How to Write the Perfect Thanksgiving Message to Colleagues

Sure, Thanksgiving is about feasting, but let’s not forget its other main theme: gratitude.

This is the perfect time to show your appreciation for the awesome people in your life— especially those patient folks you spend your days working alongside!

Consider taking a few minutes this holiday season to write your favorite coworkers a Thanksgiving message letting them know how much you appreciate them.

Whether it’s your goofy friend who cracks you up during meetings…

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…or the teammate who keeps you motivated (no matter how absurd office life gets)…

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…or the coworker who seriously came through for you, helping you finish that important project when you were struggling…

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…everyone appreciates a word of thanks.

So give it a try—read on to learn our favorite tips for how to write the perfect Thanksgiving message to your colleagues!

1Know Your Audience

How do you and your coworkers usually communicate? Do you chat it up on Slack? Text on the reg? Email like it’s 1999?

If GIF-offs with your office BFF are the norm, writing a ten-page essay extolling his or her excellence might seem a little odd. Sending a fun note with a GIF or meme via your normal communication channel will be the better plan.

On the other hand, if a relationship with a colleague is more formal, a thoughtful email or handwritten note may be well received.

2Make It Personal

The perfect Thanksgiving message will highlight something specific you appreciate about your colleague. We all struggle with imposter syndrome, so it can mean a lot to someone to know they really are seen and valued!

Let them know how their sunny (or sour!) disposition helps you get through the day, how their fashion style is an inspiration, or how their copywriting skills are wondrous to behold.

Thank them for ruthlessly keeping meetings as short as possible, for having your back in office politics, or for their amazing work on the last team project.

3Short and Sweet: How to Write a Quick Thanksgiving Note

Want to send a quick thank you note to your colleague? Make it funny, sweet, or encouraging (whatever the recipient will enjoy the most) and send via the usual channel (email, Slack, text, Facebook, etc.).

BONUS: Include a GIF or meme they’ll find entertaining, or a photo of a fun office memory together.

Here are some examples of quick Thanksgiving notes:

Linda, thanks for always having my back, telling it like it is, and sharing your secret stash of snacks with me. Office mates forever!

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Is it too much to say “you keep me sane”? Thanks for being an incredible colleague and human being!

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Thanks for always shaking things up. Here’s to another year of office shenanigans!

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It’s safe to say we’ve been through a lot together. : ) Thanks for always knowing how to put things into perspective (and for having way more chill than me). I’m so thankful to have you on my team!

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It’s been a crazy year, but you’ve risen to the challenge with aplomb! We could not have pulled off the product rebrand without your expertise—I feel truly lucky to work with you. Thanks again for going above and beyond!

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4Formal and Heartfelt: How to Write a Thanksgiving Message

A more formal message may be appropriate for a superior, a subordinate, or someone who seriously came through for you. You can email this type of message or preferably handwrite it in a card.

Here are some examples of how to structure a thank you message:

Dear [Name],

This year has been a wild ride, and I want to let you know just how much I appreciate your work on [project or tasks]. You’ve done an incredible job, and your support has been a huge part of our success. I’m so thankful to have you as a teammate and look forward to working with you in the new year.

Happy Thanksgiving!

[Your Name]

Dear [Name],

Since Thanksgiving is the perfect opportunity to say “thank you,” I want to let you know how much your guidance and support has meant to me this year. I truly appreciate how you’ve taken the time to invest in me, and how your encouragement has helped me grow into my new role. Thank you for being an amazing mentor.

Happy Thanksgiving!

[Your Name]

Other Fun Ways to Thank Your Colleagues

• Bring Goodies: Show your appreciation by bringing in treats your crew will love (donuts, cupcakes, fruit kebabs, bacon).
• Make a Thank You Wall: Decorate a whiteboard or wall in your office and invite your coworkers to post their Thanksgiving messages using sticky notes.
• Treat Them: If a coworker really came through for you this year, take them out to lunch (or coffee, or drinks, or ice cream!).
• Out-of-Office Message: Thank everyone, colleagues and clients alike, by setting up a fun Thanksgiving-themed auto-responder.

What will you do to thank your colleagues this Thanksgiving?

