Misunderstandings over common office terminology could have a disastrous impact on workforce planning.

Research by Reabur.com shows that 13% of employees thought that 'annual leave' meant time off for the whole year. If left unenlightened this would cause more workplace disruption than the 6% who thought it meant time out for office training.

Meanwhile, the 14% that misinterpreted 'time off in lieu' to mean time spent in the toilet could end up hogging the facilities at the expense of other staff.

A further 12% think a secondment is an award and 4% believe 'flexi-time' refers to an office aerobics. And when it came to the term 'blue sky thinking', almost one in ten though that working outside was the correct answer.

The poll also found that 17% of respondents to the multiple choice questionnaire thought that the break-out area meant an emergency exit and not a place to relax and chill out.

Georgina Read, co-founder of Reabur.com, said: "Some of the results here are quite amusing, but it is also shocking to see that there are still some people who don't know the meaning of some fairly common workplace terminology. Employees should be aware of the basic terms used within the workplace, just to ensure they understand them in case they ever come up in conversation with a colleague or manager."