(just) Ticking the box (but not doing the intent) - advanced? Technical?
HI. wonder whether anyone can offer a good expression for something I keep seeing.
.
So often nowadays we see that people do what is dictated that they must do by some ruling, but have no intention of the actual intent of the ruling.
For example
when a shop attendant wants you to leave they may say "Have a nice day" in a way that means "Get lost now".
When an organisation is required to ensure the wellbeing of their employees and so puts lots of programmes in place that are obvously useless for anything but making it look as if they did something.
when you make obvious that you are treating the symptoms but do nothing about the cause.
.
I have expressions relating to "ticking th boxes", "walking the talk", all the generic ones describing aspects of this, such as "intentional corporate irresponsibility" but I wonder whether anyone has a term that carries with it the implied negligence or a technical term for this in some specific area.
Much appreciated for any thoughts you might have.

Question

(just) Ticking the box (but not doing the intent) - advanced? Technical?
HI. wonder whether anyone can offer a good expression for something I keep seeing.
.
So often nowadays we see that people do what is dictated that they must do by some ruling, but have no intention of the actual intent of the ruling.
For example 
when a shop attendant wants you to leave they may say "Have a nice day" in a way that means "Get lost now".
When an organisation is required to ensure the wellbeing of their employees and so puts lots of programmes in place that are obvously useless for anything but making it look as if they did something.
when you make obvious that you are treating the symptoms but do nothing about the cause.
.
I have expressions relating to "ticking th boxes", "walking the talk", all the generic ones describing aspects of this, such as "intentional corporate irresponsibility" but I wonder whether anyone has a term that carries with it the implied negligence or a technical term for this in some specific area.
Much appreciated for any thoughts you might have.

Answer

Going through the motions?

Answer

Hi Nanren888, an interesting thought! I think "ticking boxes" is probably the most commonly used, but in some situations you could say "they're just covering their butts" or "they're just putting up a front." "Saving face" is another expression that we use when we're acting out of necessity against our true feelings. Hope that helps a bit :-)

Answer

It’s nothing but window dressing.

Answers · 3

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