Business jargon polls better than its reputation, which is what makes 'circle back' interesting: it is the exception. YouGov surveyed 1,007 British business decision makers in early 2024 and found majorities liked most of the phrases tested: KPI at 77%, networking at 69%, reinvent the wheel at 66%, thinking outside the box at 62%. 'Circle back' was the only phrase in the whole set where dislike beat like, at 47% to 42%. The likely reason is what the phrase is used to do rather than how it sounds. Most of the well-liked terms name something concrete: a metric, a pitch, a customer problem. 'Circle back' names a deferral, and usually one nobody asked for. It converts 'no' or 'not now' into the promise of a later conversation that often does not happen, so people hear it at exactly the moment a decision is being avoided and the phrase absorbs the irritation of the thing it describes. The runner-up for dislike, 'growth hacking' at 41% against 42%, splits for a different reason: fewer respondents are sure what it means.