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7 Essential Time Management Skills That Will Improve Your Life

Time is the great equalizer—everybody gets the same twenty-four hours each day. Making productive use of that time can mean the difference between getting things done and scrambling to keep up. These time management tips will help you streamline your day and work smarter.

1Do a time audit.

Do you get to the end of every workday and wonder where the time went? Maybe you wonder why you didn’t manage to accomplish as much as you’d hoped you would. You could be wasting more time than you realize. There may well be a discrepancy between how you think you spend your time and how you actually spend it. A time audit can be an eye-opener!

Here’s a simple method for conducting a time audit.

• Get some sort of timer that you can set to go off every thirty minutes. (The alarm app on your phone could do the trick.)
• Begin the timer and go about your day. Try not to think about the timer—just let it run quietly in the background.
• When the timer goes off, write down what you’re doing at that very moment. Be honest! If you’re checking Facebook or sending your best friend a funny text, own up to it.
• Set the timer for another thirty minutes and repeat the process until the end of your day.
• Review how you’ve spent your time. How often were you caught doing something that wasn’t productive?

Try conducting an audit every day for a week to get a good overview of how you’re spending your time. (You can vary the time between check-ins so that you don’t begin to anticipate the alarm going off every thirty minutes.) If you find that you’ve been spending too much time checking your email, scrolling through your social media feed, or chatting with co-workers, you’ll know exactly where you have to make adjustments.

2Block out distractions

Now that you have a better idea of what’s distracting you, it’s time to block that thing out. If social media is your downfall, for instance, try a productivity app that blocks online distractions. FocusMe, Cold Turkey, and SelfControl are a few available options. If you’re working on a writing project, try going into fullscreen mode to prevent yourself from opening tabs or answering desktop notifications.

Speaking of notifications, turn them off. Unless it’s critical to your job, odds are good you don’t need to be alerted every time a new email comes in or someone interacts with you on social media.

3Schedule yourself

Worrying about how you’ll fit all your tasks into the average workday can put a serious strain on your productivity. When we’re stressed, we struggle to stay productive, which can lead us to work longer hours to meet deadlines. Who needs that?

To-do lists can become overwhelming if you’ve got a lot to accomplish. Instead, use your favorite calendar tool (or even a good old-fashioned datebook) to schedule yourself. You might set aside an hour for answering emails, two for researching and outlining that important report for next week’s meeting, one for a lunch date with a colleague, and so on. If you have a shared corporate calendar, all the better. You can remind your colleagues to interrupt you only when absolutely necessary if you have time blocked off for important tasks. (See tip five!)

You’ll be surprised what time blocking will do for your productivity. For example, if you’re in the habit of answering emails as they come in, you may well be interrupting your own workflow to do it. That means that after you’ve dropped everything to answer that email, you’ll have to take extra time to reorient yourself to the task you’d been working on before it came in. Scheduling yourself allows you to set your priorities in advance and avoid being distracted by less important matters.

4Avoid multitasking

You may think you’re good at multitasking, but odds are you’re wrong. When you divide your focus between tasks, you’re actually diverting attention from one task to another and using more brain bandwidth. You’ll perform better if you give your full attention to one task at a time.

Grouping similar tasks can also keep you in the right mindset. You might, for instance, group your writing tasks together and do them during one particular block of time. Administrative tasks can fall into another time block. Need to be active on social media? Cool. Block time for using a scheduler like Buffer to queue up your posts for the day so you won’t feel the constant need to check in.

Here’s a tip: Keep a small notebook handy when you’re working. When you suddenly remember another task you need to do (“Whoops! Did I schedule my electric bill payment?”), jot it down. That way, you won’t forget that important thing, but you won’t interrupt your jam, either.

5Insist that others respect your time.

You know that meeting you were asked to attend that had almost no relevance to you? The one where you had nothing to contribute? That’s an hour of your time you’ll never get back. Get out of those do-nothing meetings. Every meeting should have to justify its existence, and every meeting organizer should have to justify your required attendance, especially if not attending the meeting would ultimately make you more productive.

The same goes for chatty coworkers. You have a right to work time free from unnecessary interruptions, so ask for it. You could say something like “I have a lot of trouble concentrating sometimes, and interruptions take me out of the flow when I’m working. Could we save chit-chat for when we’re off the clock?”

