Noitering, Iftersections and Other Made-up Words for Your Workplace

Here are four new words and terms that I’ve made up—or at least I think I’ve made up. I also thought I made up lemonade and iced tea mixed together until I saw it in a gas station convenience store. When I told the clerk I thought I had made it up, without missing a beat he told me he thought he had made up the song “Who Let the Dogs Out”. But that’s an aside. Getting back to my new words and phrases, I’ve found these practical and helpful additions to my vocabulary and thought you might as well.

Noiter

“Noiter” is a verb that means to look for a job. Currently there is no word for this that I know of. When people ask you what you are doing, you have to say “looking for a job”.

Sample sentence: “I am going to spend a few hours noitering this morning and then in the afternoon I’m going to do some laundry and watch PBS.”

I like it because it has a kind of annoying sound that makes it a little bit embarrassing to say, which is exactly what it feels like to put yourself out there and look for a job. Noitering also rhymes with loitering, which fits given that even the most stellar candidates commonly experience starts and stops in the job search process.

Iftersections

“Iftersections” is a noun meaning the “if-then” links in a theory of action where there is particular vulnerability. Most change efforts, whether personal or societal, have several of these, and it’s usually here where the change effort is weakened or derailed.

Sample sentence: “My plan to become a brain surgeon got stuck in an iftersection.” Also: “Our great plan to improve the school system had so many iftersections it never came to fruition.”

I like it because it captures this really important concept in change processes that has no other name. Thinking about and minimizing iftersections in advance can actually lead to a better, more viable plan.

Front row

“Front row” is an adjective to describe a person who is acting like they don’t care what anybody thinks about them. It is like they are one of the people in the front row at a rock concert who is swaying, dancing, and singing out loud while most of the rest of the audience just sits and watches.

Sample sentence: “I saw Chad at the team happy hour and he was in the front row!”

I like it because it is fun to say and captures a particular way of being that we somehow aspire to and seek to avoid at the same time.

SWTP

“SWTP” is an acronym for “stick with the plan”. It is best used as a verb as in “Let’s just SWTP.” It’s basically my family’s mantra and we use it whenever we are about to revisit where we are going to get takeout from or whether we should quit our jobs and become reindeer herders in the Artic.

Sample sentence: “You can go ahead and meet up with Grandma at Hardee’s but we’re going to SWTP.”

This term is especially useful in moments when you feel yourself sliding full speed into indecisiveness. I like it because it cuts through the endless spinning around options, and helps everyone remember the original plan as the simplest way to move forward.

I hope you find these words as practical and useful as I do. If they are not in fact original, that’s OK. As I can attest from my experience with lemonade and iced tea mixed together, it is common for multiple people to converge on the same new ideas at the same time, and for great innovations to emerge multiple times in different places before they gain widespread adoption.