There’s a lot of commonly used terms in business that are meant, I believe, to cover or distort the truth. So for those of you who are naïve about these things, I’m going to provide you some translations here:

When an investment advisor tells you, “My client only invests in safe places like government bonds”. They mean, “I’m not taking the blame if my client loses their butt in an investment, so I just put them in bonds to cover my butt while collecting fees”:

“We’re not sure where they are now” .
What they mean: “He got fired so abruptly nobody even got to say good-bye and management told us not to contact him”.

“We’re going in another direction”.
What they mean: “We took your idea and bought the product somewhere else”. Or “My boss’s sister started selling those so we’re buying from her now”.

“She left to pursue other opportunities”
What they mean: “She’s now the sales manager at our biggest competitor”.

“It got stuck in my junk folder”
What they mean: “I saw it but didn’t feel like reading it”.

“My child’s sick and I have to take him to the doctor”.
What they mean: “There’s a huge sale at J. Jill today and I’m skipping work to do that”. Or “I booked a morning at the spa so too bad for you”.

“I’m sorry but I double-booked”.
What they mean: “I got another opportunity better than yours”. Or “I’m just not into doing that today”.

“I’m not going to be in today, I think I have food poisoning”.
What they mean: “I got trashed last night and drove the porcelain bus all night”. Or “I haven’t taken a sick day all year so they owe me one”.

“I’ve got a big project due by the end of the month so can you call me back next month”.
What they mean: “Surely within 30 days I can think of another excuse not to see this person”.

“We’re waiting till the new fiscal year”.
What they mean: “We missed our sales projection by about 25% so we’re just hoping we’ll have a job next month”.

“We’re in the middle of budgets so it’s going to be a couple months before we know”.
What they mean: “I don’t really have the authority to make that decision and it will probably take 2 months for me to get my boss to even give me an answer”.

“He’s traveling today”.
What they mean: “He’s hung over and sleeping on the couch in his office right now”.

Well, I could go on here but I'm double-booked and traveling today working on budgets with a big project due at the end of the month.  Then again, I could end up going in another direction to pursue other opportunities. 

Maybe you have some you’d like to add below?