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Ask A Manager: Our new strategy name is a sex act
First question at the link
My sister has a conundrum I would love your take on. The director of her division has recently revealed its priorities for 2022, and one is to enact a new pricing strategy.
The division director has named this strategy “soft pegging.” My sister has now seen multiple PowerPoints with this term. Lots of (mostly) younger workers at the company who know what it means are making fun of it. They keep saying at meetings that it is their favorite strategy yet and they want to get t-shirts for it.
Some of her other colleagues want to speak up, but are worried to say anything because this director is known to take feedback poorly. Also, my sister doesn’t believe the director’s colleagues, who are mostly older, even know what it means.
She just found out that the term might be presented at the company’s other offices nationwide. Should she say anything? On the one hand, it could make her division look bad, but clearly there are communication issues at the company given that the hundreds of people in her division and office are too scared to mention it.
In normal circumstances, yes, someone should speak up! In fact, someone should have spoken up as soon as it was clear that the term was being used. It wouldn’t need to be a big deal — just “that term has a highly X-rated meaning — we should find another name.”
Even with a director who takes feedback badly, I’d still advise speaking up! “This term has another meaning that we should be aware of” isn’t particularly challenging feedback, and even people who take feedback badly would generally appreciate knowing. But if the director has cultivated an environment of so much fear that no one is willing to do it … well, that’s what happens when you manage by fear: you lose access to important information when people suspect they’ll suffer for sharing it. If that’s the case, though, then your sister’s coworkers should stop making fun of the name, proposing t-shirts, etc. — because if at some point the director figures out that they all knew, that’s likely to be a problem too.
My sister has a conundrum I would love your take on. The director of her division has recently revealed its priorities for 2022, and one is to enact a new pricing strategy.
The division director has named this strategy “soft pegging.” My sister has now seen multiple PowerPoints with this term. Lots of (mostly) younger workers at the company who know what it means are making fun of it. They keep saying at meetings that it is their favorite strategy yet and they want to get t-shirts for it.
Some of her other colleagues want to speak up, but are worried to say anything because this director is known to take feedback poorly. Also, my sister doesn’t believe the director’s colleagues, who are mostly older, even know what it means.
She just found out that the term might be presented at the company’s other offices nationwide. Should she say anything? On the one hand, it could make her division look bad, but clearly there are communication issues at the company given that the hundreds of people in her division and office are too scared to mention it.
In normal circumstances, yes, someone should speak up! In fact, someone should have spoken up as soon as it was clear that the term was being used. It wouldn’t need to be a big deal — just “that term has a highly X-rated meaning — we should find another name.”
Even with a director who takes feedback badly, I’d still advise speaking up! “This term has another meaning that we should be aware of” isn’t particularly challenging feedback, and even people who take feedback badly would generally appreciate knowing. But if the director has cultivated an environment of so much fear that no one is willing to do it … well, that’s what happens when you manage by fear: you lose access to important information when people suspect they’ll suffer for sharing it. If that’s the case, though, then your sister’s coworkers should stop making fun of the name, proposing t-shirts, etc. — because if at some point the director figures out that they all knew, that’s likely to be a problem too.
Re: true story