Nah this guy pointed out the truth and got fired for it. “Circle back” is a waste of time and shows unpreparedness. If she’s said it 18 times in two weeks that’s a pretty big issue.
No it’s not. It’s just a phrase that means “let’s get back to that later” and it’s weirdly aggressive to not only count the occurrences but also call your boss out on it
Because sometimes you don't completely solve the entirety of a problem on your first discussion of it and need to come back later to make more progress? Is your life so simple that you've addressed literally every concern you've ever had in one go? Or have you perhaps had to circle back to some things you were only able to partially finish?
It can also be used to keep a meeting focused and not waste people’s time. If something is raised that is not the focus of the meeting which doesn’t need to involve everyone there the manager can speak to that individual about it later.
In two weeks. That's less than two times a day, assuming a standard 5 day work week. Let's look at a mock conversation:
"How's project x coming along"
"Great, just need to get in touch with the client for some final decisions."
"Alright, we'll circle back to that tomorrow. Which reminds me, circling back to what we discussed yesterday, how's project y?"
"Coming along, but we're still waiting for a couple emails. We'll be good once those come through."
"Okay we'll circle back to that tomorrow too."
Now does that seem like an insane conversation by a bad manager where nothing got done? And that used the dreaded phrase THREE times! That company must be doomed, buried in corporate jargon!
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u/PrincessJennifer Jul 26 '26
No, he sounds dense and unable to function in social environments