Now that's interesting

I was told at work today that one way the "rank and file" workers pass the time during mandatory meetings is to count the, um, number of times the, you know, presenter, um, verbalizes pauses with, um, an "um," a "you know," and such.  Evidently, in one presentation I'd done then a disservice by, um, not verbalizing my pauses at all.

Of course, I thanked the person telling me this, and noted that often, you know, verbalizing pauses is an indication that the, um, speaker does not, um, believe what he is saying.  She then noted that the "champion" in, you know, verbalized pauses was the HR department describing, um, our company ethics policy.

(verbalized pauses, um, added for, um, dramatic effect, you know, eh)

Conclusions about the matter are left as an exercise for the reader, of course.