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HMS, meaning a glaring mismatch in terms of status, is the latest mock-malady to afflict the business world. It was recently highlighted by, among others, PR and communication specialists Shine.com. It describes the awful sensation experienced when you sit down for an important face-to-face with a client or partner and find that your contact is an intern and/or someone 20 years younger than you. As Shine puts it, "It tends to mean that their organisation is taking neither you nor the project seriously - or, even more annoying, that your opposite number is a child prodigy."

As a babyboomer I'm resigned to seniority or generational mismatches by now, though I try and check attendee status in advance of meetings. In wider contexts — company mergers, for instance — seniority integration is a priority for HR specialists. This coinage has been inspired, I suspect, by two genuine technical expressions: 'hierarchy malalignment' when mapping across databases, and 'miserable malalignment syndrome' — a painful result of sports injury.

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