There was a time when learning how to “speak office” meant, quite literally, being in an office.
A clueless rookie could pick up how their boss wrote an email, when a coworker switched from a quick message to a more formal one, or what someone meant by “run it up the flagpole.” But Gen Z entered a workforce where much of that learning can happen through a screen—and where language on either side of it isn’t always translating.