Have you ever heard someone say they’ll be “out of pocket”? For most of my life, that phrase meant one thing: I’ll be unavailable for a while. I used it all the time—until last year, when I learned it might not mean what I thought.
While talking with a few younger members of my team, I casually mentioned I’d be “out of pocket” for the afternoon. They exchanged a look. One of them laughed and said, “You might not want to say that anymore.” Curious, I asked why—and they explained that, in younger circles, “out of pocket” can mean someone is misbehaving or saying something off-color.
I didn’t believe them at first. So, I turned to my then-21-year-old son to get a second opinion. Without missing a beat, he confirmed it: yes, that’s what it meant to him and many of his peers.
I still don’t fully understand how “out of pocket” evolved from “I’m…
