Acronyms you use at work and in hobbies

[Cynthetiq]

dlish was talking about MOM in another thread, and I've been pondering this for some time now, but never got around to posting it.

What acronyms do you use for your work or play? Do you have any favorites? Give us examples of them used in sentences or communications. And before anyone else does it quoting Office Space, (FIRST!) please are you going to go ahead and have those TPS reports for us this afternoon?

I hate that we use these annoying acronyms at the office:

COB - close of business
I need that report on my desk by COB tomorrow.

LOE - level of effort
I'm going to inquire what the LOE is in order to get an idea as to what the cost should be for that enhancement.

One of my favorites, not used in my line of work but in the ER.

SOCMOB - Standing on corner minding my own business
The person was SOCMOB when he was struck by a stray bullet.

[MSD]

The only acronyms I use are the initials of my union (which they use on all official correspondence,) product names (example: ART SLA = Acoustics Research and Technology Studio Linear Amplifier; RDL MLC - Radio Design Labs Mic.Line Combiner,) and since it's a university, the usual abbreviations and acronyms for degrees and programs.

I don't do acronyms, corporate buzzwords, or management speak. Everything I say and write is clear and can be understood by anyone who speaks English fluently. I don't think I could deal with working in a place that does. I want to talk and be talked to like a normal human being.

[Craven Morehead]

Originally Posted by Cynthetiq

LOE - level of effort
I'm going to inquire what the LOE is in order to get an idea as to what the cost should be for that enhancement.

LOE - letter of engagement
I'm working for a consulting firm now. Instead of contracts, we outline in a letter the scope of the engagement and its cost.

[levite]

I'm a rabbi. You guys have NO idea how many acronyms you can come up with until you do work in a language without written vowels, where acronyms can become vocalized words effortlessly, and all great scholars are known by their acronyms. Seriously, rabbinics is like the army with the number of acronyms we have. First time I really got into a heavy rabbinics conversation, and I saw someone trying to follow the track of "...if you look at RaSHI, and then you look at RaSHBaM, and you compare what they say to the RAVaD and the RiVaSH, check the Ta"Z and the SHa"CH, and the German SHu"T, you can see a throughline of precedents that all agree that YAba"Zei l'AKu"M can't be SHa"Tzim;" they looked like they were trying to shit a brick, and I realized I had unwittingly fallen into the jargon circle of Dante's Inferno....

(All of that acrobatonymics just means that certain rabbinic authorities all agree in their responsa or commentaries that Jews who are deliberately apostates may not qualify as leaders of public Jewish prayers.)

[StanT]

Originally Posted by MSD

I don't do acronyms ... I want to talk and be talked to like a normal human being.

I agree; but no one can get by without an occasional wtf.

[G5_Todd]

WT - white trash

but its more of a general term not related to my work, i guess every day life

now in the military i could go on for ever, there are so many that i dont even have a clue what they mean without googling them...

[Charlatan]

In Singapore, they speak in a constant barrage of acronyms. I don't even know where to start to explain how frequently they come into use. I have to frequently ask people to stop and explain what they are talking about.

[Xerxys]

My previous boss who I had a mild crush on used SOL a lot - shit outta luck.

[Plan9]

God, everything in my job has an acronym. It combines the worst of the public sector and private sector.

[Baraka_Guru]

Editors don't use just acronyms, we also use abbreviations and other markings to indicate what we mean.

Best example:
STET Editor shorthand (and Latin) for "Let it stand." Slang: "Don't make that fucking change; leave it alone."

Here is a wider example of the notation we use:

[Charlatan]

Here is just a sample of the nonsense I have to deal with on a regular basis just living here: https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikiped..._abbreviations

Add to this, the wonderful creole that is Singlish (https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Singlish) and... you get the idea.

[uncle phil]

i did 20 years with the federal government - saw acronyms in my sleep...

too many to remember...

[MiSo]

acronyms are easy. try memorizing form numbers in the military. LoL

[Baraka_Guru]

Ooh, there's also the financial acronyms I use in business books.

[genuinegirly]

Biology has so many acronyms we tend to forget that they are short for something. When genetics, proteins, and chemical signaling become involved the number becomes so overwhelming that reading through a paper requires a cheat-sheet. Oftentimes I find that my visual memory is better than auditory for acronyms - so when someone pronounces the acronym like a word (not uncommon) I have to pause and think about how it would be spelled.

[Lasereth]

Originally Posted by MSD

I don't do acronyms, corporate buzzwords, or management speak. Everything I say and write is clear and can be understood by anyone who speaks English fluently. I don't think I could deal with working in a place that does. I want to talk and be talked to like a normal human being.

