Run It Up the Flagpole

Definition

To present an idea to higher-ups and see if anyone salutes, which they won't because they're all in back-to-back meetings until 2027. A phrase that combines patriotism with the futility of middle management.

Example Usage

"Let's run it up the flagpole and see who salutes," said Jim, blissfully unaware that the flagpole was on fire and nobody was looking up.

Related Terms

Beginner

actioning

The corporate sin of turning the perfectly good noun 'action' into a verb meaning to execute or complete a task. Because apparently 'doing' things is too pedestrian for the modern workplace.

💼 Corporate / Business

Advanced

cwt

Abbreviation for "hundredweight," a confusingly inconsistent unit of measurement that equals 100 pounds in the US and 112 pounds in the UK, because why make international commerce easy? Still used in agriculture, shipping, and by people who enjoy watching others frantically Google conversion rates. A relic from when math was apparently more of a suggestion.

💼 Corporate / Business

Intermediate

risks

All the things that could possibly go wrong with a decision, quantified and documented so someone can be blamed later. In corporate settings, they're identified, assessed, mitigated, and then ignored until they become actual problems. Finance professionals love calculating them with impressive formulas that provide false precision about fundamentally unknowable futures.

💼 Corporate / Business

Intermediate

seagull management

A leadership style where executives fly in, make noise, dump criticism on everything, then leave while others clean up the mess. Involves zero context and maximum disruption.

💼 Corporate / Business

Beginner

sustainability

The corporate buzzword for "not destroying everything for future generations," now slapped on every product and mission statement regardless of actual environmental impact. It's the art of meeting present needs without compromising the future, though in practice it often means using recycled paper for reports about why we can't afford real change. Bonus points if you put it in your company values next to "innovation" and "synergy."

💼 Corporate / Business

Beginner

submission

The corporate ritual of handing over your carefully crafted work to be judged, critiqued, or lost in someone's inbox forever. In the workplace, it's that moment when you click 'send' and immediately spot three typos. The act transforms grown professionals into nervous students awaiting their fate from the decision-makers above.

💼 Corporate / Business

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Beginner

gafk

Going away from keyboard...