Say What?

I had a manager who was fond of the phrase "having said that." This always meant that he was about to contradict himself, but it was OK because he had entered a plea of "having said that." Sometimes, for variety I guess, he would say "that being said" or "that having been said."

Another manager liked to say "going forward." I presumed that he was confirming the direction of time's arrow, in case Stephen Hawking hadn't brought enough weight to bear on that subject.

When I programmed for the Sales and Marketing Group at another company, the manager introduced a new project, and told us what had to happen at "end of day." "End of day ?" I thought. "I'm just learning to say 'bottom line!'"

The management at the last place that I worked for used the phrase "push back." I guessed that it was about sexual positions, and decided not to get involved.