Millennial Translates Slang For Her Older Coworkers And They Help Her With Work-Speak, Shared On Twitter
Interview With Author
There are a lot of differences between generations that include what music we like, what clothes we wear and it is actually evident from how we talk. People who lived in different periods of time have different language they use, especially colloquial speech and slang, because it changes with new generations and within a generation, but doesn’t overlap.
So it is sometimes hard for older people to understand what the younger generation is talking about when they use slang and that might make the distance between the generations even bigger than it is. Luckily, there are people who don’t mind explaining what the terms the youth uses mean.
Twitter user The Meanest TA, PhD. shared a hilarious thread of her interactions with her older coworkers of her explaining slang terms to them and in return receiving some tips on how to express her frustration in a professional manner.
More info: Twitter
Twitter user caught the internet’s attention after she shared her hilarious interactions with her coworkers explaining the current slang to them
Image credits: Joi Ito (not the actual photo)
The Meanest TA, PhD. or Meanie, as she refers to herself, shares funny work-related stories and her love for cats on her Twitter account.
Bored Panda reached out to Meanie and although she wanted to maintain the mystery of who she is, she revealed to us that she is a consultant at the company she works for.
After a little digging through her account, we also learnt some fun facts about her that she gives in her intro meetings. She says, “I live on a ranch with my husband (PF, college professor), and my in-laws. I have three cats (Winky, Barn Cat, Princess Pouty Paws), and for some reason Hank the bull has taken a liking to me so I manage his emotions.”
She works with 5 men whose ages range from 48 to 75
Image credits: MeanestTA
Image credits: MeanestTA
Looking at the things Meanie tweets, it seems like she is a fun person to be around, she has a great sense of humor and doesn’t put up with people’s foolishness, although she doesn’t sugarcoat anything, so that might make her seem intimidating. In her bio she introduces herself as an “Academia-adjacent early onset curmudgeon.” So we asked why she thinks she is The Meanest TA and there’s actually a story.
The Twitter user told us, “I was a teaching assistant in grad school. I made this account to vent about the weird expectations universities place on grad student teaching assistants. It’s a joke, really, I got assigned the sweetest, most easygoing elderly professor my first semester and he said he got ‘the meanest TA’ to keep him on track.”
Image credits: MeanestTA
It seems they are very invested in today’s slang and asks The Meanest TA if they are using it correctly or what it means
Image credits: MeanestTA
Meanie tweets quite a bit and there are many gems, but the thread that went viral with 141k likes was about her teaching her coworkers slang usage. Meanie herself is about 30 years old, as she confesses in an unrelated tweet, and her team members are 5 men, ages from 48 to 75.
In return, the Twitter user asks her coworkers to make her frustrations sound more professional. We wanted to know if they actually use the advice they give each other and Meanie admitted that she definitely uses the professional phrasing her coworkers suggest her: “I am a lot more blunt than my team and while I don’t deal with external clients/partners as much, they act as a buffer when I do.”
Image credits: MeanestTA
But in return she also gets very important advice on how to make her frustrations sound professional
Image credits: MeanestTA
Image credits: MeanestTA
Generations are often put up against each other and we like to highlight the differences between them. If there are any misunderstandings between kids and their parents or grandparents, we explain it with the generation gap.
However, Meanie doesn’t feel it and says that it’s not hard working with her older colleagues at all. She also adds that she is used to them and they like each other’s personalities.
Image credits: MeanestTA
Image credits: MeanestTA
You may think that it would be hard to be the youngest on a team with a generation gap, but the Twitter user actually doesn’t mind it
Image credits: MeanestTA
Because it’s a more unusual team consisting of people from different stages of life, we were curious to know what are the most challenging aspects and the fun parts about being a part of such a team and being the youngest one.
Meanie revealed that “The most challenging thing is that they assume people will take them seriously, I assume the opposite.”
She continued with the positive, “The most fun is the different life experiences and how they line up. So when I was getting my driver’s license in 2009, two of my current team members were returning from military deployments and two were retiring from their first careers.”
Image credits: MeanestTA
Which just proves that the differences between generations can be overcome and all of them should be appreciated for their characteristics
Image credits: MeanestTA
Image credits: MeanestTA
It seems that age isn’t an obstacle on this team and both sides can learn from each other, and it also is an inexhaustible font of hilarious tweets. Did you find Meanie’s slang explanations amusing? Also, will you use any of the professional corporate language that they suggested using instead of what we are all thinking? Let us know in the comments and if you have any similar experiences to share!
