‘Taking ownership’ is the most annoying piece of office jargon of 2018, closely followed by ‘taking up your role’ and ‘sustainable employability’, an AD poll shows.

Japke-d Bouma, who writes about irritating office jargon for the NRC, praised the ‘itch factor’ of the winning word.

‘It ticks all the boxes. It’s totally unclear what is meant, you have no idea how to do it and what you do with your ownership once you’ve taken it and it sounds very important. It’s also very handy to hide behind because nobody knows what it means. It’s an ideal word for all fans of office babble,’ she told the paper.

Language expert Vivien Waszink thinks the term has won because it so widely used. ‘Some of the other jargon, such as ‘liquid leadership’ and ‘flying at the same height’ are not so popular. (..) It’s interesting that the top three are all terms with verbs in them. You are told to do something and that may add to the irritation felt by people’.

According to Waszink people are more aware of office jargon and are questioning what is (not) being said, the paper writes.