Author has fun facilitating Jargonese paradigm shift
With a toddler at home in North Barrington and a 20-year career in the pressure-packed world of corporate real estate acquisitions all around her, Jennie Nass didn't even know she had a problem.
Her husband, Dan, broke the news that she was a jargon addict.
"My husband criticized me for speaking jargon when I came home from work speaking like a corporate manual," says Nass, who admits to peppering routine home conversations with buzzwords such as dynamic, world class, puffery, strategic and even Six Sigma. "My husband would give me this dazed look when I'd come home, have a glass of wine and talk about work. Every time I started to speak English, I'd fall back into Jargonese tongue."
Like most addictions, this one was acquired over time.
"It was more or less gradual, getting more and more involved in my corporate run, going from one meeting to the next, and one business trip to the next. You just fall into it," says Nass, who soon saw her jargon use spilling from her professional life into her private life. "Whether it was at the grocery store or a restaurant, I was guilty of it. It's just kind of in your blood."
She found the perfect cure for her addiction by taking a writing class.
"A light bulb went off in my head and I started writing down how I sound and how I should sound," Nass says. The result is her fun new book titled "Pass the Ketchup, Hold the Jargonese Please: Adopting Plain Talk in Your Family."
Nass starts her book with a Jargonese communication she heard between a mother and daughter.
"Sweetheart, send me an Outlook meeting request if you need for your father or me to pick you up from school tomorrow," the mom began.
"You have to be kidding, Mom," the daughter replied.
"Sorry, honey. Of course I'll pick you up from school," the mom said. "I'll task myself to ensure your request is met. And on our drive home, let's review the updated schedule of chores I submitted to you yesterday, and if you require an explanation on the particulars, I would be glad to furnish said details.
"I assume you will buy in on what I have outlined for you to be completed in order to close the critical path of duties you are required to fulfill, with no slip in the schedule," the mom continued. "Remember, we wish to uphold a world class environment in our household."
Putting all that Jargonese in her book ($11.99 for the paperback) got it out of Nass' personal life. Her son, Daniel, now a first-grader, can't even remember a day when his mom was a jargonholic.
"I am a recovering jargonholic," Nass says. "I have been jargon-clean with my family and friends since 2005."
Since she left the corporate world in 2005, Nass opened a gourmet cookie business with her mom, Vera Mirkovic, a Croatian immigrant who started a couple restaurants in the suburbs. Their Jennie and Vera's Cookies (www.jennieandverascookies.com) have been featured everywhere from local fundraisers to the "snack of the day" on TV's "The Rachael Ray Show."
While the mother and daughter avoid corporate Jargonese, their offerings such as Brownie Breath Mint, Macadamia Cappuccino or Vera's Walnut Cookies often end up as corporate gifts for clients. And Nass sometimes gets a taste of Jargonese from her former corporate co-workers.
"We do get together for cocktails or dinner and I still hear that. I smile and think, 'Hey, I don't sound like that anymore,'" Nass says. "It's a pretty good feeling, I have to say."
•••
Nass will be signing copies of her book, "Pass the Ketchup, Hold the Jargonese Please," from 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday, April 10, at Borders, 2221 Richmond Road, Route 31, in McHenry. For details visit http://jennienass.tatepublishing.net.