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Former Google and Apple exec: ‘women stop saying just, you sound like children’

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By Seb Joseph | News editor

July 4, 2015 | 2 min read

A former Google and Apple exec has urged women to stop using the word “just” at work because it undermines their authority and makes them seem “childish”.

Ellen Petry Leanse, who worked as a marketer at both technology companies, came to the conclusion afer she noticed how much her co-workers and friends used the word in emails. Women used “just” more often than men, she wrote on LinkedIn, which reflected its use as “permission word”, a “warm-up to a request, an apology for interrupting, a shy knock on a door before asking "Can I get something I need from you?".

“The more I thought about it, the more I realized that it was a "child" word, to riff Transactional Analysis. As such it put the conversation partner into the "parent" position, granting them more authority and control. And that "just" didn't make sense,” said Leanse.

She went on to claim that when the word was struck from phrases, it “clarified” and “strengthened” the message. “Take the "J Count" down. Take the word out of your sentences and see if you note a difference in your clarity — and even the beliefs that fuel the things you say,” she added.

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