Even though it happened in July of 2007, Joan Fitzgibbon remembers it as if it were yesterday.
“There were 12 of us meeting to hire a new window washing company,” says the 54 year-old former office manager for Brewin-Force of Boston. “Things got a little heated and I wanted to point out that all that matters is the windows getting cleaned.”
She planned to say, “When all is said and done…”
“But when I opened my mouth it just came out,” she says. And of course, the rest is history.
Fitzgibbon didn’t think much of at the time, but within a week she noticed that her colleagues had begun using the expression. It soon spread to other businesses, then up and down the Eastern Seaboard. By 2011 it had become the most often-used business phrase in history, replacing “You’re not a team player.”
Today it is employed 98.7 percent of the time an “all that matters” scenario is being discussed. Many companies have actually banned the use of “when all is said and done” and other outdated phrases.
Fitzgibbon, who left Brewin-Force in 2009, now makes her living conducting seminars at $1200 per head. While none of the 20,000 who’ve attended has come up with a new expression so far, she says that one graduate, a Connecticut banker, is credited for getting the word “if” added to “when push comes to shove.” (The expression is now officially, “If and when push comes to shove.”)
Meanwhile, Fitzgibbon plans to launch a new expression herself later this year. She’s finishing up the research, tinkering with the phrasing – and promises that the result will be groundbreaking.
“It will not only change the way we do business,” she says, “but also the way we order dessert.”
