communicationfirst-jobimposter-syndrome

Every standup someone drops three acronyms I've never heard and I just nod along

Anonymous17 Jul 2026

One SLA, this DAU, some RFC, an internal tool apparently named after a Greek god. I nod, write it down, and google frantically after. Six months in and the list of things I'm secretly looking up is not getting shorter.

Did this ever fully go away for you, or did you just get comfortable asking 'what does that stand for?' out loud? Trying to work out whether the silence is costing me more than the momentary awkwardness of asking.

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Anonymous19 Jul 2026
I just started asking in the moment — "sorry, what's XYZ?" — and every single time at least two other people looked relieved someone said it. If that feels too scary at first, keep a private glossary doc and look them up after standup. Nobody actually knows all the internal acronyms; half of them were invented on the team anyway.
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Anonymous17 Jul 2026
I promise the person asking 'what does that stand for?' out loud reads as more competent, not less. I started keeping a running glossary doc and filled half of it just by asking. Six months later a new hire thanked me for it. The silent googling is the costly path, not the question.
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