‘I’m in HR – there’s a word that’s great for politely shutting down colleagues’

Let’s face it: we’ve all encountered, or at least have had to deal with, irritating colleagues who you’d prefer to avoid.

Whether they completely disregard the brief you’ve provided and opt to do things their way – much to your frustration – or they incessantly email you, prematurely chasing something you assured would be delivered by day’s end, there’s no denying that sometimes you’re tempted to unleash your fury on them via an email.

However, we all recognise that’s not the professional approach. Hence, Yasar Ahmed has offered methods to “professionally say f**k you”.

He noted that he observes that the “smartest people use these at work all the time and avoid getting in trouble,” and he should know this, having worked in HR for 15 years.

He suggested that you could “say something in a corporate tongue” instead of resorting to unprofessional behaviour.

The “short, sharp and deadly” phrase to silence annoying colleagues, according to Yasar, is “noted”. There’s “no follow-up required” from the person you’re emailing either, making it a win-win situation.

Another phrase you can employ is: “Thanks for your input, I’ll take it from here,” which Yasar interprets as “You’ve done enough; sit down”.

The third phrase you can utilise to express your annoyance via email is: “If that’s how you’d like to proceed, I’ll document accordingly”. He humorously suggested that this implies you’ve “lawyered them without a lawyer”.

Number four on the list is: “Let’s agree to disagree and escalate if needed”. Yasar humorously interpreted this as corporate speak for “corporate for ‘this conversation is over, and if you wanna try me, then try me’.”

He wrapped up his video with a clear message: “None of these raise your voice, none of these get you fired. All of these say exactly what you mean. Professional doesn’t mean passive. It just means calculated”.

In the comment section, one user quipped that soon everyone at work would be uttering “noted” to each other.

A woman expressed her gratitude for the advice, saying, “I needed this information so badly,” as she aimed to adopt a more diplomatic and polite approach in her professional interactions.

Another individual wrote: “I’ve got resting b***h face which helps almost everything getting ‘noted’.”

To which Yasar responded with tears of joy emojis.

One person shared their preferred method of subtly expressing annoyance: by signing off emails with “regards” instead of the warmer ‘best wishes’ or ‘kind regards’.

A TikTok viewer remarked: “Ooh I’m gonna use that ‘thanks for your input’ one from now on. It’s perfect and it works for my work environment as well”.

Meanwhile, another commenter mentioned that they would incorporate “Let’s agree to disagree” into their workplace vocabulary to maintain professionalism and diplomacy.