ATLANTA — An employee successfully concluded a line of questioning Wednesday by proposing that the group circle back.
The proposal was made by Alan Rhodes, 44, twenty-two minutes into a status meeting, immediately after being asked a question he did not understand.
“Good question,” Rhodes said. “Let's circle back on that.”
The room agreed.
“Everyone relaxed,” one attendee said. “It was over.”
Workplace linguists note that the phrase functions as a complete answer while containing no information, a property shared with several other standard constructions, including “let me take that offline” and “I want to be respectful of everyone's time.”
No item was recorded, no owner assigned and no date set.
The question has not been asked again.
Rhodes was later praised for his handling of the discussion.