I love you

We use a ton of acronyms here but they're all related to programs and networking stuff.

RMS - record management system
cad - computer aided dispatching (not drawing, took me a while to get used to this)
MCT - officer dispatch program
MDT - mobile data terminal
UTRP - unable to replicate problem

Dozens more but I'm too lazy to type them out.

[CinnamonGirl]

At my last serving job, we used LBD (lunch business decline) and DBD (dinner business decline) a lot... if you were working an LBD or DBD shift, you got cut after the initial surge of people.

I can't really think of any at Ruby's...one of the cooks uses LTO (lettuce, tomato, onion), but he's the only one.

[noodle]

CHNE and CPC -- name of my company and program
PSp -- Psychosocial Specialist.
I was also an SSS, SSSp and PG at one time or another.
HH -- Hospital Homebound.

BM -- exactly what you think

WCH -- Hospital I work with
DCSB -- school board
DDC -- County Detention Center (also known as JDC for the juvies)

and all of the dang medical acronyms I have to ask people what they mean. I used to know what OEIS syndrome was off hand... something about extrophy of the bladder, intestinal problems... blarg. I just look them up now.

[SecretMethod70]

GOTV - Get Out The Vote
DVC - Direct Voter Contact
VBM/ABR - Vote By Mail/Absentee Ballot Request

HOP - Head On Pillow (the campaign version of COB )

CD - Congressional District
HD - State House District
SD - State Senate District

NTM - Neighborhood Team Member
NTL - Neighborhood Team Leader
FO - Field Organizer
RFD - Regional Field Director
DFD - Deputy Field Director
FD - Field Director

There are many more, but I think this gives a good enough idea.

[PonyPotato]

Honestly, I thought that working in government contracting was bad.. but now that I'm doing observation in physical therapy, I'm not so sure. In the government, most of the acronyms are relatively proper nouns.. departments, projects, etc. In PT medical records, they are just used for brevity, and sometimes it's ridiculous.

[snowy]

We don't really use a lot of acronyms in my current field, unless it's referring to a government organization (like DHS: Department of Human Services or CCD: Child Care Division) that we work with in some capacity. That's really about it.

However, our new hobby of homebrewing is full of acronyms I am still trying to wrap my head around.

[Fotzlid]

I work in the medical field. I can have short conversations with acronyms with the occasional small word like "the" or "and" thrown in there.

[m0rpheus]

Most of our product codes are Acronyms.
Examples:
Sleeman Cream Ale is SCA
Old Milwaukee is OMR (for regular while light is OML)
Upper Canada Lager is UCL

Also the machine that makes the boxes are the CMUs (Carton Makeup Units). More people know them by the acronym actually.

I'm sure there's more, but I can't think of them right now.

[telekinetic]

I work as an engineer in Aerospace, so there are a LOT of acronyms. Just so you know, I'm doing this list from memory, this isn't a copy-paste cheat sheet or anything.

First there are various forms/reports I deal with/fill out regularly:
FAI: First Article Inspection
IRR: Inspection Rejection Report
SDR: Supplier Deviation Request
ECR: Engineering Change Request
ECO: Engineering Change Order
NTO: No Technical Objection
LOS: Letter of Similarity
ETR: Engineering Test Report

Then some larger documents, both internal and that we push out to customers/vendors:
WO: Work Order
WI: Work Instruction
SO: Sales Order
PO: Purchase Order
SPOC: Supplimental Purchase Order Conditions
CMM: Customer Maintenance Manual

Then there are some drafting terms:
CAD: Computer Aided Drafting
PDM: Product Data Management
GD&T: Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing
BOM: Bill of Materials

And some warehousing terms:
SKU: Shopkeeping Unit
FIFO: First in, first out
LOL: Last of lot
MRP: Material Requirement Planning

A sprinkling of project management terms:
PDR: Preliminary Design Review
CDR: Critical Design Review
ROI: Return on Investment
RAIL: Rolling Action Item List
EPSSR: Engineering Project Status Summary Report

A couple of committees
MRB: Material Review Board
CCB: Change Control Board
CIC: Continuous Improvement Council

Some organizations we interface with:
FAA: Federal Aviation Administration
EASA: European Aviation Safety Agency
SAE: Society of Automotive Engineers
ANSI: American National Standards Institute
CAA: Civil Aviation Authority
NTSB: National Transportation Safety Board
ISO: International Standards Organization

Some Certification Related terms:
TSO: Technical Standards Order
STC: Supplimental Type Certificate
FMVSS: Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards

Some "Lean"/Six Sigma terms that crop up daily:
DMAIC: Design Measure Analyze Iimprove Control
DMADV: Design Measure Analyze Design Verify
VSM: Value Stream Map
LSS: Lean Six Sigma
GR&R: Gage Repeatability and Reproducability
DOE: Design of Experiment
CP: Process Capability
CPK: Process Capability Coefficient
PPK: Process Performance Coeficient

Phew...that's about all I've got, since we're getting pretty close to COB (close of business) I think I'm going to say that's it.

