Worst corporate jargon of the week: GFC

GFC is often used to refer to the 2008 global financial crisis

Offender: GFC

What does it mean?

Global financial crisis (nope, not ‘Great financial crisis’).

Who uses it?

Fresh-faced finance bros with a point to prove are among the worst culprits. They may have still been mastering their times tables when Lehman Brothers collapsed, but the trauma is generational. A survey among City A.M. fathers also found widespread usage.

Should we be worried?

Undoubtedly. While more restrained, GFC is the exact sort of linguistic abuse that paved the way to horrors like the ‘cozzy livs’ and ‘Platty Joobs’. It must be stamped out from the root. A quick search on Linkedin finds the term is epidemic. Fortunately there are some lands it has yet to invade. A senior employee at Bloomberg said they had never seen or heard the phrase before while others reported the offence seemed to be more limited to the written rather than spoken form.

What could it be confused with?

• Gluten-free chicken (whatever Leon says)

• Grandfather clock (no thanks to Albert Hammond Jr)

• Going for coffee

• Great f***ing company

• The big friendly giant

How do we get rid of it?

While usage of this term is at the moment contained, we must remain vigilant. If you encounter a native GFC speaker in the wild, we advise only responding in reference to the poultry variety and seeing how far you get. The discomfort created should prevent a repeat offence.

Corporate ick rating:

6.5/10

While undoubtedly distressing, the panel couldn’t deny the term has a certain punchiness as well as utility, sparing it from the highest extremity of the scale.

Do you use it? Do you have a worse offender? Are your colleagues guilty of corporate icks? Email us at opinion@cityam.com