Business Jargon Update: Manly Talk

There was a surprising amount of masculine talk on a conference call today. Several folks talked about “manning” and having the right “man” for a position. It beats referring to a person as a “resource” – and it seemed that after the first “man” slipped out, everyone just fell in line and soon we were “manning” all our tasks with the right “man”.

Later a marketer referred to her role as “softening the beach” for sales reps reaching out to prospective customers. I had not heard “softening the beach” in business use before. It’s an obvious reference to artillery shelling in anticipation of putting your “men” on the beach – think Normandy, D-Day.