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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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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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Imitoil

Created by: iwasatripwire

Pronunciation: im-ih-toil

Sentence: "Tip 14: Constantly making trips to the photocopier is a great way to look busy AND get in some exercise." --from Imitoiling for Dummies

Etymology: imitate + toil

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Taskmasker

Created by: purpleartichokes

Pronunciation: task-mass-kur

Sentence: Phil was a professional taskmasker; I don't know how he was able to look busy all the time when everyone knew he had absolutely nothing to do.

Etymology: taskmaster, mask

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COMMENTS:

excellent! - toadstool57, 2007-05-01: 07:15:00

ohwtepph one LOL and one vote for you. - ohwtepph, 2007-05-01: 09:39:00

Nice word Artichokes! - Goldentongue, 2007-05-01: 10:11:00

great word purple - Jabberwocky, 2007-05-01: 10:38:00

Thanks! - purpleartichokes, 2007-05-01: 12:41:00

Fantastic, as always. - Osomatic, 2007-05-01: 13:47:00

Hmmm - I wonder who you are referring to? - paperhoard, 2007-05-01: 14:58:00

Phil is an "imaginary" coworker. He excels at imagining himself working. - purpleartichokes, 2007-05-01: 15:15:00

petaj Brilliant. - petaj, 2007-05-02: 05:40:00

That's awesome! - jedijawa, 2007-05-03: 13:27:00

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Managingdeflector

Created by: porsche

Pronunciation: man/aj/ing/de/flek/tor

Sentence: The managingdeflector in our firm had a job that no one could explain but he was paid a ton of money for walking around with his headset and blackberry

Etymology: managing director + deflect

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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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Fluffjob

Created by: Osomatic

Pronunciation: fluff + job

Sentence: I can't possibly help you with your project, I'm busy already with my fluffjob.

Etymology: From the swedish "flufjobba."

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Pseudoeffortize

Created by: Pasicheio

Pronunciation: Sue-Doe-Eff-Or-Ties

Sentence: IN an effort to avoid assignments, Dave would pseudoeffortize in the hopes of being passed by

Etymology: Pseudo; Effort

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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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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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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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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...