Somewhere deep in the corporate jungle, a sacred ritual thrives: the Circle Back. Nobody knows where it began, though some say it was first uttered in a conference room lit only by the glow of a malfunctioning projector.

Circling back is no ordinary phrase. It’s a time machine. It allows Karen from Compliance to drag you out of the weekend you thought you had and plant you firmly back into last Tuesday’s spreadsheet. It’s the verbal equivalent of a boomerang — no matter how far you throw the issue, it will return, usually in bold red font and with the words “per my last email” attached.

The Circle Back also has magical properties:

• It can make a dead project rise again, like a corporate zombie.

• It can turn a vague idea into a 6-month initiative.

• And, most impressively, it can make sure you’ll never escape a meeting without homework.

Forget folklore and fairy tales — the most haunting phrase in modern life isn’t “Once upon a time”. It’s “Just circling back to see if you had a chance to review…”

So next time you hear those words, don’t resist. Accept that the circle has no end, only endless replies — until the end of days, or until someone finally “takes this offline.”