Everyday Office Jargon · Associate level

"Drop the ball"

"Drop the ball" means to make a mistake or fail to follow through on a responsibility, letting something slip through the cracks.

Say this instead: miss something

How "Drop the ball" shows up at work

One of the blunter phrases in the corporate lexicon, which is probably why it survives. Associates say it about themselves in post-mortems; managers say it about associates in performance reviews. The direction of the blame is always worth noting.

Buzzword

I'll be honest, we dropped the ball on the client communication last week.

Plain English

I'll be honest, we missed something important on the client communication last week.

Corporate Rank: Associate · Category: Everyday Office Jargon

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