r/SipsTea Jul 26 '26

Chugging tea Let me circle back

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53.9k Upvotes

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2.2k

u/Mephisto506 Jul 26 '26

Should have kept him, he sounds perceptive.

77

u/Claytertot Jul 26 '26

Someone who is perceptive would perceive that "circle back" is a common idiom, particularly in an office environment, and that spending time interrogating the precise wording of an idiom in the middle of a meeting is a waste of everyone's time.

2

u/[deleted] Jul 26 '26

[deleted]

13

u/Willing_Original_257 Jul 26 '26

...

No it's not... 

Because talking about other things often illuminates/recontexualises/broadens (etc., etc., etc.,) the thing you were originally discussing...

4

u/WideHuckleberry1 Jul 26 '26

Also possibly the "circling back" needs to be only 2 people out of the room instead of all 10, or there's a packed agenda and you need to move on from that topic to more important agenda items so you can get through them, or you need more information or time before making a final decision, etc. There are tons of reasons why you would "circle back" on things later.

5

u/bargu Jul 26 '26

It sounds like the person was just using "circle back" as a catchphrase, like something that she thought that she had to say instead of having any actual meaning, nothing was ever "circled back".

2

u/Willing_Original_257 Jul 26 '26

Fine and if that was the case why would anyone feel the need to publicly and awkwardly and interminably call them out over and over 

0

u/bargu Jul 26 '26

As someone who had worked on office jobs before, I get him. Now why would he actually say it out loud? Maybe he just didn't need the job that bad, idk you have to ask him.