W
WAGE FREEZE. No raises for employees. During recessions many U.S. companies announce a wage freeze.
WAIVER. A release from a contract; to be indecisive.
WALK AWAY FROM. To discontinue involvement in or negotiations.
WALK ON WATER (TO). When one can do no wrong. An analogy to the biblical story about Jesus; the phrase is often used to describe someone who thinks highly of him or herself.
“Told by the instructor ‘you have to sell yourself,’ he decided to be ‘more confident’ in his next job interview. He still didn't get the job. Mr. Cooper says he later was told that one of the managers in the session thought he acted like he ‘could walk on water.’" (Wall Street Journal,
WALK THE PLANK (TO). Take on a dangerous project or situation, one that could end one’s career.
“So far, only Gonzalez’s associates have been forced to walk the plank. Naturally, these scandals have not exactly bolstered Gonzalez’s reputation with the voters of Spain.” (Global Finance, June 1995, p. 49)
WALKING PAPERS. Notice of job dismissal. See also PINK SLIP.
“It was possibly a crummy solution even if it might yet pass muster with the IRS -- a question still up in the air. But last week Messrs. [Bill Esrey] and [Ron LeMay] were given their walking papers merely out of fear that the IRS might rule against them. (Wall Street Journal, Feb. 12, 2003, p. A17)
WALLFLOWER. An investment or person who is largely ignored by others.
WALLPAPER. Securities that have no value except as wallpaper; the background pattern of photograph on a computer screen.
WALLPAPER A MEETING. Include supporters in the meeting.
WALL STREET. The financial district in lower Manhattan, New York City. Wall Street got its name in the seventeenth century, when settlers erected a wall to keep pigs out of their crops.
WAR CHEST. Financial resources of a company.
“Meanwhile, Mr. Bollore is likely to tighten the screws on Havas's senior management further. According to one person close to the businessman, Mr. Bollore had a war chest of around 1 billion euros from his investments.” (Wall Street Journal, Oct. 13, 2004, p. C5)
WARM FUZZIES. Verbal compliments; good memories.
“It wasn't a great combo: The machine spat kernels well beyond our bowl (one flew 8 feet) before finally churning out a few handfuls of dry corn. We were left with a lot of no-pops -- we counted 320 -- and few nostalgic warm fuzzies.” (Wall Street Journal, Jan. 10, 2003, p. W.9.C)
WARRANT. Option to purchase shares of stock in a company for a specified period of time. Many U.S. companies with less than INVESTMENT-GRADE financial ratings offer warrants with their debt securities.
WASH. Situation where one outcome cancels another, as in when an increase in sales to one customer offsets a loss of sales to another.
WASH SALE. When an investor sells an asset at a loss and then re-purchases the asset within 30 days.
“A wash sale typically occurs when an investor sells a stock or some other security at a loss and buys the same stock with 30 days before or after the sale.” (Wall Street Journal, May 1, 2003, p. D2)
WATCHDOG. Person or group that scrutinizes the actions of business or government. See also NADER’S RAIDERS.
“The Marsh board gets low marks from corporate watchdogs who track board governance. Corporate Library grades the Marsh board a "D" on a scale of A to F, meaning it ranks below 80% of the roughly 2,000 boards that Corporate Library studies.” (Wall Street Journal, Oct. 22, 2004, p. A1)
WATCH LIST. Companies under review by investment brokers or ratings agencies due to signs of pending changes.
WATERING HOLE. A bar.
“I could find only three skimpy beer references to Elvis. One was a decade-old Los Angeles Times profile of a dying Hollywood watering hole called the Formosa Cafe in which the writer asserted that ‘this, after all, is the bar where Elvis drank beer’ without saying any more about it.” (Wall Street Journal, Oct. 8, 2004, p. W1)
W-CUBED. Whatever, wherever, and whenever you want it. To emphasize the importance of customer service, managers will claim their mantra is W-cubed.
“So instead of subscribing to some a la carte, 24-hour channel, you’ll just get the show you want on demand, whenever you want it. It will be W-cubed, whatever, wherever, and whenever you want it.” (Wall Street Journal, Feb. 16, 1995, p. A14)
WEAR MANY HATS (TO). Have many different responsibilities.
“U.S. Troops Wear Many Hats in Kosovo --- GIs Act as Mayors of Towns, Organize Trash Pickups, Patrol Dangerous Streets” (Wall Street Journal, Aug. 13, 1999, p. A9)
WEARS OFF. Does not work after a while.
WEATHER THE STORM/TASK (TO). Survive.
WELFARE STATE. Conservative Americans’ perception that the United States is moving toward socialism.
“Alan Greenspan nicely teed up the ‘ownership society,’ presumed theme of George Bush's convention speech Thursday night. Mr. Bush will rightly emphasize the positive, but he'll be offering a way to deal with the pending crash of the welfare state, topic of the Fed chairman's widely noted talk last Friday.” (Wall Street Journal, Sept. 1, 2004, p. A13)
WETBACK. An ILLEGAL ALIEN in the United States, usually describing someone who has crossed the Rio Grande from Mexico into the country.
