Gen Z employees understand hardly any office jargon, new Careerminds research revails

UNITED KINGDOM, July 2026. The Class of 2026 has left university behind, but new research from Careerminds UK shows an office language barrier may be waiting to greet them on their first day of work. It’s a hurdle plenty of workers already know well, with a 2023 Duolingo and LinkedIn report finding that 58% of professionals think their colleagues overuse jargon and 60% are left to work out what it all means on their own. 

With that in mind, Careerminds UK surveyed 600 UK employees on how well they understand the phrases that fill the modern working day and whether they could explain them each one to a colleague without looking it up. 

Key findings: 

• Gen Z understands just 1 in 5 corporate phrases (5.3 of out 24), the fewest of any generation, despite being the most digitally native. 

• UK employees understand an average of 7 out of 24 common workplace phrases, with nearly half (48.8%) understanding five or fewer. 

• ‘In the loop’ is the most widely understood phrase (57.3%), and ‘ideate’ the least, recognised by just 1 in 23 (4.3%). 

• Only 3 respondents (0.5%) understood all 24 phrases, while 1 in 13 (7.5%) admitted that they had guessed the meanings. 

• Nearly 3 in 10 employees (29.3%) can explain only a few of the phrases they use, or none at all. 

“At first glance, it seems counterintuitive that the generation raised on digital communication would understand the least amount of workplace jargon, but the findings make sense when you consider how these terms are usually learned”, said Amanda Augustine, resident careers expert at Careerminds UK and a Certified Professional Career Coach (CPCC). “Many of these phrases pre-date Gen Z’s entry into the workplace, and they’re rarely taught in any formal way. Instead, people tend to pick them up over time through meetings, interactions with their senior team members, and day-to-day experiences at work. As this latest wave of uni graduates start their careers, plenty will be hearing these phrases for the first time, and few will want to admit they’re lost”. 

Full research findings can be read below: 

• Gen Z understands the fewest phrases of any generation, and that gap is widest on classic meeting-speak: just 28.0% of Gen Z understands ‘in the pipeline’, compared with 55.9% of Gen X, and only 35.4% know ‘touch base’, against 61.0%. It’s a similar story for ‘put it on the back burner’ (29.3% versus 55.5%) and ‘hit the ground running’ (40.2% versus 63.6%). On average, Gen Z understands just 22.1% of the phrases tested, fewer than millennials (29.2%), Gen X (31.7%) or even the over-60s (27.1%), proof that even the best-performing generation still gets barely a third right. 

• The phrases people do know tend to be the everyday, get-things-done kind: ‘In the loop’ (57.3%), ‘hit the ground running’ (52.7%), ‘touch base’ (52.2%), ‘in the pipeline’ (48.3%) and ‘ducks in a row’ (45.3%) topped the list, the kind of everyday shorthand that keeps meetings moving and tends to travel well across desks and departments. 

• Metaphors and other buzzwords leave people guessing: ‘Ideate’ (4.3%), understood by just one in 23, came bottom, followed by ‘boil the ocean’ (9.2%), ‘eat the frog’ (10.7%), ‘whiteboarding’ (13.0%) and ‘hard stop in five’ (14.2%). Other research echoes this. The same Duolingo and LinkedIn report found ‘blue-sky thinking’ topped UK workers’ list of most confusing phrases, followed by ‘low-hanging fruit’, ‘move the needle’ and ‘ducks in a row’. 

• Plenty of people are quietly wondering about it: Nearly three in 10 employees (29.3%) admit they can explain only a few of the phrases they use, or none at all, and one in 13 (7.5%) confess to guessing the meanings outright. It’s the youngest and most junior who are least sure: 11.0% of Gen Z own up to guessing, against 5.9% of Gen X, and 18.5% of entry-level staff compared with just 3.0% of directors, who, unsurprisingly, are the most confident, with 40.0% saying they could explain every phrase off the top of their head. 

“Workplace jargon can be useful as a form of shorthand, but the findings show how easily it can exclude people who haven’t yet learned the language,” said Augustine. “Nearly one in five entry-level employees admitted they were guessing, and that’s especially concerning because this kind of language is most common in situations that matter most early in someone’s career, such as meetings, performance conversations and negotiations”. 

“For managers, the takeaway is simple: communicating clearly is a leadership skill, not a sign of being any less sophisticated,” Augustine added. “If you want people to ask questions, contribute ideas and build confidence, plain English will always be more effective than a wall of buzzwords”. 

Careerminds is a global workforce solutions provider delivering career transition, workforce design and talent development to organisations worldwide. Our consumer career brands extend that reach, giving individuals AI-powered career tools and coaching at every stage of the career journey. Together, we combine technology, data and human expertise to create a connected ecosystem that supports both workforce transformation and individual career success. Follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, X, and YouTube. 

Amanda Augustine is the resident careers expert for Careerminds, career.io, and its suite of brands: resume.io, TopResume, TopCV, TopInterview, Resume.ai, and others. As a Certified Professional Career Coach (CPCC) and a Certified Professional Resume Writer (CPRW), she has spent more than 20 years helping professionals improve their careers and land the right job sooner. Connect with Amanda on LinkedIn, X, Instagram, and Facebook. 

The research draws on a Pollfish survey of 600 UK adults in employment, conducted in May 2026. The study was designed to characterise how well UK employees understand common corporate jargon, and how comprehension and confidence vary by age, gender and seniority.