Brutally Honest Translation
We are done talking about this, and I'd rather not be the one who says no.
Meetings
“Let's circle back”
This is not being decided now, and it may never be decided. The topic has been placed in a holding pattern that looks like progress.
How it gets used
Said when a conversation has become uncomfortable, expensive, or inconvenient. It ends the discussion without rejecting it, which is exactly the point.
Three ways to answer “Let's circle back”
Supreme Court Polite
Thank you for raising this. Let us schedule a follow-up session to review it with the appropriate stakeholders.
Passive-Aggressive Retaliation
Great point, let's circle back on this, I've dropped a placeholder on the calendar for whenever things calm down.
Paste the whole message instead
Phrases rarely arrive alone. Run the full email through the decrypter to see all three translations together and get an evasion score for the message as a whole.
Open the decrypter tool