I am well aware that there is a song called “Three Little Words” whose lyrics have to do with amorous adventures. The three little words that have been roving around in my intellect have nothing to do with love or marriage.
The three little words in this essay include a new word called “incentivizing.” Then there are “proactive” and the noun “task” which has been turned into a verb.
Shortly before I retired, one of my colleagues latched onto the word “proactive.” This was simply another word for saying that you were for something. I did not see a need for a new word or a bastardization of one of the old words which was called “active.”
I will concede quite willingly that the person who used this word over and over was not one of my favorites. This fellow was the son of an Iowa preacher, which was some sort of a detriment from the start of our relationship. To be honest with my readers, over time, I simply disliked this fellow to a very large degree. That may account – or it may not account – for my not liking the word he used, which was “proactive.” That word is seldom used today, for which I am quite grateful. It seems to me that one can say that he is in favor of something without using the term proactive. With that thought, I hope that I can dismiss “pro-active” from my memory forever.
The second word is a noun, task. There are those who say that Condoleezza Rice turned it into a verb. Condoleezza might say, “I tasked him to file the letters.” That is pure Washington speak and a civilized man such as Winston Churchill would never have used that construction. Again, as I examine news reports, the word task seldom appears as a verb. For that I am very grateful.
But now we have a new entry. Those of you with finely tuned ears may recognize the word “incentivizing.” Good gracious! To provide an incentive is something every employer ought to utilize. In the military services, if one served 20 years without getting killed, the incentive would be a pension.
But now we find the fully respectable noun “incentive” turned into a verb. Once again, I doubt that Winston Churchill would ever let the word “incentivizing” roll from his lips.
The latest example came up over the weekend when the Philadelphia Eagles hired a backup quarterback named Michael Vick. Mr. Vick, until two or three years ago, was a renowned National Football League quarterback who loved dog fighting. In fact, Michael Vick was consumed by this cruel game and in the end his dogs were cruelly treated and Michael Vick spent the better part of two years in jail for the crime of promoting dog fighting.
The rest of the equation is that a gentleman named Donovan McNabb is the current Philadelphia Eagles quarterback. McNabb is growing a bit older and has trouble producing results that his bosses admire. So in the past weekend, Michael Vick, who was recently released from prison, was hired as a backup quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles. The thought clearly is that Michael Vick would “incentivize” McNabb to do better.
Every professional athlete knows that there are hundreds of people who would be anxious to take his job. Old Donovan doesn’t need any “incentivizing” to figure out that Michael Vick and several other people would love to be the starting quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles. But be that as it may, Michael Vick was admitted to the playing ranks of the Philadelphia Eagles and may soon be activated. Whether his presence “incentivizes” McNabb to do better remains to be seen.
But in any case, the three little words proactive, tasked, and incentivize have been disposed of in this essay. I hope that in my future years with the rest of the world, those three little words will make their appearance privately.
E. E. CARR
August 17, 2009
Essay 406
~~~
Kevin’s commentary: Yep, Pop really hates “proactive.” Though I think it’s definition is a little different from simply being in favor of something — it denotes willingness to take initiative, which is an attractive quality in the workplace. Indeed all of these words are just workplace jargon which, though admittedly unnecessary, seem innocuous enough to me.
For those keeping score, “Proactive” makes another appearance in FORBIDDEN WORDS.