Updates at work

Zion Press -- “Time to update at work”, thought Mark, unenthusiastically. Miriam Webster updates the Oxford English Dictionary four times a year, and really, those were the times that stressed him out the most. While he knew that English was a growing language, and that people coined phrases all the time, it didn’t mean he had to like it.

So far, the contenders weren’t too bad, but he had never really found one that he connected with, grokked, as it were. Grok. That was a word that made no sense, and yet, when one understood it intuitively, did.

The abbreviations, like WFH, drove him especially crazy, but the euphoria of the rest of his job enveloped the irritating aspects. “Contactless” was a fairly recent addition, as was “iatrophobia” which means an intense fear of doctors. Many new words had cropped up during the pandemic, and he was sure to see, and add, more.

One though, that struck Mark’s fancy, was “2020”. While at one point, 20/20 meant hindsight, and that was the definition people thought of most, 2020 covered all things crazy, off the rails, not going the way things were expected.

“2020; adverb. When things go in a direction not expected. When asked how her first day babysitting went, the young woman shrugged and answered, 2020.”