the challenges that rose from such a sudden change and people loved her sense of humor and relatability.

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Image credits: @loewhaley

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Image credits: @loewhaley

You could say that her most successful videos are the ones titled “How Do You Say” that turned into a full series. The videos are garnering millions of views and people are very impressed with the knowledge they get.

In this series, Laura sits in front of the computer and she asks her colleague who is on the call to translate various phrases into professional language to sound polite and not to offend anyone.

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Image credits: @loewhaley

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Image credits: @loewhaley

The colleague quickly comes up with witty and intricate phrases to express your frustrations, because we all think about them, but have to restrain ourselves from sounding them off as they are in our minds.

Not only does he make the phrases not sound mean and make you feel as if you're talking with an intelligent person, he also makes the sentences unnecessarily long. Molly Young, a writer for Vulture, says that “the point of these phrases is to fill space. No matter where I’ve worked, it has always been obvious that if everyone agreed to use language in the way that it is normally used, which is to communicate, the workday would be two hours shorter.”

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Image credits: @loewhaley

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Image credits: @loewhaley

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Image credits: @loewhaley

However, it is hard to not pick up such language in the workplace if it’s used there, even though people don’t really like it or even understand it all. Bored Panda has an article on various buzzwords people hate hearing at work and a couple of HR experts’ opinions on the topic.

It may be that people despise corporate language, but they love the videos as they show the absurdity of it all. They are also quite useful because sometimes you don’t have a choice but to adapt to the lingo that is common to use in a company.

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Image credits: @loewhaley

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Image credits: @loewhaley

The series has been going strong for quite a while and it seems that Laura won’t be running out of ideas because the comments are full of suggestions on what to translate next.

What do you think of these translations? Will you try and incorporate them in your own workplace? Which one was your favorite? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!