Is "actioned" a valid word?
I've just, without much fore thought, used the word "actioned" in the following (example) context, and am now wondering if it's valid (upon a re-read I've decided I don't like the way it sounds, hence the question).
1000 emails needed some kind of action, 800 of which were actioned by the team while the remaining 200 were escalated.
I can think of (what I feel is) a better word to replace "actioned" in this case - either "processed" and "completed" should do it - and my spell checker doesn't like "actioned", so I'm wondering if the word is valid? If it is, is my above example a valid usage?
This use of "action" as a verb is very common in business contexts, so it's very hard to argue it's invalid, but as both your reaction and Robusto's indicate, many people find it awkward, jarring or just plain ugly; for this reason you may wish to avoid using it (although in an internal report in the sort of company where people talk like that, it would be entirely appropriate to do so...).
Other possible replacements:
- taken care of
- dealt with
- carried out
- acted on
- performed
- processed
English has a long history of turning nouns into verbs, but this one feels just awkward.
I'd suggest "acted on" instead of "actioned" here, or some other word or construction.
You could say something like:
1,000 emails needed some kind of action, 800 of which were tackled by the team while the remaining 200 were escalated.
Tackle in this case means to
make determined efforts to deal with (a problem or difficult task) : police have launched an initiative to tackle rising crime.
Speaking of that, you could use "dealt with" in place of "actioned" there as well.
Since escalating a problem is also an action, I'd hunt for a word or phrase that describes what the team did with or about those messages that were NOT escalated. In the absence of a better choice, I'd use "resolved", or "handled".