6Keep your “call to action” in mind.

What do you want to get out of that phone call you’re about to make or that meeting you’re about to schedule? You need to know what you’re asking for, or at least what you hope to achieve, before you dive in. Otherwise, you’ll end up spending time in conversations and meetings that aren’t ultimately productive.

Take a few minutes after meetings and phone calls to reflect on whether you achieved the outcome you were hoping for. If you didn’t, plan your next steps so you can attain it. You’ll be more prepared when the opportunity to address the issue comes around again.

7Get enough down time and rest.

Taking a break when it’s crunch time may seem counterproductive, but one study found that lack of sleep is costing the U.S. workforce $411 billion annually. You’re not at your best when you’re sleep-deprived.

And don’t shy away from taking your vacation time. Skipping vacation is actually bad for your health. Not only that, but taking time to relax can make you more productive. When you’re well rested and refreshed, you’re far more likely to tackle your tasks with focus and enthusiasm.

Now, go out there and get things done!

Why Grammar Matters in Your Content Marketing

If you’re trying to market your brand or sell a product, a grammatical mistake or typo can hold you back from success. Find out how it can hinder you (with funny pictures for proof), why it matters, and what you can do to ensure clean copy.

What do typos do to your messaging?

A few spelling and grammatical errors won’t necessarily prevent people from buying your product. But a writing mistake, even a forgotten letter, can contradict what you’re trying to prove to your customers.

Sometimes, an error can be downright scandalous.

And, to be fair, it can also be pretty hilarious.

We’re not saying a single typo is going to destroy your business. But if you’re a content marketer, advertiser, brand-specific blogger, social media specialist, or other kind of marketing professional, keeping your content crisp and clean can help you maintain your clients’ trust.

Why care about grammar in marketing?

Typos can decrease potential customers’ trust in you and in your product. If you’re not careful in your writing, clients, competitors, and investors might worry (consciously or subconsciously) that you do sloppy work. After all, if you didn’t bother to check for grammar and spelling errors, how can anyone be sure you’ll deliver on other elements of your company’s promise?

That goes whether you’re writing blog posts, tweets, snaps, Facebook updates, or something as antique as a sign or billboard: you’ll have credibility with customers and critics alike if you keep your copy as pristine as whatever you’re selling. Sure, you’re likely to sound more informal in a tweet than in a blog post, for instance, but even if you’re using colloquial turns of phrase to appeal to social media–minded readers, you can still run spell-check and keep your eye out for errors.

In the end, it doesn’t matter whether a mistake is picked up by a few avid grammar spotters or whether it’s risqué enough to make it into a list of worst offenders; if you can avoid making the error, then avoid it.

Case in point: if a politician’s publicity team can’t spell “America,” chances are, voters won’t want him to run it. That’s the power of careful communications.

Where’s the proof?

With the aim of shedding more light on the importance of clear and correct content marketing, the Grammarly team decided to do a little test. We looked at official posts on several companies’ LinkedIn profiles to see which companies paid most attention to accuracy in spelling, grammar, and punctuation. For added fun, we focused on big brand battles. Here’s one example:

In the worldwide cola competition, Coke beats Pepsi with 0.9 mistakes per 100 words, vs. Pepsi’s 3.6 mistakes per 100 words. Fun fact: Coke also beats Pepsi’s market share by a margin of 42% to 31%.

Is that all because of grammar? Not necessarily. (And to be fair, Pepsi has Coke beat on income because of its wider range of products.) With big-name brands like these, the source of success can’t be boiled down to one issue—even an issue as salient as grammar. But brands project professionalism and gain credibility based on how they communicate, and communicating properly can lead to great gains—especially if you’re not already raking in the billions like both Pepsi and Coke. To learn about the typo count for Facebook vs. Google and Ford vs. GM, check out Grammarly’s full article and infographic about the battle of the brands.

How can you avoid the typo trap?

