Persian Office & Workplace Vocabulary

My first real job in Tehran was at a company where the managing director signed every email with موفق باشید. movaffagh bâshid. "may you be successful." He said it in meetings too. He said it to the cleaning staff. He said it to people he was about to fire. That phrase covered everything from genuine encouragement to a polite death sentence, and nobody batted an eye because Iranian persian office vocabulary operates on a layer of formality so thick you could insulate a building with it.

I worked in that office for two years before moving to Milan, and I still catch myself using workplace Farsi when I'm frustrated with Italian bureaucracy. The thing about office Persian is that it's almost entirely ketâbi. written register. even when people are speaking out loud. Your coworker doesn't say "miri châyi biyâri?" (will you bring tea?). they say "emkân-esh hast châyi befarmâyid?" (is it possible that you might graciously bring tea?). It's a parallel universe where directness is a liability and every request sounds like a diplomatic cable.

Forty-five words. That's what you need to survive an Iranian office. Not thrive. survive. Thriving requires learning the phrases that wrap disagreement in seventeen layers of politeness, but that's a different lesson. Today we're building the vocabulary foundation. the nouns, titles, and verbs that fill every Iranian workplace from Tehran tech startups to government ministries in Mashhad.

Office Basics: The Physical Space

Before you can function in an Iranian office, you need the words for what's around you. Most of these are used daily, and several are Arabic loanwords so thoroughly absorbed into Persian that Iranians forget they're borrowed.

دفتر. daftar. office / notebook
Two meanings in one word. Daftar-e kâr = office (workplace). Daftar-e yâddâsht = notebook. Context does the heavy lifting. In most office conversations, daftar means the office itself.

اداره. edâre. department / government office
This is the word for any institutional office, especially government ones. Edâre-ye mâliyât. the tax office. Edâre-ye pasport. the passport office. If an Iranian says "man miram edâre," they're going to work. specifically, a government-adjacent or bureaucratic job. Private sector people say daftar or sherkat instead.

شرکت. sherkat. company
Sherkat-e mâ. our company. The word also means "participation" in classical Persian, which tells you something about how Iranian business culture conceptualizes a company. as a collective participation, not a machine with employees as parts.

جلسه. jalase. meeting
From Arabic. Every Iranian office runs on jalase. Monday morning jalase. Emergency jalase. The jalase about why the last jalase accomplished nothing. Jalase dârim. we have a meeting. is a phrase you'll hear five times before lunch.

گزارش. gozâresh. report
Gozâresh neveshtan. to write a report. Gozâresh dâdan. to give a report / to report (to someone). In an Iranian office, reports flow upward constantly. Your boss's boss wants a gozâresh about everything. It's how the hierarchy stays informed without ever admitting it needs information.

نامه. nâme. letter / correspondence
In office Farsi, nâme covers everything from formal letters to memos to official correspondence. Nâme-ye edâri. an official/administrative letter. Email has mostly replaced paper letters, but the word nâme persists. Iranians sometimes call emails nâme-ye elektronikey, though most just say "email."

پرونده. parvande. file / case / dossier
Both the physical folder on your desk and the abstract concept of a "case." Parvande-ye moshtari. client file. Parvande ro bebandid. close the file (literally and metaphorically). In government offices, your parvande follows you everywhere. it's your bureaucratic identity.

امضا. emzâ. signature
Emzâ kardan. to sign. Nothing moves in an Iranian office without an emzâ. Documents bounce between desks collecting signatures like stamps in a passport. Emzâ-ye modir lâzem-e. the manager's signature is needed. is the sentence that delays every project by three days.

مهر. mohr. stamp / seal
The official stamp. In Iran, a signature alone is not enough. documents need a mohr to be valid. Every office, every manager, every department has its own stamp. Mohr bezan. stamp it. The mohr is the physical embodiment of bureaucratic authority.

فکس. fâks. fax
Yes, fax machines still exist in Iranian offices. Government departments especially love them. Fâks kardan. to fax. The fax machine in my Tehran office was from approximately 1997 and it worked better than the WiFi.

پرینتر. printer. printer
English loan, Persian pronunciation. Printer kâr nemikone. the printer doesn't work. might be the most universally understood sentence in any language.

کپی. kopi. copy / photocopy
Kopi gereftan. to make a copy. Ye kopi bede. give me a copy. Another English word absorbed completely into office Farsi.

ساعت کاری. sâ'at-e kâri. working hours
Sâ'at-e kâri-ye mâ az hasht tâ chahâr-e. our working hours are 8 to 4. Official Iranian government working hours are 7:30 AM to 2:30 PM, which sounds amazing until you realize the traffic to get there takes two hours and nobody actually leaves at 2:30.

