Corporate email and Slack have their own dialect, built almost entirely from phrases that let you say a sharp thing while sounding like you didn't mean it sharply. We've compiled the current phrasebook, with honest translations, because everyone uses these constantly and almost nobody says what they actually mean underneath them.
"Just circling back on this"
Translation: "You didn't answer me and it's been four days." "Circling back" implies a gentle, patient loop, a bird returning to a nest. What's actually happening is a second request, sent because the first one was ignored, phrased softly enough that nobody has to admit the first one failed.
"Per my last email"
The single most openly passive-aggressive phrase in the entire corporate lexicon, and everyone knows it, which is exactly why it still works — it signals "I already told you this and you didn't read it" while remaining, technically, a neutral citation of a prior message. The politeness is doing no actual softening. It's a loaded weapon with a bow tied on it.
"Just floating this"
Translation: "I have a strong opinion and want credit for it if it works, deniability if it doesn't." An idea that's "floated" rather than proposed can be walked back without anyone losing face, which is precisely why real convictions get dressed up as casual balloons before anyone commits to defending them out loud.
"Happy to hop on a call"
Rarely expresses actual happiness. Usually means "this is getting complicated enough in writing that I'd rather manage it live, where tone and backpedaling are both easier." The call isn't about efficiency. It's about moving a disagreement somewhere with no paper trail.
"No worries if not!"
Attached to the end of a request, this phrase performs generosity while changing nothing about the actual ask — the request still needs to happen, the deadline hasn't moved, and "no worries if not" mostly exists to make the asker feel, and appear, less demanding than the request itself actually is.
"Let's take this offline"
Covered once already in a different context, but it belongs in this glossary too: it means "I don't want to have this disagreement in front of everyone currently watching," said in the exact meeting room where everyone is, in fact, currently watching.
"Totally understand if now's not the right time, but..."
The "but" is the entire sentence. Everything before it is a costume. The ask that follows is happening regardless of whether now is the right time — the preamble just buys the asker a softer landing if the answer turns out to be no.
"Not to be that person, but..."
A direct admission, stated plainly, that the speaker is about to be that person, followed immediately by them doing it anyway. The disclaimer doesn't prevent the behavior. It just pre-apologizes for it, which is a cheaper transaction than not doing the thing at all.
"Love this! One small note..."
The compliment is real estate paid upfront to make room for a rewrite. "One small note" is never actually small — it's whatever note the reviewer considers most important, introduced with a diminisher so the recipient's defenses stay down long enough to actually hear it.
Why the dialect exists at all
Because direct disagreement in a professional setting carries real social and career risk, and this entire phrasebook exists to let people say true, sometimes sharp things while maintaining enough plausible softness that nobody has to escalate, retaliate, or even acknowledge the sharpness out loud. It's not dishonest so much as it's a shared de-escalation technology — everyone decodes it the same way, which is the only reason it keeps working.
What we're not saying
We're not saying directness is always better — some of this softening genuinely prevents unnecessary conflict, and a workplace where everyone said exactly what they meant, bluntly, all the time, would probably be a worse place to work, not a more honest one. We're saying it's worth knowing the dictionary you're both fluently speaking, because the words are doing real diplomatic work the moment you stop noticing them.
If your last email thread had three "per my last emails" in a row, email us at contact@b2bsaas.guru. We'll help you say what you mean. Per our last email.