Ways people at work remind you that you haven’t done that thing they want

“Just bumping the message above.”

A phrase that reminds me of the Facebook imperative that persisted for years and years to “poke” your friends. Used in public channels of messaging applications to indicate it’s been at least 24 hours and you haven’t answered their question or done their thing. Sometimes just abbreviated to the comment “bump”. Also used in the comments section of a Google Doc. A side variation: “Just bumping this message – in case you missed it.”

“Just checking in on progress.”

This is often a polite way of indicating that progress has not occurred, nor been recorded or communicated. Maybe the recipient has indeed dropped the ball on something. Or maybe the assumptions of what constitutes “progress” between the two parties is different. Really it’s usually a different question, in disguise: “Where is the thing I asked you for? I asked like, a day ago.”

“Let’s review the actions agreed in the meeting last week.”

Invoking the actions is often a sure sign that those actions have not occurred and this fact is about to go public. The word “agreed” is often used to declare that the mere asking of an action to be completed by one party constitutes a binding contractual obligation by the other party, even if they were not consulted on the feasibility of completing said task. You better get a good excuse ready, if your name is against any of those actions.

“I’m going to book in some time for the two of us to work through this.”

This can mean that you’re going to have do some classic, heart-warming collaborative work, perhaps at a whiteboard (in the past) or on an online Miro board (in the present). It more likely means: “I’m going to hover over your shoulder for half an hour to see that you are getting the job done with my own eyes.”