“In 1995 the number of illegals apprehended fell by 75% to just under 250,000 and the Immigration and Naturalization Service declared: The so-called ‘wetback’ problem no longer exists…. The border has been secured.’ ” (Wall Street Journal, Nov. 9, 1995, p. A20)
WHAT IS THE DROP DEAD? When is the last date possible/deadline?
“It obviously has surprised E*Trade and Telebanc. After announcing the merger June 1, E*Trade, Menlo Park, Calif., filed its application to become a thrift holding company with the OTS on June 28-and set the drop-dead date of Dec. 31.” (Wall Street Journal, Dec. 14, 1999, p. C1)
WHAT LINE ARE YOU IN? What is your work/business?
WHAT MAKES HIM/HER TICK? What motivates the person?
WHEN PIGS FLY! Never!
“Other managers share the sentiment. ‘This is a year when pigs can fly,’ says Jeff Van Harte, manager of the $150.9 million Transamerica Premier Equity Fund, up 16.86% this year through Sept. 30. ‘People shouldn't be too surprised by what's happened so far this year, but they shouldn't get greedy either. If you own a fund that's up 40%, you might want to take some money off the table.’” (Wall Street Journal,
WHERE THE ACTION IS. The center of activity. It is important for CORPORATE LADDER–climbing workers to be where the action is. An
assignment which takes an employee away from the center of activity is called being SENT TO
WHIPSAW. Move violently; organized labor’s description of the practice by companies of creating plant-against-plant competition for survival. The threat of closings is used to extract concessions from workers.
“These types of market storms ‘come and go,’ says the 40-year-old Mr. Lavan, who runs Salomon Brothers Short/Intermediate U.S. Government Fund. But this one has been ‘a class-five hurricane.’ The whipsaw has rattled investors who flocked to bonds in the wake of the stock swoon early this decade, and threatened to rock some Wall Street trading houses, which had come to depend on a healthy bond market for a chunk of their profits.” (Wall Street Journal, Sept. 15, 2003, p. C1)
WHISPER EARNINGS/NUMBERS. Investment market rumors regarding what the upcoming earnings will be for various companies.
WHISPER EARNINGS. Unpublished but widely circulated rumors regarding the expected earnings of a company.
WHISTLE BLOWER. A person who reports unethical activity to authorities. U.S. laws protect workers from retaliation by employers, but whistle blowers are often ostracized by management and fellow employees.
“A price-fixing probe in the chemical industry has widened into a series of global inquiries involving Dow Chemical, DuPont, Bayer and other companies, helped in part by amnesty for whistle-blowers. U.S. and European investigators are looking into alleged conspiracies to fix prices in a half-dozen chemicals used in plastics, rubber and synthetics.” (Wall Street Journal, June 22, 2004, p. A1)
WHITE ANGLO-SAXON PROTESTANTS (WASPs). Caucasian-Americans of European descent, some WASPs perceive themselves as the aristocracy of America.
“Unlike the country’s old money, bound by convention, WASP reflexes and diminishing resources, the rich today are defining a different style of monied life.” (Mediaweek, Nov. 7, 1994, p. SS14)
WHITE-COLLAR. Executives, managers, professional employees.
“White-collar workers are defined as ‘salaried exempt’ -- salaried employees who aren't executives and for whom overtime pay isn't required by the Fair Labor Standards Act -- and by some lights they shouldn't complain.” (Wall Street Journal, Oct. 26, 2004, p. B1)
WHITE-COLLAR CRIME. Crimes committed by professional workers.
“According to a recent Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) report, the idea that computers armed with artificial intelligence (AI) can curb the money laundering that accompanies drug trafficking, prostitution, and white-collar crime is fraught with technical, political, legal and cost obstacles.” (Computerworld, Sept. 18, 1995, p. 12)
WHITE FLAG. Symbol of surrender.
WHITE KNIGHT. Good guy; in finance, a friendly buyout.
“Management at Harbin welcomed the takeover by Anheuser-Busch. Peter Lo, Harbin's chief executive, said Wednesday, ‘The SABMiller offer was wholly unsolicited and not welcomed by the management or employees of Harbin. I am therefore delighted that Anheuser-Busch has stepped in as a white knight with a counterbid.’" (Wall Street Journal, June 4, 2003, p. A3)
WHITE-KNUCKLE. Tense, stressful.
WHITE PAPER. A position paper, often used in political debates.
WHITE SALE. A special promotion of bedding products and towels.
“Both domestics and housewares are among the most price competitive categories at retail, and one finely-timed and well-focused white sale can make all the difference.” (Stores, Aug. 1994, p. 46)
WHITE-SHOE FIRM. A closed, “country club–like” firm.
“Online stock trading, gathering steam among individual investors, is attracting interest from an unlikely source: white shoe securities firm Goldman, Sachs & Co.” (Wall Street Journal, February 22, 1999, p. C1)
WHITTLE AWAY (TO). Slowly reduce/shrink. Like a craftsman carving a piece of wood, managers may choose to slowly rearrange or reduce a department or division.