But first, a few VERY unofficial acronyms we use privatly, in verbal conversation, between engineers.

We use the following to describe (in escalating order) how bad a problem is:
SNAFU: Situation normal, all fucked up
TARFU: Things are Really Fucked Up
FUBAR: Fucked up Beyond All Recognition

And also, how accurate our numbers/findings are (from least confident to most):
POOMA: Pulled Out Of My Ass
WAG: Wild-Ass Guess
SWAG: Scientific Wild-Ass Guess

Finally, we have been known to refer to our (quite Caucasian boss) as the HNIC.

[Martian]

Welcome to the IT industry. IT jargon I think is kind of infamous. Fun fact: there's an acronym in my company's name.

Some of you will probably already know many or even most of the acronyms in my list:

IP: Internet Protocol, the foundation on which the internet is built
URL: Uniform Resource Locator, or what's commonly known as a "web address"
DNS: Domain Name Service, the service that connects a domain name to an IP address
TLD: Top Level Domain, the two, three or four letter 'type' of domain in question, which can be either a
gTLD: generic Top Level Domain such as .com or .org, or a
ccTLD: country code Top Level Domain, such as .ca, .uk or .us .
POP: Post Office Protocol, and
IMAP: Internet Message Access Protocol, two ways of getting email from your mail server to your mail client
SMTP: Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, the way mail servers transfer messages between themselves
FQDN: Fully Qualified Domain Name, a domain name that is specified as absolute instead of relative to another one.
SSL: Secure Socket Layer, a method of verifying and securing an internet connection through the use of encryption and a digital "certificate" issued by a third party
TLS: The successor to SSL for encrypting a connection

I could go on, but those are all of the ones that pop immediately to mind on the tech side of things. If someone calls or emails me looking to trouble shoot something related to their DNS, odds are a few of the acronyms are going to come up. In addition to that, we have the policy (read: legal) side of it. Because we're also a registrar, we get to deal with:

ICANN: The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, the body resposnible for overseeing some of the most critical aspects of the internet as it exists today
IANA: The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority, the body that allocates the IP address side of things
CIRA: The Canadian Internet Registration Authority, the organization in charge of the registry for .ca domains
UDRP: Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy, the procedure for contesting domain ownership

And that's enough for now.

[MSD]

I guess in day to day life I occasionally use some acronyms, mainly code words with friends for things that might offend the general public or shortening common phrases, but it's all stuff anyone with a passing familiarity with the subject at hand would understand. Talking IT stuff with IT people involves acronyms that are probably more recognizable than the full names. Regarding working out, DOMS is a lot shorter than Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (which I am feeling an unbelievable amount of today,) DC sounds a lot better than Dogcrapp (the alias of the guy who came up with a bunch of specific powerlifting techniques and one of the reasons I'm suffering from DOMS,) and stuff like that.

Originally Posted by Lasereth

I love you

I have promised myself that if I'm ever managing people or running a business, I will keep a stack of cash on me and give any employee who catches me using idiotic management speak $5 on the spot. Common use acronyms that the general public would use don't count.

[Baraka_Guru]

Originally Posted by MSD

I have promised myself that if I'm ever managing people or running a business, I will keep a stack of cash on me and give any employee who catches me using idiotic management speak $5 on the spot. Common use acronyms that the general public would use don't count.

Wow, this is a fantastic way to avoid the current management "paradigm." Way to "think outside of the box." Does this mean you'll avoid turning nouns into verbs? Please let this mean you'll avoid turning nouns into verbs. I beg you. The English language begs you.

[dlish]

being in the construction field i use a lot of the same or similar acronyms that Telekinetic uses in engineering.

MOM = minutes of meeting
BOQ or BQ = Bill of Quantities
LOA= Letter of acceptance
LOI - Letter of intent
FIDIC = a type of engineering contract comonly used in europe and middle east
CVR = cost value reconciliation
RFI = request for information
RFD = request for deviation
SI = site instruction
EI = Engineers Instruction
VO = Variation order
CO= Change order
ETC = Estimate to completion
FTC=forcast to completion
EFC = estimated final cost
EFV = estimated final value

All construction, commercial or contract related obviously.

a typical example i would use is

"hey Does that VO have an EI, SI or an RFD. If Not, FIDIC wont allow you to claim VO, and i cant give you a CO"

i could go on...