GM employees were told not to use these 69 words when discussing recalls

Electronic Products ^ | 05/23/2014 | Nicolette Emmino

[null and void]

In lieu of the recent General Motors recall which is costing the company a record $35 million in fines, it was discovered that in 2008 GM employees were specifically told they could not use 69 words while discussing recalls.

Documents released by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration during the course of the investigation and settlement revealed some of how GM employees are trained.

The presentation directs employees on how to write documents and talk to individuals about GM vehicles (which are sometime subject to investigation like in this instance).

Here are some of the slides from the PowerPoint presentation offered to GM employees in 2008:

If you can’t make out those 69 words in the last slide, here they are for you:

always, annihilate, apocalyptic, asphyxiating, bad, Band-Aid, big time, brakes like an “X” car, cataclysmic, catastrophic, Challenger, chaotic, Cobain, condemns, Corvair-like, crippling, critical, dangerous, deathtrap, debilitating, decapitating, defect, defective, detonate, disemboweling, enfeebling, evil, eviscerated, explode, failed, flawed, genocide, ghastly, grenadelike, grisly, gruesome, Hindenburg, Hobbling, Horrific, impaling, inferno, Kevorkianesque, lacerating, life-threatening, maiming, malicious, mangling, maniacal, mutilating, never, potentially-disfiguring, powder keg, problem, rolling sarcophagus (tomb or coffin), safety, safety related, serious, spontaneous combustion, startling, suffocating, suicidal, terrifying, Titanic, unstable, widow-maker, words or phrases with a biblical connotation, you’re toast

GM also helps out its employees by offering some suggestions and alternatives.

Basically, GM employees need to choose their words carefully. So they won’t be comparing their cars to the Titanic or Hindenburg any time soon.

Download the whole report released by the NHTSA below.

[Alvin Diogenes]

Where did “Kevorkianesque” come from for this list?

Did their employees really use the word “Kevorkianesque” so much that GM officials were concerned????

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

People often use colorful language and hyperbole in casual conversations. They may be great for attention getting, or amusement, but they rarely convey information accurately. Exaggerating problems can have a real impact if hyperbolic statements are used by sleazebag lawyers in a product liability suit.

GM, it appears to me, is simply following prudent business practice.

[The Cajun]

GM looking like a *Dilbert* cartoon here.
The proper use of *weaselese* lesson to employees.

[Billthedrill]

Hmm..."death trap", "eviscerating", "mangling", "annihilating" - I guess you never know what words will receive a negative connotation in the eyes of the public.

I didn't see "blew up like the stinking guts of a beached whale under the noonday sun" on the list.

[null and void]

Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Dresden are open...

[doorgunner69]

Soooooo appropriate this is an article about GM cars.

I ams sure Ford has similar internal memos, but it is just so delicious being from Government Motors, they of the ones stragegizing how to win back conservative buyers..........

[enraged]

Yup. Been through the same type of training myself. Comes down to ‘leave the emotions out and state the facts’ good advice for a lot of life’s little trials. No pun intended.