The million-dollar question: how can you succeed where others have failed? Short of becoming a superhuman grammar guru and spelling savant whose fingers never strike a wrong key, you can do these things:

Be aware of your habits and tics, and avoid them. We know: easier said than done. But if you know you have trouble with who’s vs. whose or affect vs. effect (for example), pay extra attention to those problems with a post-it, digital reminder, or remote control to give you an electric shock when you make that mistake. Er, maybe not that last one. But still, watch out for your tics.

Re-read what you wrote. Seriously. It sounds simple, but if you take a few minutes to go through your draft—without zoning out—you might be surprised at the little things you catch.

Get someone else to give it the once-over. It can be a colleague, friend, partner, cat—well, anyone who can read. Even if you read and re-read your own writing, there’s a reason for the phrase “fresh pair of eyes.” Use a proofreading tool. Grammarly, for example.

Hire a proofreader or an editor. If all else fails, put your money where your typos are.

Paying attention and enlisting others to pay attention for you—no matter whether they’re human or machine—can work wonders. And if you’re extra concerned, or if you aren’t quite sure what your own tics are, take a look at other common ones and internalize those, too.

Which common mistakes should you pay extra attention to?

Some errors are more errant than others. Here are a few of the ones that pop up most frequently in advertising, online content, and other areas where you want to put your best word forward.

Switching letters, dropping letters, or adding letters

These errors are pretty easy to spot for a casual observer. Unfortunately, making the find was a bit harder for the marketers who made these mistakes and forgot to proofread.

In words with just a letter or two off like these ones, you can bet the writer would have found the error if he or she hadn’t been working on autopilot.

Using quotation marks for emphasis

This one is more frequent on store signs than in content marketing, but that’s all the more reason not to fall into the trap in your own writing. In fact, when quotation marks are used and there’s not an actual quotation involved, they express irony or sarcasm. Make this mistake, and you imply the opposite of what’s actually being stated, or you sound like you’re making fun of what you’re saying.

So rather than being real (note the italics for emphasis), “real” ice cream might be made from dairy-free milk, a lot of chemicals, or maybe something you would never want to eat at all.

Same story with this dose of irony:

Putting “don’t” in quotation marks is essentially equivalent to saying “do.” And if fire is involved, that could be “dangerous.”

Making mistakes with commas

You’ve got comma splices, serial commas, commas after and between certain types of clauses, commas with dates, conjunctions, quotations, and more. Get your fill of common comma misconceptions in this list of ways to never use your commas incorrectly. And then, imagine the unusual demographic this sign brings into being because it skips commas.

Using the wrong word

Whether this error stems from not knowing the vocab, getting similar-sounding words mixed up, or writing while your head is wandering off somewhere else, it can lead to some humorous outcomes. It can also be bad news for your company.

Apostrophes

Apostrophes create possessives and contractions (get up to speed on all the apostrophe rules). If you’re writing the plural form of a word, keep apostrophes out of the picture. Otherwise, your signs will look less than professional.

Then there’s the its vs. it’s dilemma: it’s another big problem for marketers and writers. The gist: “it’s” means “it is” or “it has,” and “its” is the possessive form of “it.” Brush up here to avoid imperfections in your content.

It’s true, after all: perfection does have its price. This brand may have paid the price of poor marketing, but you don’t have to if you stay aware of what you’re writing and avoid the pitfalls of poor spelling, grammar, and punctuation usage.

The bottom line: reread what you write, and don’t be afraid to enlist help. Keeping your content clean and error-free will keep you credible and your customers committed. And if you need a little extra help, Grammarly has your back!

Why Do We Call It Labor Day?

In the United States and Canada, the first Monday of September is the day we call Labor Day. That holiday means different things to different people. For kids, it’s the start of a new school year. For most people, it signals the end of summer. It’s also (supposedly) a cutoff date for wearing white clothes, even though the practice of not wearing white clothes in the fall predates the establishment of Labor Day as a federal holiday. It’s a day for parties, parades, and other kinds of celebrations.

However, Labor Day has nothing to do with wearing white clothes, or the fact that seasons change, or the start of a new school year. It also has nothing to do with childbirth, which is also called labor. It stands for something that every working American, as well as working people around the world, should remember come the first Monday of September.

