It is what it is
This is a rant. I need to get it out in the open so I don’t have a heart attack keeping it bottled in. Please don’t think that I am trying to be funny because that is not it at all. This is truly something that make me upset and needed to put it down on paper to get the thoughts out of my head. So here it goes.
“It is what it is.” How many of you have heard these words? This phrase is almost equivalent to “whatever” from my generation. The thing about this phrase however, is that it is used by everyone young and old, middle managers, bottom of the totem pole workers, even salespeople.
“It is what it is” translates to me that the person saying it is basically admitting defeat. They know that whatever is happening is out of their control and they do not have any way to fix it. There is another phrase that ties in beautifully with this and that is “What can you do?”
You say them back to back, preferably in conversation. Let me give you an example. The first guy that is accepting the fact that he is incompetent in his job and does not have a set big enough to enact change will say “It is what it is.” Without missing a beat you need to reply “what can you do?” This is basically admitting your own defeat in that your boss or whoever said the first part is a moron that can’t change anything. You are stuck because they will not press any issues or help make any changes.
So how to deal with this is going to take a lot of work from everyone. When somebody uses the phrase “It is what it is” fire off a “What can you do?” immediately. Do this for about 6 weeks so that the two go together hand in hand. The hopes and dreams and aspirations are that there will be, and trust me, there will be, a time when things get messed up again. That’s when you need to beat the person to the punch and say “It is what it is.” The next part of the phrase, if you’ve been doing your job, will be spouted out of the mouth of the person that caused the issue in the first place. They will say “What can you do?” and here is the ending closing statement, that will hopefully scratch these phrases off the books forever, at least with the people that get burned with them and that is this:
“I don’t know, maybe accept ultimate humiliating defeat that you cannot change anything, and will not change anything. That you lack the competency to even make change for the better” Then walk away and feel good about doing your part to rid the English language of this stupid phrase.