(Minefields is an annoying business term and is just one of the 212 Most Annoying Business Phrases Managers Effuse, Confuse, and Overuse detailed in the hilarious must-have guide for every workplace: The 30,000-Pound Gorilla in the Room. Available right now on Amazon.)

Minefields

The chronically cautious… strike that. The worrywarts among your management team like to warn about minefields in your workplace and/or industry.

They lean on hyperbole because they’re obsessed with unlikely outcomes; especially the bad ones. Instead of finding the “can” they’re the ones who always find the “can’t.” They’re the modern day Eeyores trying to bring the rest of you down with them.

They speak of minefields in generic terms without identifying a single real issue or pitfall. Predictably, they’re among the most annoying of the annoying managers you deal with.

To be clear, there are no minefields in your office. If you really stop to consider it, there really aren’t even that many traps, roadblocks, or even potholes. There’s just work.

Of course, with work comes good days and bad days; easy projects and hard ones; smooth patches and rough ones. Somehow, we all survive through another week.

If you’re smart, you enjoy your weekend; leaving the tribulations of work (and your annoying manager) at the office. While your irritating, gloom-and-doom manager sits quietly in his basement creating non-existent minefields in his head.

Crack a beer and chill; you’ve earned it.

Replacement phrases: Identify the potential issues in specific terms and offer solutions; just stop warning about nondescript minefields.

See also: Double-Edged Sword

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The 30,000-Pound Gorilla in the Room is available on Amazon