Boss thinks subordinate used ‘obscene language’ in customer notes. But was it? | Trending

In the gigantic world of corporate jargons and acronyms, misunderstandings can lead to unexpected situations. This is exactly what happened with an employee who used an acronym in their customer notes. Their supervisor’s lack of understanding of the term caused a major problem, however. She not only asked the employee to clarify what they meant the acronym over a team meeting but also told them that ‘obscenity wasn’t acceptable’. Boss warns her subordinate to not use ‘obscene language’ after failing to understand an acronym they used. (Representational Image: Pexels/fauxels) “My supervisor called me because I ‘used obscene language in shared customer notes’. She doesn’t know basic corporate acronyms,” the Reddit user ‘Flaky_Web’ wrote as the title of the post on the platform’s ‘antiwork’ community. In the next few lines, they shared how they tried to clarify the acronym, but the supervisor was not convinced. “All of this was done over a team meeting using a shared screen. She showed me a note in our company wide shared customer note system about a call I had with the customer. The note stated: ‘transferred call, fu, see drop in for additional info.’ She said she was having trouble understanding what I was trying to say. I bounced around different parts of the message, trying to clarify everything I could. And in my mind, I kept thinking that she couldn’t mean the FU. I laughed uncomfortably and said: I’m not sure what the issue is. She clarified that the obscenity wasn’t acceptable, and I asked her to point out the obscenity,” they wrote. They added, “I explained that FU you meant ‘follow up,’ and she claimed that I ‘came up with that answer really fast,’ and that she will have to double check that. She never brought it up again, I never signed anything, and she left the company a few months later.” They concluded the post adding that their job was threatened because their manager didn’t understand corporate acronyms. Take a look at the Redditor’s complete post about how their job was threatened over an acronym below: The post, which was shared two days ago on Reddit, has received over 14,000 upvotes. Additionally, the comments section was filled with people expressing their thoughts on the situation presented the Reddit user and sharing similar instances.Check out a few reactions to the Redditor’s ordeal here:“‘You came up with that answer really fast’ is reminding me of ‘you didn’t even check’ when I told someone we didn’t have any rooms available. You’re right, I didn’t check, because you’re the fifth person who’s asked me that in the last half hour, and the answer has not changed,” posted an individual. Another added, “Reminds me of the patient who got really angry after seeing his own chart, thought the doctor called him an SOB in the note. The patient had Shortness Of Breath.”“Used to handle training for partners. Used the acronym FAQ but often said it FACK. Was called into the principal’s office (heh) and chastised for using inappropriate language. Said multiple bankers complained. I was, so very confused. Looked at the partner ling, saw their geographic location and burst out in laughter. I said ‘did they accuse me of using the F word?’ She said ‘yes.’ I said ‘I used FAQ/FACK as in Frequently Asked Questions.’ She kind of paused, looked down at her desk and her face started turning red and she started chuckling. She said ‘well let’s use F-A-Q going forward’,” expressed a third.A fourth commented, “Had a boss that would write WTF on documents that had subpar results (missed frequency numbers, as an example); their acronym stood for Why The Failure. It turned heads, but also helped start the ball rolling in the direction of results.” “A client once called my boss because I requested a POC, point of contact, for a project. Client was very upset that I would only work with a ‘person of colour’,” joined a fifth. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Arfa Javaid is a journal working with the Hindustan Times’ Delhi team. She covers trending topics, human interest stories, and viral content online. …view detail