(Pick Up the Ball and Run with It 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.)

Pick Up the Ball and Run with It

Often, annoying jargon is just a lazy way to say something. For example, it takes fewer syllables to say “optics” than “how something is perceived.”

Not this one. This one is especially and unnecessarily verbose given its meaning.

Like most sports phrases shoehorned into your business life, pick up the ball and run with it is usually uttered by the rah-rah manager set – those who put way more faith in hollow motivation than on actual leadership.

Of course, your shallow supervisor just wants you to take control of something – perhaps an important project – and, given this, you should be honored. Unfortunately, when he gives you that shit-eating grin and then asks you to pick up the ball and run with it, you’re pretty sure you’d rather puke at this moment.

There is no honor in being spoken to like a second-string junior varsity football player who might fall for this kind of inane inspiration.

Might… as even high school sophomores are more sophisticated than your boob of a manager.

Replacement phrases: Take over; Take control

See also: Over the Line

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