Read GM’s Incredibly Strange List of Banned ‘Judgment Words’

Companies have a penchant for creating arbitrary, ridiculous guidelines sometimes, but GM may have taken the cake with a list of “judgment words” obtained by POLITICO, with some rather odd guidelines instructing engineers on what words they should and should not use in bringing vehicle problems to their attention.

In a Powerpoint presentation, GM encourages engineers, “For anything you say or do, ask yourself how you would react if it was reported in a major newspaper or on television.”

Well, just to give you some idea of how super serious GM is, here’s a partial list of the words GM didn’t want engineers using, in case their reports got leaked to the press.

• Kevorkianesque
• genocide
• Band-Aid
• Cobain
• rolling sarcophagus (tomb or coffin)
• Titanic
• decapitating
• disemboweling
• grenadelike
• widow-maker
• apocalyptic

And in a somewhat more benign manner, words like “problem” were discouraged in favor of softer words like “issue” or “condition.” Hooray for euphemisms!

[featured image via Jim Young/Reuters]

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Follow Josh Feldman on Twitter: @feldmaniac

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