Labor Stands for Work

In the heyday of the Industrial Revolution in the United States, back in the late nineteenth century, the life of the average American looked pretty bleak. Most of the country’s jobs were in manufacturing—it was the time of industrialization, after all. And those manufacturing jobs weren’t the manufacturing jobs of today—there were few (if any) safety codes or protective measures. The work day lasted for twelve hours, the work week lasted for seven days, and the pay was sufficient for basic necessities, at best. From the age of five, kids were also eligible to become part of the workforce, working in the same unsafe conditions, but for a much smaller paycheck.

At that time, labor unions were not unheard of. They’d been around since the end of the eighteenth century. But the worsening working conditions and the fact that an increasing number of people were suffering from them made the unions more vocal, better organized, and more prepared to take action in the form of strikes and rallies. The strikes were not always peaceful. Clashes with the police and with strikebreakers were common. At one particularly bloody episode in the struggle, the Pullman Strike of 1894, thirty strikers were killed by the U.S. Army and the Marshall Service. Labor Day, already recognized by thirty states, became a federal holiday the same year.

Labor and Labour

The struggle of the working people of the United States was recognized by working people around the world. International Workers’ Day, celebrated on May 1 around the world, commemorates the Haymarket Affair, an event that took place in Chicago in 1886 and resulted in the deaths of seven police officers and at least four civilians. The American labor movement influenced its Australian counterpart so much that the Australian Labor party uses the American English spelling of the word, even though the British English spelling, labour, is the standard spelling in the country.

So, if you’re wondering why Labor Day is called Labor Day, it’s because of all of the people who fought for better work conditions. And, since we’re Grammarly, we’ll end by pointing out once again that labor is the American English spelling of the word, and labour is the spelling used in British English.

All of a Sudden or All of the Sudden—Which is Correct?

All of a sudden is an idiom that is a more poetic way of saying “suddenly.” A common mistake to make, especially for English learners, is to write all the sudden or all of the sudden. On a sudden is a historic but outmoded variant. Currently, all of a sudden is the only accepted usage.

Is It “All of a Sudden” or “All of the Sudden”?

Although all of the sudden has been used in centuries past, all of a sudden is the phrasing that eventually stuck. Perhaps it is because Shakespeare used of a sudden in The Taming of the Shrew in 1594, and centuries of grammarians couldn’t help but side with The Bard:

Tranio:

I pray, sir, tell me, is it possible That love should of a sudden take such hold?

Some say that on a sudden is an archaic Scottish variant, but consider that London-born Daniel Defoe used it in Robinson Crusoe in 1719.

My crop promised very well, when on a sudden I found I was in danger of losing it all again.

Whatever the evolutionary path of this phrase may have been, the only accepted use of it is all of a sudden. You may hear all of the sudden occasionally in informal speech, but don’t let it creep into your writing, since there is no need to attract the disdain of grammar lovers.

Rover had been quiet for hours when all of the sudden, he launched into a frenzy of barking.

Rover had been quiet for hours when all of a sudden, he launched into a frenzy of barking.

The favored horse looked like a sure win until all of the sudden, a dark horse from the back of the pack started gaining.

The favored horse looked like a sure win until all of a sudden, a dark horse from the back of the pack started gaining.

All of a sudden could be replaced with the adverb suddenly in both of these sentences and they would retain their original meaning.

Rover had been quiet for hours when suddenly, he launched into a frenzy of barking.

The favored horse looked like a sure win until suddenly, a dark horse from the back of the pack started gaining.

Why all became part of the phrase is difficult to say. Perhaps it is meant to underscore how completely sudden an occurrence is instead of being just a fraction of completely sudden, and therefore somewhat expected. Idioms are mysterious that way.

Of course, all of the sudden could be called for in a sentence under certain circumstances and be the correct phrase. It just shouldn’t be used to mean “suddenly.”

All of the sudden moves Bruce Lee made thrilled his moviegoing fans.

A small minority of people may use all of the sudden habitually to mean “suddenly,” and you might be tempted to use it if you are used to hearing it but you don’t. If you revert to it conversationally, no big deal—just be sure to edit it out of your writing.

What Is Plain Language? 5 Ways to Overcome Workplace Jargon

If your work consists largely of moving words around on a screen, being understood is essential. At no time is this more evident than when workplace communications fail.

