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(1). An essential skill or expertise, often found not to be possessed by that guy you hired a couple of weeks ago.
“So, Brad…I’m not sure math is one of your core competencies. You might want to start considering other options. You know, not with us here at KPMG.”
(1). To mentally prepare a client, staff member or co-worker for some potentially bad (see sub-optimal) news, often regarding a delay or other inconvience that, while perfectly normal, would likely anger or annoy the client, staff member or co-worker.
Definition
(1). A nautical term used by new managers or consultants when describing their plan for turning around a struggling business unit (or, in other words, layoffs).
“Team, Q3 results come out tomorrow and I don’t have to tell you all it’s not going to be pretty. We need to right the ship or else all of us are going to be looking for new jobs. Speaking of which…Jim, can I see you in my office after we wrap up here?”
Real Life Lingo
I am not sure why so many of these terms are derived from the sea. Perhaps it’s because every manager believes they are the captain of some sort of seafaring vessel with a copy machine on deck. Either way, a few years ago I worked at an upstart .com, and my boss loved to say we are going to right the ship every time things weren’t going too well. Which pretty much was the entire year I worked there, so I heard that phrase a lot.
My advice to anyone would be two-fold, one, when you’re trying to make your band and musical dreams work, don’t just take the first job that says ok to hiring you, they may go out of business and never pay you. And two, if your boss is constantly saying that you are going to right the ship in the next quarter, it’s probably time to start looking for a new job.
Fair seas matey!
