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Number of the Day
How ‘You’re on Mute’ Became the Most Frequently Uttered Phrase in Corporate America This Year
The phrase appears more than four times more frequently in corporate call transcripts during the pandemic than before it
429: That’s how many times the phrase “on mute” appears in transcripts of earnings calls, conferences, and shareholder meetings in the second quarter of 2020, up from fewer than 100 mentions per quarter prior to the pandemic, according to an analysis of call transcripts by Sentieo and Quartz.
Some of the folks who were on mute that quarter seem to have learned how to unmute themselves, as mentions of “on mute” dropped slightly in the third and fourth quarters, while remaining at a much higher level than in calls before the pandemic. Of course, the number of times “you’re on mute” made it onto the official transcript of a corporate call hardly captures how often we’ve all had to say it to each other during the sudden shift to conducting business and education over Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and other videoconferencing services. Even Zoom CEO Eric Yuan forgot to unmute himself on a call with investors.
Number of the day, or phrase of the year? “You’re on mute” is so woven into 2020’s cultural lexicon that a search for the phrase on Etsy yields hundreds of mugs, Christmas tree ornaments, and T-shirts — including one printed with the phrase “Thanks, I know I’m on mute.”
But as annoying as it might be to have to remind someone that they’re on mute, it’s preferable to the alternative: the interruption of someone who has forgotten to mute themselves.
Here’s hoping the phrase of 2021 is “Nice to finally see you in person (again).”
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