People were really amused with the thread as it got 141k likes and they shared their own experiences of similar situations
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But I'm only 28 and I use periods and other punctuation in my texts... It's so damn hard to read a text without. It just keep going, gets confusing, and loses context. Edit: I love the symbiotic relationship going on here between coworkers of different generations.
I make an effort to leave off the final period since I learned punctuation in texts reads as aggressive now. It's my compromise and it physically hurts me to do it. Loved this thread tho.
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But... i always use punctuations in my texts tho. I hate when people text me a whole paragraph that I have to figure out cause of lack of punctuations.
Y'all are both doing it wrong, and it's not about all punctuation, it's about periods at the end of a text message in particular.
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I disagree with the definition of "yeet" ... just holding something isn't it ... the act of launching it into the furthest reaches from your location is ...
I LOVE this! Workdad, Elder Curmudgeon, and excellent translation both ways!
I love that their coworkers are comfortable with the cussing and whatnot in the private messages. It really helps bridge the gap by understanding that the OP wants to find more professional ways to speak, but that their normal mode includes cussing and they coworkers are okay with that and not trying to put them down for it.
I laughed out loud when I got to the CEO's message. Also she's found a fantastic work environment, Makes a change from all the toxic s**t we hear about.
Lol I'm in my 40s but have a teenager. I can use the word "yeet" all I want but i can't use the word "sus" there are others but it's soooooooo hilarious to me to see my teens little eye rolls when I use "their" words. I only know which words are off limits if I say them. Teenagers are funny.
My partner’s daughter (18 years) received an email from her collage lecturer about how her performance was going where she was up to with the course, she came home absolutely furious about it. When we quizzed her about the level of fury and she explained that her lecturer was being super passive aggressive and that there was clearly in some sort of dilemma that she was unaware of. When we asked her to read it to us it completely baffled us, there was no passive aggressive tone, there were no issues. We asked her to explain why she thought it was a problem email, her reply? They’ve punctuated it and EVERYTHING. Suddenly the gulf between her (18) and us (mid 40s) was writ large. We still write emails like a slightly shorter form of a letter, we punctuate them like a letter, we don’t use abbreviations in emails and they don’t require a teenager to decrypt them. She sees emails as a long text, no punctuation required, abbreviations are standard and a formal email means trouble!
However, it does embiggen the smallest man's spirit with continued use
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Guilty. I do this with a coworker kind enough to translate, and help me brain filter these types of things. But she says I am equally helpful, just in other ways. I think we even each other out, make each other better.
It has been so interesting to read all about texting rules. Sorry young'ns, but us old farts had to take grammar in school and we could lose marks on papers if we used poor grammar or improper punctuation. It takes effort to put in a period? I'm sorry, but I find that funny. Not meant in a bad way though. It's also interesting to watch the slang changing so quickly that even some Millenials are feeling lost. I love the exchanges going on at this company. It sounds like a great place to work.
My millennial daughter has no more idea what a lot of Gen Z idiom and communication rules are than I do. She is always complaining about it like a 30 something geezer. "Haven't these people ever heard of commas?"
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It is going to be so sad when these "young" guys realize they don't actually know the latest slang. Poor millennials, you are already old.
I'm 29 and I needed the translation for the current slang. What the heck? How is it changing so fast?!
That last one was just upsetting. I'll just say I'm a fan of the oxford comma and leave it at that.
You know you're past "best" when something go horribly sideways and you described it as FUBAR but the younger crowd looked utterly confused.
Can't we just put a pin in this subject then circle back around before the double click?
I am a freelance Product Writer and one of the companies I write for sells street and skate wear. I have a list of "cool" words they have given me to use. They use my 50-year old brain as they said they can't get someone who "knows the lingo" to write a constructive sentence. Moral of the story is that those product write-ups you read that make the items more attractive to you are written by people who don't use or understand them.
I say yeet and bruh all the time to my kid. They're my favorite. He's not old enough yet to police my slang though.
I'm more attracted to slang than to corporate b******t. In fact, I'm super allergic to hollow phrases of ppl that think they're important. I'm a company owner, but occasionally I read job ads. Just all the fuzzy crap - what the hell is it that you're offering? I would not even be able to respond to such a text, let alone have a conversation with some HR pinhead about the 'position'.
Sometimes the fuzzy crap is necessary if you're talking to a megalomaniac who flies off the handle when you try to correct them, though
Load More Replies...
