The top 5 language challenges in today’s workplaces
100% of companies are losing money due to “low-quality language.”*
Low-quality language goes way beyond obvious insults, curse words, and slurs. This is language that may seem perfectly fine on the surface but is actually disrespecting, irritating, or alienating people.
And it takes training to identify. For example, low-quality language can show up as seemingly innocuous words like you and we all. He and wife. And just and good guy.
Low-quality language leads to bad outcomes. Like unpleasant and unproductive workplaces, diminished client loyalty, and reduced profits.
US organizations may be losing around $2 billion USD per day due to workplace incivility.
Voluntary turnover costs US businesses about $1 trillion each year — and at least half of this turnover was preventable.
Communication deficiencies between managers and employees can reduce productivity by up to 25%.
63% of less-represented consumers would prefer to buy from brands that made more of an effort to represent them.
A hit to brand reputation can be so damaging that reputational risk insurance offers up to $50 million dollars of coverage for profit loss resulting from bad publicity.
Communication is one of the most complicated things we do as humans, and this complexity creates real challenges.
Let’s look at the top 5 language challenges I see in today’s workplaces. Each challenge, when not addressed, can cause serious damage — to morale, to productivity, to market share, and to the bottom line.
1. Low-quality language causes problems
This is the biggest, most pervasive, and most expensive language challenge out there. Problems include:
Diminished employee engagement, innovation, and productivity
Dysfunctional team dynamics and lower psychological safety
Issues with employee recruitment and retention
Disregard or ignorance of both new ideas and serious problems
Alienated audiences, prospects, and clients
Negative publicity and damaged brand reputation
But almost nobody is connecting the dots between low-quality language and damage to the bottom line.
2. People use ineffective language to give feedback
Giving critical feedback is already challenging. And it’s even more difficult when the critical feedback is about language or behavior that was uncivil, condescending, inappropriate, or biased in some way.
Using words like racism or ageist or misogynistic or transphobia usually makes things worse. Even when a person’s behavior matches the definition, they will almost never accept being labeled with negative terminology.
Without access to terminology that was designed to bypass resistance, critical feedback often won’t have the desired result. Instead, we may find anger, digging in heels, amplification of the problematic behavior, and even retaliation.
3. People don’t have a toolkit for making judgments
Without training in how to identify hidden meanings, managers and HR decision makers may not be able to accurately judge language at work.
If there isn’t a curse word or slur or obvious insult, the decision maker may not see a problem. And they’ll decide that there was no bias, unfair treatment, discrimination, or harassment. They might say, “She was just joking,” or “He’s actually a good guy” or “They’re just curious.”
When they’re wrong? They have dramatically increased the legal risk for their organization. Lawsuits are time consuming, expensive, and may do significant reputational damage if they become newsworthy.
And they have also lowered trust and psychological safety. Thirty-seven percent of recently surveyed US workers said their managers and supervisors often fail to address incivility in the workplace. Only 25% felt their managers effectively handled incivility. And about 25% said their managers and supervisors didn’t even notice incivility at all.
4. People make missteps when learning about a community
The only way to make sure your communications aren’t accidentally insulting, alienating, or erasing people from a different community is to learn more about that community.
But simply asking someone, “Can you tell me about language that is problematic when it comes to your community?” isn’t enough. It’s too vague to elicit good information. And it doesn’t build trust.
What’s more, some people feel too nervous to ask questions at all, especially in today’s polarized climate.
But without solid information on what words, phrases, and communication styles aren’t going to land well on a community, chances are excellent that something will go wrong.
5. The political climate is changing the rules for language
Here in the US, the Trump administration has been putting out executive orders and making declarations about what language is and isn’t acceptable. Since this includes some very basic terminology, such as female, race, immigrants, and pronoun, it isn’t feasible to simply stop using the words on this list. Other countries also have polarized political climates, and things are especially complicated for global organizations.
In this new and dynamic context, organizations are facing real challenges. Is it “acquiescing” to change vocabulary? And how do you develop organization-wide standards and a shared lexicon in a time of instability?
Potential costs include public callouts and being “cancelled,” boycotts, lawsuits, and the loss of government funding. It’s a lot.
What can you do?
The good news is that there is a science-based intervention for every challenge.
Organizations can bring in training to improve skills and behaviors, so that:
Sales reps and marketers can avoid the top language mistakes that alienate prospects
Customer service reps can avoid the top language mistakes that alienate clients
People involved in talent acquisition can avoid the top language mistakes that alienate candidates
Managers can upgrade to more modern and strategic language that improves trust and team dynamics
HR people and managers can accurately identify language problems and minimize the legal risk that comes from overlooking discrimination and harassment
Employees can avoid offending and alienating their colleagues
Leadership can enhance their influence and reach by upgrading to more modern and strategic language
Consulting can also help:
Audits and quality control to improve all kinds of materials: websites, newsletters, employee handbooks, intake forms, internal and external comms, and more.
Consulting to develop glossaries and style guides that create consistency and maintain brand reputation.
Consulting to produce tools where optimized language is already baked in. This includes guides for running meetings, guides for running performance reviews, guides for interviewing, and more.
Thanks to low-quality language, companies are losing money every day. Lots of money.
But you can run quality control on communication and identify and remove what’s defective and ineffective. With upgraded language, upskilled employees, and improved communications, organizations can minimize damage moving forward.
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* In addition, low-quality language makes 100% of non-profits, schools and universities, and government agencies less effective and less impactful.
Copyright 2025 © Worthwhile Research & Consulting
Are you looking to do quality control on your organization’s communications? We offer training and consulting to upgrade organizations from low-quality language to optimized language.