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'It's all strategic positioning.'

DEFINITION: v. To create an illusion of busyness so that your co-workers, and most importantly your boss, never realize that you have absolutely nothing to do. n. A person who pretends to be very busy.

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Verboticisms

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Exertsham

Created by: Stevenson0

Pronunciation: exert/sham

Sentence: The illusion of working is an age old problem and is also known as walking the dog, a government job, or exertsham.

Etymology: EXERTSHAM - noun - from EXERT (to put oneself into strenuous, vigorous action, or effort)+ SHAM (something that is not what it purports to be; a fraud, or hoax)

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Shirkcrafting

Created by: jedijawa

Pronunciation: shirk-craft-ing

Sentence: Betsy has honed the skill of shirkcrafting so that she can manage to get no work done during a day with nobody being the wiser.

Etymology: shirk + crafting

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Fauxworker

Created by: Splosion

Pronunciation: pho-werk-er

Sentence: Mary's just a fauxworker: she doesn't really do anything all day.

Etymology:

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Scampress

Created by: Mustang

Pronunciation: skam-PRESS

Sentence: Jonathan had various ways to scampress his coworkers and supervisors by making it appear that he was not only hard at work but was performing above and beyond his experience level while actually being totally incompetent in his real job.

Etymology: Blend of the words 'scam' (a fraudulent or deceptive act or operation) and 'impress' (influence in opinion)

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Sleightofhandyman

Created by: ziggy41

Pronunciation: slyte-ov-han-dee-man

Sentence: Watch Joe over there, his use of sleightofhandyman may make a manager think twice about giving him work, but he's been nailing that same nail for the past hour.

Etymology: Sleight of hand (trickery, deception) + handyman (a worker hired to do various jobs)

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Exertsham

Created by: Stevenson0

Pronunciation: exert/sham

Sentence: The illusion of working is an age old problem and is also known as walking the dog, a government job, or exertsham.

Etymology: exertion + sham

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COMMENTS:

as long as the dog walkers don't shampoop and scoop - Jabberwocky, 2007-05-01: 10:36:00

i need someone to walk my shampoodle - rikboyee, 2007-05-01: 18:10:00

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Strategery

Created by: Javeson1

Pronunciation: stra-TEE-juh-ree

Sentence: the president believes we should use strategery with this delicate situation.

Etymology: it's from an SNL skit of a debate between gore and bush... this was an SNL bushism. after all, isn't the definition of this word all the president really ever does anyway???

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COMMENTS:

by the way, who'se noticed the growing amount and variation of colors in these sketches??? - Javeson1, 2007-05-01: 20:42:00

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Feignchorious

Created by: Jabberwocky

Pronunciation: fane/chor/ee/us

Sentence: Stu was so feignchorious that he had the entire office convinced he was seriously overworked when, in fact, the stack of files on his desk were filled with sudoku puzzles.

Etymology: feign (pretend) + chore + vainglorious

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Workillude

Created by: mercurious2001

Pronunciation: worl/il/lude

Sentence: I spent all day trying to workillude so that my boss stays happy.

Etymology: work and illusion

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Defartmentalize

Created by: lumina

Pronunciation: dee/fart/men/tul/ize

Sentence: Josh was able to convince everyone in the office that he was on top of several projects at once. He had the ability to defartmentalize any project thrown his way. Yes, he had gotten so good at allocating everything to others on the sly, that he considered himself the Head of the Customer Service Defartment.

Etymology: Root word: Departmentalize: To organize something into departments. Phrase: fart around: To waste time.

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COMMENTS:

I think my boss is the defartment head. What should I do? - reverb, 2008-07-19: 06:42:00

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Comments:

Verbotomy Verbotomy - 2007-05-01: 00:31:00
Today's definition was suggested by petaj.
Thank you petaj! ~ James

Verbotomy Verbotomy - 2007-05-01: 01:33:00
Congratulations to petaj for her win last week. We are offering a new Verbotomy Cup for the top player this week. And next week, we are doing theme on Cory Doctorow, and offering his newest book "Overclocked" as a prize to the top writer. See more about Cory at his blog www.craphound.com ~ James

metrohumanx metrohumanx - 2008-07-17: 00:58:00
A word that NEEDS no introduction...