Having to rely on individuals who frequently use the words "thing" or "thingy" to convey important time sensitive information.

Nothing is more infuriating.

You don't have to deal with a boss that thinks the best way to secure sensitive information is to use nicknames.
There's nothing to hide if they don't know who you are!

Greetings, Wolverine.

As one of t he people that use it often it's because we have forgotten the actual word. For some reason I keep forgetting the word Transaction when working with SQL server.
It's more useful to say "thingy which let you decide if you want to keep the changes after all the queries have executed" than to stop for a few minutes midsentence to get up with the actual word.

I usually say “the thing” as a last resort — i try to give a detailed description as to what I’m trying to convey and flail my hands around praying the individual listening gets the gist.

@lynova for sure, I do the same. Using proper terminology is important. I make a point of that.

The post is mostly referring to a particular individual who I had to work with who's communication skills where so bad, literally one of the more experienced leads thought his first language wasn't English... (it was).

The frustrating part was that he didn't even try to use the correct terms, even when it was brought up explicitly with him as to why it was important.

@kosherRage ohhh, I understand. Is he a newbie? Maybe he needs to work on his soft skills. I had a colleague who wasn’t verbally strong but his programming skills were superb.

@lynova that is exactly what's happening. It's just having already explained repeatedly to him why communication is so critical, having him continue is really frustrating.