Well Berwickshire author Richard Havers has written a new book which is uncovering the best, or should that be worst, examples of management jargon which have left many of us scratching our heads.

Richard is hoping his latest release 'Management Boll**ks' will be the perfect stocking filler for people all over the UK and beyond who have been told to 'engage with stakeholders', 'think outside of the box' and such like.

And after previously being on the board of a 40,000 strong company he had plenty of inspiration to draw on when it came to putting pen to paper.

"Every worker in every office in Britain will have at some point heard some manaegment jargon- i.e a ridiculously longwinded and confusing way of saying something simple," Richard said.

"Human Resources departments have invented a language that they understand but no-one else really does.

"Managing people shouldn't be about baffling their brains. A good manager doesn't need to do huge appraisals all the time to know if they've got good people working for them- you know if someone's good or not.

"I'm absolutely certain that jargon in the workplace was created to confuse and mislead people. In most cases it's about putting a positive spin on something that really isn't that good for the person involved.

"One of my favourite images which I chose for the book is of a man gurning with 'I'm not a human resource, I'm a person' next to him."

Instead of using pictures of suited and booted office workers for the book, Richard wound the clock back to the turn of the 20th century and found some shots that surprisingly complimented the jargon that was to be spouted decades later.

He continued: "The pictures I used are old ones taken in theatres; they are terribly staged but they fit the bill really well. Another one that I particularly liked was one I used to depict the phrase 'low hanging fruit',

"I had to get someone to explain exactly what that meant, I didn't have a clue. Apparently it means 'the easy targets' and I found an old picture of some women at the bottom of a ladder reaching up to an apple tree so that was ideal.

"Another classic one is 'at the end of the day the bottom line is'. That's two cliches in one and an old picture of people standing at the bar of a nudest colony with their backs to the camera seemed very appropriate!"

And it's not just in the office that heads are being filled with baffling terminology, Richard also said he took great inspiration from watching the news.

"Almost every night without fail there is someone on the news who comes out with some kind of jargon, usually it's the politicians.

"A particularly over-used one is 'engaging with stakeholders'; many people have told me they've had that one used on them. I still don't understand why people say 'engage' when all they really mean is 'talk to!

"What jargon is really doing is creating a smokescreen, and if the same people who use it now were around centuries ago they'd most likely have been dunked in the river!"

Richard's 2009 writing repertoire has included books on the Rolling Stones and World War Two and with management jargon now also ticked off you would expect his own head to be a bit scrambled but he said that it's part of his job to flit from one topic to another so he finds it quite easy.

"My job isn't too dissimilar to a journalists'; I'm a jobbing writer and to earn a living I have to write about a lot of different topics in quite a short space of time.

"People have this view of writers that they sit around waiting for the muse to descend and give them inspiration but like journalists, the muse has to descend on me every morning.

"At the moment I'm doing a book on rock and roll so I'm surrounded by books and have music playing in the background. Once I've finished one book I clear my head and think next! You've just got to crack on."

Although he hopes 'Management Boll**ks' will have people chuckling round the Christmas dinner table, Richard said there is a serious side to the book which he hopes people will identify with.

He concluded: "I think the book should strike a chord with a lot of people, particularly this year with the recession and a lot of jobs going.

"We need to get rid of the Charlatans that use this jargon, although I think throwing them in the Tweed might be a bit radical!"

'Management Boll**cks' is available now, published by J H Haynes and Co Ltd, with a RRP of £7.99.