What that ish in work emails means, according to a linguist

What that ish in work schmelzglasles means, according to a linguistWhat that ish in work emails means, according to a linguistHow about we talk at 4ish on the phone? This is a simple question from a colleague that recently pulled me into a tailspin questioning scheduling, email language and the concept of time itself. As 4 p.m. rolled into 430 p.m., then stretched wider towards 5 p.m. without a callback, I had too much time to think. Lacking more information from my caller, I analyzed the caveat of ish more closely for clues. If someone writes that they will call at 4ish, I have taken that to mean that they will call within 15 minutes of 4 p.m. and not much later. 430 p.m. is my personal cutoff for a timely response. In this case, ish ended up meaning not that day, and I eventually rescheduled the call to a later date. But by then, I had received varying responses from people I talked to for advice on what kind of ish is acceptable in work contexts. I had a friend tell me that a blan ket statement of ish is okay if you work in the same office as the person. When you know you can reach the person physically, it takes the pressure off of both parties to be precise. You know that they are welcome to come on over to your desk. I had one colleague tell me that ish only gives you a 10-minute window to respond. Another told me 15 minutes. One asked for the formal definition. The wide range within the meaning of ish demonstrates how qualifiers in email language can lead to confusion for both parties. To clear the air, I talked with internet linguist Gretchen McCulloch to better understand the expectations within ish, and how employees can be more precise in their language.What your ish is communicatingWhen we add a qualifier like ish to our emails, we are giving ourselves the benefit of flexibility, potentially at the expense of the other persons valuable time.Ish runs into similar problems as words like about and approximately. All of these - both their strength and w eakness - is that they are poorly defined, McCulloch said. In some cases, they can provide plausible deniability. Well, I only said 4-ish. It can be useful for the person setting the time to talk. It can be frustrating and confusing to be the person on the other side. Personally, I am a poor multitasker. When I am waiting for an important call, I am in a state of involuntary idleness, useless at accomplishing anything else, worried that I will be roped into a call mid-chew, mid-thought, unprepared. I want the clarity of an exact time to be ready to chat. But everyone has a different approach to time at work, and when you do not want to make a hard call, you can sidestep an exact answer with a soft ish. Ish vindicates everyone, letting everyone feel in control. The downside is that it can open the door too wide to what is possible. McCulloch said that ish can be a reflection of different peoples attitudes towards life, and towards time management, and towards scheduling things. Ish can give the illusion of precision while providing a fairly big umbrella for different types of timing, she said.The language of email can be less of an exact science, more of an art of using the right statements to get your way. You can purposefully magnify or minimize the importance of your statements with strategic qualifiers. This is not just limited to a tacked-on ish. I think that a particularly ambiguous term is something like many or a few, McCulloch says. Many customers have told us that they have this problem. How many is that really? Maybe thats two people and you just think they are representative of a larger group of people. If you want a straightforward answer, you have to ask follow-up questions to clear up ambiguities. In my case, if I want to nail down a time to chat, I have to ask for it specifically when scheduling. Thats a lesson for me to take beyond my next email.