Polywork, zoombies: New words the pandemic introduced at work

Office lingo helps people to bond, but the pandemic has ensured that we have accepted and adapted to new words to depict a new reality we now live in

Think of the denizens of the office – those figures hunched over their desks typing, pinging, barking into phones, scarfing down salads, sometimes closing the loop, always circling back to the same thing. Office lingo signals affiliation with an in-group. But that isn’t its only function. “Corporate language serves the purpose of papering over the messiness of being a person with emotions and contradictory impulses,” said Aparna Nancherla, a comedian. As some workers prepare to return to their physical workplaces, and many others settle in for a long remote winter, here are the words they may find handy.

TO BRA OR NAH

For 18 months, while everyone got newly acquainted with their couches, some said a gleeful farewell to underwire. Now, as blazers and stilettos reemerge from retirement, the critical question becomes: Does leaving the house mean a bra mandate? “Saying ‘I’m not going to put on a bra today’ is something people have control over in a time when we’ve had little to no control over the world,” said Ilana Dunn, who is the host of a dating podcast.