Say your team has been coordinating a crucial media announcement for weeks. You’ve gathered input from scientists and software developers at your company to clarify the details of your message, you’ve run the language past your boss and a company lawyer—you’ve even sat down with an executive to make sure your tone is on brand.

That’s when the bombshell drops: somehow, parts of the story have leaked early. A journalist is calling—asking to interview your boss’s boss. Maybe that person is on the road. Maybe your boss has been preoccupied with high-level issues and delegated the details of the project to you. As your panic escalates, you notice this final dagger—an email from your company’s D.C. office that makes absolutely no sense to your bleary, uncaffeinated eyes:

“Hey there, WaPo is looking to intvw c-suite rn re rollout. Cheryl has the bug, can you grab? A quick statement would be clutch.”

Argh. When communication breakdowns happen, they can be devastating for you, your clients, and your team. While it’s fun to tinker with language, invent creative slang, and show off your wonkery with jargon, sometimes the best way to get things done is by using straightforward, plain language.

Here’s how to make sure your writing is easy to understand.

1Avoid jargon and strange abbreviations

Every specialty has unique terminology that separates insiders from the general public, but this separation leads to trouble when you need to communicate broadly. That’s true for emergency responders trying to coordinate with other departments that use different radio codes, and for military officials briefing the press on an upcoming deployment, as in this example:

General: “Our unit will rotate back in approximately seven months.”

Reporter: “Will that be enough time for the troops to rest?”

General: “We believe BOG-time will be sufficient.”

What the general means is yes, but he uses a term that most civilians have to look up; in this context, BOG is short for boots on ground. Unfortunately, the reporter probably can’t use this quote in her story without some added explanation.

2Try paraphrasing

When you spot a clunky turn of phrase in your draft, look for a more conversational alternative. In the above examples, you could just as well substitute rest time instead of BOG for the weary troops, as well as executive in lieu of c-suite, and is sick in lieu of has the bug.

While we’re at it, we might swap out the rarefied lieu in that last sentence for the more plainspoken in place of.

3Ask the experts to simplify

Whether you’re getting input from an engineer or a financial guru, you may find yourself searching for a delicate way to ask them to be, er, um, less technical. The quick-witted reporter in the above scenario might broach it with this followup: “For people in our audience who aren’t familiar, what is BOG-time and why is it important?”

Science writers use this tactic constantly with academics, asking them to distill the complexities of their research as they might when speaking to a bright but easily distracted fourth-grader.

It’s a sentiment echoed in a memorable scene from the 2011 film Margin Call, in which the CEO of an investment bank on the verge of collapse deadpans to a young analyst, “Speak as you might to a young child—or a golden retriever.”

4Don’t act like you know

Small misunderstandings have a way of compounding, if you let them.

It can be strange to ask people for clarification, especially if you feel expected to already understand what they’re talking about in full. In this situation, it’s worth remembering that if you’d mastered the subject perfectly, then discussing it further would only be a waste of breath. In other words, asking questions shows people you respect their time.

Also, putting such questions off for later won’t help, and may even set back your efforts, so it’s best to get it over with. You may be surprised: folks tend to value feeling well understood, so they may appreciate your questions more than you’d guess.

5What would George Orwell do?

The need to simplify convoluted language has been evident for decades. George Orwell hammered on it in his 1946 essay “Politics and the English Language” (PDF).

Some key takeaways can be summarized as follows: Don’t use played-out turns of phrase, the passive voice, or overly long, arcane, or unnecessary words. But Orwell’s final rule also acknowledges that it’s possible to go too far in pursuit of simplicity.

Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

While it’s tempting to substitute a plainer word there at the end, like awkward, editing Orwell would be outright barbarous. We’ll let it stand.

10 Words and Phrases to Never, Ever Use at Work

Every industry has its jargon. But some words and phrases can be unclear, unnecessary, or even offensive. Maybe some of these are phrases you like building into your business vocab, but use them with caution. If you’re going to offend or annoy someone, or if there’s a clearer way to say something, why not go the easy way?

Our little caveat: every office has different protocol. If you’re buddies with your coworkers, it’s not so strange to talk to them about personal issues. And if you’re in the thick of the consulting, tech, or business world, you might feel inclined to use the lingo and play along. But the joy of language is that there’s always another way to phrase something.

