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"A degree of cleanliness opportunity"
It's your Fingers Buzzwords of The Week!
Dave Infante
February 13, 2026
After the thrilling conclusion to the 2025 Buzzwords of The Week of The Year run-off, we’re back, and with a vengeance. Earlier this month, a National Labor Relations Board administrative law judge ruled that a Starbucks district manager had violated federal labor law (in part) because he used too much “evasive” “corporate speak” in lieu of straightforward answers in his testimony. From the ruling:
[H]e referred to an employee discipline as an “accountability” and to people being fired as being “involuntary separated.” Instead of just admitting that the West Salem store was already dirty when Russell was assigned to take over as the store as the new manager, Kane testified that “there was a degree of cleanliness opportunity when [Russell] stepped in to lead the store.” Also, during his testimony about the meeting with Barrera, when asked by me whether he asked partners at West Salem if there was anything wrong with the store or whether they were having any issues, instead of giving a direct answer Kane replied “I have conversations every time I’m in the store.”
Listen. I want to run a fair competition. But “losing your union-busting case because the court decided you used too much jargon” is going to be an extremely tough Buzzwords of The Week contender to beat this year. The gauntlet has been thrown down.
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👀 Calling all corporatespeak
If you see beverage-alcohol jargon in the wild that deserves to be the next Fingers Buzzword, drop it in the comments below:
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