I have a long list of jargon-y words that make my skin crawl when I encounter them in my work, my Inbox or online, but I believe "decisioning," a word included in a work document a few years ago, may have been the most outrageous. Before deleting it, I did check the dictionary, smugly assuming there was no way it was a real word. It is (though it shouldn't be).
This morning, via Twitter, I was introduced to a new horror of a word that should not be a word (and I'm not even going to bother looking this one up). The headline and subhead read:
Don’t Gamify. Pleasurize.
Some gamification efforts may try too hard to win over workers with unreal motivators like points, badges, and leader boards. Just adding a little enjoyment to everyday tasks can go a long way toward improving productivity.
I don't think I need to tell you why this is terrible.
But I do have to point out how funny it is that someone would take the idea of playing games and makes it sound like a medical procedure.
Let's all commit to smiting (now there's a word I'd like to see used more often ... I just hope I spelled it right) all forms of this newcomer (gamify, gamification, gamifier) when it cross our paths.
postscript: Here's the link to the full story if you'd like to learn more about being gamified.
