What they mean, of course, is “get back to you” or “reply”, which are clearly far too prosaic for your average executive.įunny, I keep forgetting that getting a word wrong in corporate life is a sign of cleverness and dynamism. It's too business-like for correspondence with a friend: e.g. Similarly, whenever someone says they’ll “revert” tomorrow, I desperately want to ask: “Revert to what? To your true self as an unprofessional layabout who sits in front of the telly all day?”. 'Please reply at your earliest.' might be something you would write in an email to a colleague with whom you have had enough contact to be on first name terms, but preserving the fact that this is a formal piece of correspondence. If, that is, they’re used correctly.īut when people tell me they’ll “advise” me of progress on a project, or ask me to “advise” them of my telephone number, I have to resist the urge to scream.Īt what point in such an exchange will any actual advice be given? What’s wrong with the correct word “tell”? Are you implying that a quick conversation won't be enough to get the information across? That one of us (me) is so thick that everything needs spelling out v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y? Nothing wrong with those words, you may say. When you’re emailing me, please don't use the words “advise” and “revert”.
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