Is this ALREADY the most irritating phrase heard in Portsmouth offices in 2018?

After you’ve wished your colleagues a ‘Happy New Year’ for the 13th time of the morning, you can start to feel a bit exasperated.

However, new year pleasantries aren’t half as infuriating as the office buzz words and phrases that definitely should be left behind in 2017.

We may only be two days into the new year but Kit Out My Office has already revealed what the most irritating office phrase of 2018 is.

People asking you to ‘think outside the box’ was named as the most annoying phrase, just ahead of ‘hit the ground running’ and ‘do more with less’.

‘Can I borrow you for a second’ and ‘amazeballs’ completed the infuriating top five.

Gareth Jones, who carried out the survey for Kit Out My Office, said: ‘The modern working life is fast-paced, and as such we strive to deliver information in a clear and concise manner.

‘The downside of this is it is a breeding ground for jargon. Setting a collective New Year’s Resolution in your office to stamp-out jargon in 2018 could definitely help to improve morale.’ said Gareth.

‘We honestly hoped to see a little more variety versus last year, as we hoped people would start cutting out annoying office phrases.

‘However, they’re still being used widely, which provides us with a reason for continuing to undertake the survey.’

To produce the list, Kit Out My Office asked 2,519 office workers across the UK in November 2017 to vote for terms and office jargon they hate the most. This is a refresh of the original survey, which was undertaken in December 2016 to understand what phrases individuals and businesses should avoid in 2017.