| O ho [n.] | Office wHOre. Suggested by Matt F. |
| O'clock [n.] | Shorthand for a meeting at a specific time. “I can’t touch my 3 o’clock so let’s call this a hard stop.” |
| O'dark thirty [n.] | Far too early in the morning. “So the boss calls up and schedules a meeting for O’dark thirty.” Suggested by brad |
| Off-piste [adj.] | Acting outside of established boundaries, often in a way that is unexpected or risky. The term comes from skiing, where “off-piste” refers to going off the marked trails. Suggested by Dangerous Pete |
| Office pretty [adj.] | A female coworker that is attractive only in comparison to others at the office. “After I ran into Helen at a restaurant, I realized she was just office pretty.” |
| Offline [adj.] | Used in business meetings to reference a more detailed discussion that won’t involve the whole group. “Let’s dialogue about these issues offline.” |
| Old boys club [n.] | A tight network of longstanding business relationships. |
| On point [adj.] | A military term referring to the first and primary person involved in a given situation. “You’re on point tomorrow with the Mexican clients.” |
| On the air [adj.] | Reachable by email or phone via a mobile device. “I’m out of the office but I’ll be on the air all afternoon.” Suggested by Jeff. |
| On the carpet [adj.] | In trouble. “I called Johnson on the carpet the other day; he really tanked in that meeting with the client.” |
| On the cheap [exp.] | To do something at a low cost. “No expense account for this trip. We’re going to have to do it on the cheap.” |
| On the map [adj.] | Well known. |
| On the take [exp.] | Accepting unethical money. |
| On your plate [exp.] | The work currently assigned to a given employee. |
| Onboarding [v.] | 1) The process of garnering support for a project. 2) Familiarizing a new hire, which often includes orientation, filling out tax forms, training, obtaining key cards, etc. Suggested by Matthew H. and Jon. |
| One throat to choke [exp.] | Dealing with one large supplier for many items. Then if something goes wrong, there is only company to rage at. |
| One-man show [n.] | A business with a single proprietor. |
| One-two punch [n.] | A borrowed boxing term meaning two actions taken immediately after each other. |
| Open skies [adj.] | Universally available. |
| Open the kimono [v.] | Revealing confidential business information. The term would probably be more offensive if it wasn’t usually one overweight, middle-aged man asking another to open his kimono. “You’ll have to open the kimono on your IP before engineering will sign off on the deal.” Suggested by Grushenkaman. |
| Operationalize [v.] | To do. Now was that so hard? |
| OPM [n.] | Other People’s Money. You down with OPM? |
| Optics [n.] | How something appears. “I understand the optics of this situation, but despite how it looks, we have not acted inappropriately.” Suggested by Karen M. |
| Org chart [n.] | A graphical representation of an organization’s hierarchy. “If there’s only two people above me on the org chart, why do I have six telling me what to do?” |
| Organic growth [n.] | Expanding a business from within using existing workers… and nepotism! Suggested by Conan B. |
| Organizational awareness [n.] | Familiarity with the things that are (or supposed to be) commonly known throughout an organization. “What do you mean you don’t have our mission statement memorized?” |
| Organizational DNA [n.] | A cute analogy relating the four basic units of genetic code with the elements of successful management. Some call these “decision rights, information, motivators, and structure”, others, “factual, conceptual, contextual, and individual,” but both are guilty of repackaging established knowledge under a trendy new buzzword. |
| Organogram [n.] | Organization chart. “Where would you place yourself on the organogram in the near-term?” Suggested by Will Blackstock. |
| OT mail [n.] | OverTime-mail. The practice of sending your boss a superfluous email, just to let him know how late you were working. |
| Out of bed [adj.] | In a state of disarray or misalignment. “Call in a hot delivery because we’re totally out of bed on that order.” Suggested by Emily C. |
| Out of the box [exp.] | Describes the abilities of a product immediately after purchase without any upgrades or integration. “What can this software do out of the box?” Suggested by Matt F. |
| Out of the woodwork [exp.] | A surprise appearance. |
| Out-of-pocket [adj.] | Unreachable. “I’m boarding the plane, so I’ll be out-of-pocket for a few hours.” Suggested by Jim. |
| Outbeat [v.] | Like beating a competitor… but more so, apparently. “Hammer your leads and outbeat those clowns.” Suggested by Nick |
| Outside the box [exp.] | A creative solution that avoids a traditional or common approach. The ‘box’ concept has started to lose all meaning now that everyone claims to be outside of it. |
| Over-the-shoulder time [n.] | An informal training or review session conducted in-person. “Drop by my office for a little over-the-shoulder time.” Suggested by Corey S. |
| Ownership [n.] | An employee’s realization that he is ultimately responsible for the success of a given endeavor. You may even convince him that it was his idea in the first place. Suggested by Mrs. B. Trellis of North Wales. |
| Oxygen-move [n.] | The act of ‘breathing new life’ into a project or business. “Your team’s productivity is down; we need an oxygen-move to keep things moving forward.” Suggested by Matt. |
