| I hate to say "I told you so" [exp.] | I told you so. |
| Idea shower [n.] | A creative group exercise where suggestions are made in rapid succession. Creeper boss says, “Shower me… with ideas.” Suggested by Operatic Bacon. |
| Ideation [n.] | An overused portmanteau of “idea” and “creation”. Psychologists have a legitimate use for this word. You probably don’t. Suggested by Janice H. |
| Ignoranus [n.] | Someone who is both stupid and an asshole. Suggested by John W. |
| Imagineer [v.] | A contraction of “imagine” and “engineer” used to describe the wasting of time and money to develop an unnecessary solution to some non-existent business problem. Suggested by The Village Idiot. |
| Impactful [adj.] | Having a large effect. An ugly, ugly extension of the word ‘impact.’ |
| In my world [exp.] | You plebs couldn’t possibly understand what it’s like for someone in my position. Suggested by Catie |
| In the black [adj.] | Profitable. |
| In the cards [exp.] | A likely outcome. |
| Incent [v.] | To encourage an action by suggesting a reward. A particularly terrible verb created from the noun incentive. “I think we can incent investors to get on-board with this one.” |
| Income not IF-come [exp.] | A business needs cash, not the promise of cash. Suggested by Lyndsey. |
| Industrial vacation [n.] | A business trip to a desirable location that is loosely related to business. Usually requires participants to arrive a few days early to “prepare” and stay a few days after to “wrap-up.” |
| Insourcing [v.] | The practice of looking within one’s company for someone with required skills. |
| Interface [v.] | To communicate. “Can we interface just before lunch?” Suggested by Linda. |
| Interlock [v.] | Meeting in order to coordinate. “Stop by my office and we’ll interlock later.” |
| Into the weeds [exp.] | Presenting excessive detail when the expectation was to stay at a basic overview level. “Can we find one damn engineer who can speak about their work without diving into the weeds?” Suggested by Kenny. |
| Involuntary entrepreneur [n.] | A laid off employee with poor prospects who is forced to work multiple transient jobs. |
| Involuntary reduction in force [exp.] | A round of firings made after requesting that people volunteer to quit. |
| Irregardless [adj.] | A false merger of regardless and irrespective; incorrectly used in lieu of either. Suggested by Antti L. |
| Issue [n.] | In a positive and affirming workplace the word ‘problem’ is swapped for the much more diplomatic ‘issue’. “Houston, we have an issue.” Suggested by Tracy. |
| ITL [adj.] | In The Loop. Describes an awareness of key issues. “Bring me up to speed. I’m not ITL on this one.” |