But I'm only 28 and I use periods and other punctuation in my texts... It's so damn hard to read a text without. It just keep going, gets confusing, and loses context. Edit: I love the symbiotic relationship going on here between coworkers of different generations.
I make an effort to leave off the final period since I learned punctuation in texts reads as aggressive now. It's my compromise and it physically hurts me to do it. Loved this thread tho.
Load More Replies... But... i always use punctuations in my texts tho. I hate when people text me a whole paragraph that I have to figure out cause of lack of punctuations.
Y'all are both doing it wrong, and it's not about all punctuation, it's about periods at the end of a text message in particular.
Load More Replies... I disagree with the definition of "yeet" ... just holding something isn't it ... the act of launching it into the furthest reaches from your location is ...
I LOVE this! Workdad, Elder Curmudgeon, and excellent translation both ways!
I love that their coworkers are comfortable with the cussing and whatnot in the private messages. It really helps bridge the gap by understanding that the OP wants to find more professional ways to speak, but that their normal mode includes cussing and they coworkers are okay with that and not trying to put them down for it.
I laughed out loud when I got to the CEO's message. Also she's found a fantastic work environment, Makes a change from all the toxic s**t we hear about.
Lol I'm in my 40s but have a teenager. I can use the word "yeet" all I want but i can't use the word "sus" there are others but it's soooooooo hilarious to me to see my teens little eye rolls when I use "their" words. I only know which words are off limits if I say them. Teenagers are funny.
My partner’s daughter (18 years) received an email from her collage lecturer about how her performance was going where she was up to with the course, she came home absolutely furious about it. When we quizzed her about the level of fury and she explained that her lecturer was being super passive aggressive and that there was clearly in some sort of dilemma that she was unaware of. When we asked her to read it to us it completely baffled us, there was no passive aggressive tone, there were no issues. We asked her to explain why she thought it was a problem email, her reply? They’ve punctuated it and EVERYTHING. Suddenly the gulf between her (18) and us (mid 40s) was writ large. We still write emails like a slightly shorter form of a letter, we punctuate them like a letter, we don’t use abbreviations in emails and they don’t require a teenager to decrypt them. She sees emails as a long text, no punctuation required, abbreviations are standard and a formal email means trouble!
However, it does embiggen the smallest man's spirit with continued use
Load More Replies... Guilty. I do this with a coworker kind enough to translate, and help me brain filter these types of things. But she says I am equally helpful, just in other ways. I think we even each other out, make each other better.
It has been so interesting to read all about texting rules. Sorry young'ns, but us old farts had to take grammar in school and we could lose marks on papers if we used poor grammar or improper punctuation. It takes effort to put in a period? I'm sorry, but I find that funny. Not meant in a bad way though. It's also interesting to watch the slang changing so quickly that even some Millenials are feeling lost. I love the exchanges going on at this company. It sounds like a great place to work.
My millennial daughter has no more idea what a lot of Gen Z idiom and communication rules are than I do. She is always complaining about it like a 30 something geezer. "Haven't these people ever heard of commas?"
Load More Replies... It is going to be so sad when these "young" guys realize they don't actually know the latest slang. Poor millennials, you are already old.
I'm 29 and I needed the translation for the current slang. What the heck? How is it changing so fast?!
That last one was just upsetting. I'll just say I'm a fan of the oxford comma and leave it at that.
You know you're past "best" when something go horribly sideways and you described it as FUBAR but the younger crowd looked utterly confused.
Can't we just put a pin in this subject then circle back around before the double click?
I am a freelance Product Writer and one of the companies I write for sells street and skate wear. I have a list of "cool" words they have given me to use. They use my 50-year old brain as they said they can't get someone who "knows the lingo" to write a constructive sentence. Moral of the story is that those product write-ups you read that make the items more attractive to you are written by people who don't use or understand them.
I say yeet and bruh all the time to my kid. They're my favorite. He's not old enough yet to police my slang though.
I'm more attracted to slang than to corporate b******t. In fact, I'm super allergic to hollow phrases of ppl that think they're important. I'm a company owner, but occasionally I read job ads. Just all the fuzzy crap - what the hell is it that you're offering? I would not even be able to respond to such a text, let alone have a conversation with some HR pinhead about the 'position'.
Sometimes the fuzzy crap is necessary if you're talking to a megalomaniac who flies off the handle when you try to correct them, though
Load More Replies...
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