For this reason, we stress the importance of being specific.
There was an article in The Times not too long ago about people being sent on training courses to help them understand what colleagues from other generations were saying. (It’s behind a paywall, so we can’t link to it.)
One phrase highlighted was “at the end of the day”.
If your boss said they needed a piece of work by then, what time would you think they mean?
According to the article, to the over 50s, this means 5pm – the end of the working day.
To a younger person, it means 11.59pm – which would be the deadline if they were submitting work for school or university. This simple misunderstanding was causing friction in some workplaces when bosses thought work was late.
It’s a great example of two things. First of all, how language, and it’s interpretations, is always developing. And secondly, that it’s always important to be specific about details, so there is no room for confusion.
This advice is also very important for journalists when it comes to interviewing. The word “recent”, for example, is meaningless. If someone says, “I won the lottery recently,” ask them exactly when. You can then write “She won the lottery at the beginning of April”, which is much stronger than “She won the lottery recently”.