WHO-KNOWS-WHAT. An unknown.
WHOLE
WHOOPS. Washington Public Power Supply System. WHOOPS became (in)famous in the 1980s for its inept management of multiple nuclear power plant development projects, resulting in default on its bonds, the largest default in municipal bond history in the United States.
WIDGET. Generic for a firm’s product. A favorite term used in economics classes.
“It's little wonder that tech companies are reticent about their use of ODMs -- or of outsourced manufacturing in general. If I buy a widget from Acme Corp., I assume Acme made it, and I may even be willing to pay more for it as a result. But if I were to learn that Acme is simply reselling someone else's widgets and that Acme's rival has the same product for less money, I might well take my widget dollars elsewhere.” (Wall Street Journal,
WIDOW-AND ORPHAN STOCK. A relatively low-risk stock that pays a high dividend.
WILLY LOMANS. Sales people. Willy Loman was the central character in Arthur Miller’s play, Death of a Salesman.
“‘The dominant image of the American salesperson is still Willy Loman from Arthur Miller’s play, Death of a Salesman: the sad-sack peddler pushing items of dubious value on unsuspecting people,’ says Gene Siskel, film critic for the Chicago Tribune.” (Sales & Marketing Management, Oct. 1993, p. 142)
WINDOW DRESSING/UNDRESSING. The addition/ removal by a mutual fund manager of one or more poorly performing stocks just prior to a performance review date.
“In the investment world, there remain plenty of impenetrable phrases which make sense only to those in the know. A new one crossed my desk the other day. It was 'window undressing'. Like much, but by no means all, investment jargon, it originated in the US. The term applies to the practice of fund managers dumping unsuccessful investments before a review date. Thus, a fund manager might sell technology stocks on which there is a big loss immediately ahead of a quarterly review period so they do not appear on the portfolio valuation." ("Investment View," Money Marketing, April 5, 2001)
WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY. Short period of time when one has the chance to take advantage of a situation.
“The ring-tone market will ‘be a big business for the next few years and then it's going to go away,’ says veteran music attorney Jay L. Cooper, who represents artists such as Sheryl Crow and some ring-tone companies. But, he adds, if companies don't take advantage ‘while you have this window of opportunity, you're losing millions of dollars a day.’" (Wall Street Journal, Sept. 13, 2004, p. A1)
WING IT (TO). Do something without a set plan.
WIRED. Connected to the Internet; hyperactive, often induced by caffeine.
WISH LIST. Resources a division or company would like to have.
WON’T FLY. Will not work, will not be approved.
WOODEN NICKELS. See DON’T TAKE ANY WOODEN NICKELS.
WOODSHED (TO BE TAKEN TO). Be verbally chastised.
WOODSTOCK GENERATION. Anti–Vietnam War teenagers in the 1960s. The 1969 rock music festival in Woodstock, New York, symbolized this generation’s challenge of existing values and policies.
WORD-OF-MOUTH. Information passed from person to person. In the United States, an estimated 80 percent of professional positions are filled through word-of-mouth.
WORD ON THE STREET. The current rumor being disseminated.
WORK-OUTS. Intense, structured conferences where managers respond to employee problem-solving proposals.
WORK A CROWD (TO). Impress people at a gathering by moving around the room meeting and greeting people.
“Endless Referrals discusses how to work a crowd, practical and sensible follow-up techniques and clever strategically designed promotional pieces.” (Managers Magazine, April 1995, p. 4)
WORKAROUND. An ingenious, undocumented way to solve a problem.
“I only ran into one problem with the Verizon service. On one occasion, when I lost the connection, the software wouldn't let me reconnect until I rebooted the computer. But this didn't occur on the two other times I lost the connection, and Verizon says there's a workaround for the problem.” (Wall Street Journal, April 8, 2004, p. B1)
WORK LIKE A DOG (TO). Work very hard.
“All sorts of advertisers now use the same theme: We know you work like a dog, so we work like dogs for you.” (Adweek, May 22, 1995, p. 20)
WORKPLACE SENSITIVITY. Awareness of topics and language that are particularly offensive to minorities and ethnic groups.
WORLD BANK. See INTERNATIONAL BANK FOR RECONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT
WREAK HAVOC. Make a mess, do damage.
WRINKLE (NEW). An idea or feature that will be attractive to buyers.
“It's not as if the Oil for Food-related documents in question could be shared with either Congress or Mr. Volcker but not both. But this latest hush letter adds a new wrinkle, stating twice that the U.N. demands control of ‘documentation or information’ (emphasis added). Translation: Shut up or we'll sue.” (Wall Street Journal, May 11, 2004, p. A18)
WRITE OFF. Give up on; in accounting, to remove from a balance sheet because it no longer has value.
“The Yankees will have to write off some of their high-priced pitchers as poor investments, though it's not clear which ones (except for you, Javier Vazquez). The team plainly needs another starter, a left-handed reliever and a center fielder -- a very modest rebuilding campaign.” (Wall Street Journal, Oct. 22, 2004, p. A16)