My colleague said she doesn't have the 'bandwidth' - is that a tech thing?

What it means: Nothing to do with the internet. In everyday professional English, "bandwidth" means mental or time capacity. "I don't have the bandwidth" = "I'm too stretched to take this on right now."

Why natives say this: The word was borrowed from technology (where it describes how much data a network can handle) and drifted into business English around the 2010s. It caught on because it frames busyness as a capacity issue rather than a choice - which sounds more factual and less like a refusal.

The problem with it: It's one of those corporate words that can sound cold or overly technical. Many native speakers find it slightly irritating, precisely because it turns a human thing (being busy) into a systems concept.

• "I've got too much on my plate right now" - very common, widely understood
• "I'm at capacity" - formal version
• "I'm stretched thin at the moment" - warmer
• "I can't take anything else on right now" - direct and clear
• "I'm slammed" - informal American English

Register: Corporate and professional. Using it casually with friends sounds odd - "I don't have the bandwidth to come to your party" would get a raised eyebrow.

Tags: corporate English, jargon, workplace, capacity, tech language