Are you willing to 'shoot the puppy'?

Ever performed a muppet shuffle? Gone to the bleeding edge? Although most people find them annoying, the bizarre corporate metaphors just keep coming. Here's the MoneyWeek guide.

Two in three people find workplace jargon "annoying or very annoying" and think it is used mainly to show off rather than convey information, says Tony Thorne, head of the Language Centre at King's College in London. Unfortunately, this hasn't prevented more and more bizarre corporate metaphors from joining the lexicon. Thorne's latest book Shoot the Puppy (Penguin, £12.99) collates and explains all the latest expressions. Some of the most colourful examples include the following:

The bleeding edge: some way beyond the well-known business clichs leading edge' and cutting edge', this takes us "several steps further into the unknown", says Thorne. It has become popular in the US among young entrepreneurs.

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Graham Buck

Graham has spent the past three years as a cash management editor at Deutsche Bank. Graham started off as a Risk Management Professional editor at Perspective Publishing for two years, then became a writer at The Treasurer for 5 years and then an editor at gtnews.com for 5 years. He then freelanced for 5 years where he reported on corporate treasury issues, risk management, insurance/reinsurance and pensions. Graham has a degree in English Literature from the University of Bristol and he has contributed to MoneyWeek’s share tips.