1 “Assume”

We’ve all heard it: “When you assume, you make an ass out of you and me.” Cute. But even if the catchphrase earns your eye-roll, it’s a good point: don’t accept something to be the case without proof. For example:

“I assume you finished the report?” “I assumed Bob would run that part of the presentation.” “I assume you’ll be working on Saturday?”

From a boss, “assume” is a passive-aggressive way to show authority. From an underling, it looks like ducking responsibility. In both cases, there are ways to make your point without making an ass out of you and me.

2 “Like”

“I like these doughnuts” is fair game. But avoid using “like,” “um,” “sort of,” “basically,” and other weasel words that fill dead air. They make you sound less confident and can even sort of give the impression that you basically don’t know what you’re, like, talking about.

See what we mean?

3 “We made a $400K offer”

Or, “I finally got that $10K raise,” or even “I’ve never eaten there because it’s too expensive.” Good rule of thumb: avoid stating the amount of money you make or the pile of dough you spent on your trip to Iceland. If someone makes a lot more or a lot less than you, it could lead to awkwardness.

4 “Open the kimono”

Some business folk use this to mean “reveal information,” but it doesn’t necessarily come across that way. It’s a good idea to steer clear of words that could be misinterpreted or cause offense, even if they’re not meant that way.

5 “Hey, man”

Not everyone who works is a man, and even seemingly innocent phrases like “Hey, man” or “What’s up, dude,” when used between people who identify as men, can create an environment of exclusion. Nicknames in general can help build a bond of casual camaraderie—but when that bond is based on being the same sex, that means anyone who doesn’t fall under the category of “man” or “dude” is excluded from the camaraderie.

Most people who use these phrases aren’t being exclusive on purpose. But by calling out a connection based on something that other people in the office don’t share, these “dudes” might be making it harder for women to build the connections that will get them ahead.

6 “Let’s talk that”

“Talk about it”? “Discuss it”? “Have a meaningful and productive dialogue about the issue and its repercussions”?

Here’s why Grammarly doesn’t like this phrase: “talk” is not traditionally a transitive verb because it doesn’t take a direct object. You can talk about something, but that’s an intransitive verb with a prepositional phrase: a very different category.

While phrases like “we can talk it out” or “let’s talk things through” have shown the potential for talk to take on transitive qualities, “let’s talk that” is a step too far.

7 “That was a fail”

If you’re pointing out someone else’s mistake, you seem blaming and harsh; if you’re talking about your own, you risk undermining your coworkers’ sense of your abilities.

Here’s how to turn it around: if you messed up, find a task too tough, or aren’t sure how to address a problem, don’t start in with “I can’t,” “it’s hard,” or “I failed.” Find someone to ask for help and tell them what the problem is, what you’ve tried so far, and what you need to know or do to fix it.

On the flip side, some companies love talking about failures as opportunities for learning and growth. If you work in an environment brimming with that kind of positivity, kudos. But no matter whether your company embraces the word “failure” or avoids it like the plague, same idea goes: focus on next steps and ways to learn moving forward, not on who’s to blame.

8 “She was in labor for 20 hours”

Everyone loves kids, right? Sure, once they’re out and about in the world. The details of your experience are better kept to yourself. When it comes to labor, keep it to the kind you do with your coworkers in the office Monday to Friday.

9 “Over the wall”

In business, “throw it over the wall” can be translated as “send it to the client.” This is one of the cases where jargon gets in the way of clarity—and that can, in turn, lead to things not getting done. If you want to be understood, this is a phrase you can throw over the wall—as in, get rid of it.

10 “Think outside the box”

If your goal in the office is to think outside the box, why not do the same with your well-worn clichés? There’s nothing really wrong with this phrase, but it’s been used so many times that we dare you to find new ways to express the idea. You can keep it simple, like “innovate,” “find unusual solutions,” or even “come up with creative ideas,” or you can invent something totally new like “think one galaxy over.” (Though if you’re going for clarity, you might want to stick to “brainstorm.”)

Either way, if you’re trying to find creative solutions at work, you might as well think outside the box in how you use language, too.