I hear people throwing round the word PASSION way too often.  “I have a passion for customer service,” or “I am passionate about dog-walking,” or “I am passionate about pre-OSHA wooden ladders.”

Yeah, yeah.

The same people use terms and words such as REACH OUT TO instead of CALL, ISSUE instead of PROBLEM, CONCERN instead of OBJECTION or ANGER, and EMPOWER instead of GIVE AUTHORITY TO.

My two cents is that this is all part of a trend to 1. soften, on one hand, the impact of direct and meaningful words and phrases (for example, CALL becomes REACH OUT TO), and 2. strengthen, on the other hand, perfectly good words (for example, PASSION replaces LIKE or ENJOY) to make speakers appear to be less direct and instead more … ahem … concerned.  I also have a suspicion that speakers often suggest that PASSION trumps COMPETENCE.

It doesn’t.

Here’s how I feel.  “Look, buddy, after you do what you say you’re going to do, then I’ll determine whether you’re concerned.  Or passionate about my car and my brakes”  Just telling me that you’re concerned or that you’re passionate doesn’t make you so, and in fact leads me to the exact opposite conclusion.

It’s bad enough when psychobabble is used to describe social conditions, but it’s worse when individuals pick up such terms and use them, irony-free, in the place of clear and direct ones, and especially so in the business world.  And as a result feel sharp, or contemporary, or sympathetic, or … empowered.

What’s behind this trend?  My take is that there’s two mistaken notions at play here.  One is that clarity is somehow confrontational.  The other is that real words don’t do justice to beliefs, feelings and … ahem … passions, and emotional terms and phrases convey strength.

What BS.  And by clarity I mean clarity, and not aggression.

When I hear someone tell me that they’re passionate about, for example, banking services, I could say, “Who are you kidding?” or instead, “I think you’ve picked up a word or a term that others mistakenly use that may in fact create the impression that you understand me, but sadly, you sound like you don’t,” but I prefer to think both, and immediately change the subject.

Passion, when used in terms of emotional ties or connections, is best used 1. when describing animate objects, and 2. when OTHERS attribute such a condition to YOU.  As soon as someone tells me that “I am passionate about    (insert term or phrase here)    ,“ I presume they’re trying to sell me something I don’t need.   Unless, of course, the speaker’s passionate about salesmanship, which would indicate to me that either the speaker’s in on the joke, clueless, or both.

Go on.  Tell me I’m passionate about this.  Maybe then you’ll see the irony.