همکار. hamkâr. colleague / coworker
Ham (together) + kâr (work). One of Persian's perfectly logical compounds. Hamkâr-e man. my colleague. In Iranian offices, your hamkâr relationships are almost as important as your family relationships. office alliances determine who survives restructuring.

Job Titles and Hierarchy

Iranian office hierarchy is vertical. Steep vertical. Your title determines how people address you, how much tea you get offered, and whether anyone actually listens when you speak in a jalase. These ten words map the ladder.

رئیس. ra'is. boss / chief / head
The general word for any boss. Ra'is-e man. my boss. Can be used for the head of anything: ra'is-e edâre (head of department), ra'is jomhur (president of the republic). In casual spoken Farsi, people say ra'is the way Americans say "boss". sometimes affectionately, sometimes sarcastically.

مدیر. modir. manager / director
Higher than ra'is in most contexts. Modir-e koll. managing director. Modir-e mâli. financial manager. In government offices, modir carries real institutional weight. it's the person whose mohr and emzâ you need on everything.

کارمند. kârmand. employee / office worker
The generic word for an employee. Kârmand-e dolat. government employee. Being a kârmand-e dolat in Iran means job security, a pension, and a salary that hasn't kept up with inflation since approximately 2012. Most Iranians still want the government job.

کارآموز. kâr-âmuz. intern / trainee
Literally "work-learner." Kâr (work) + âmuz (from âmukhtan. to learn). The person who gets sent to buy tea, make copies, and occasionally learn something about the actual job.

دبیر. dabir. secretary / scribe (in organizational context)
In modern usage: dabir-e jom'iyyat. secretary of the organization. Dabir-e koll. secretary general. The word has literary roots. dabir originally meant "scribe" in classical Persian. In schools, dabir means "teacher" (secondary level).

معاون. mo'âven. deputy / vice-
Mo'âven-e modir. deputy director. Mo'âven-e avval. first deputy (in government, equivalent to vice president). Every Iranian office has a mo'âven who does the actual work while the modir attends meetings.

رئیس هیئت مدیره. ra'is-e hey'at-e modire. chairman of the board
The top of the corporate hierarchy. Hey'at-e modire = board of directors. This is formal, boardroom-level vocabulary. you won't hear it at the water cooler, but you'll see it on every company letterhead.

منشی. monshi. secretary (personal/executive)
The person who manages the boss's schedule, screens calls, and knows more about the company than anyone in the boardroom. Monshi-ye modir. the director's secretary. In classical Persian, monshi meant a literary writer. the meaning has narrowed considerably.

حسابدار. hesâb-dâr. accountant
Hesâb (account/calculation) + dâr (holder). The person who controls the money and therefore controls everything. Hesâb-dâr mige budget nadarim. the accountant says we don't have budget. is the sentence that kills projects in their cradle.

وکیل. vakil. lawyer / attorney
From Arabic. Vakil-e sherkat. company lawyer. In Iranian business, no significant contract moves without a vakil reviewing it. The word also means "representative" in parliamentary contexts.

مهندس. mohandes. engineer
One of the most common job titles in Iran. Here's the catch: Iranians use mohandes as an honorific for anyone with an engineering degree, even if they haven't practiced engineering in twenty years. "Mohandes, befarmâyid". "Engineer, please go ahead". you'll hear this in meetings where the person's actual job is marketing.

Meetings and Communication

If Iranian offices run on jalase, then meetings run on a specific vocabulary of discussion, suggestion, and carefully veiled disagreement. These ten words are the machinery of every meeting you'll sit through.

بحث. bahs. discussion / argument / debate
Bahs kardan. to discuss / to argue. In bahs-e mohemmi-e. this is an important discussion. The word covers everything from polite discussion to heated argument. tone and context tell you which one.

تصمیم. tasmim. decision
Tasmim gereftan. to make a decision. Tasmim bâ shomâst. the decision is yours. In Iranian office culture, decisions flow downward. You suggest upward, and the person above you decides. Pretending otherwise is a good way to get uninvited from the next jalase.

نظر. nazar. opinion / view
Nazar-e shomâ chi-e?. What's your opinion? This is the polite way a boss invites input. Be nazar-e man. in my opinion. A critical phrase for framing anything you say as a personal view rather than a challenge to authority.

پیشنهاد. pishnahâd. suggestion / proposal
Pishnahâd-e man in-e ke. my suggestion is that. This is the golden frame for disagreement in Iranian meetings. You're not objecting, you're suggesting. The professional Farsi guide goes deeper into how this framing works.

توافق. tavâfogh. agreement / consensus
Be tavâfogh residan. to reach an agreement. Iranian meetings aim for apparent consensus, even when none exists. The tavâfogh might be that everyone agrees the boss is right. that counts.

اختلاف. ekhtlâf. disagreement / difference
Ekhtlâf-e nazar. difference of opinion. This is the formal, safe way to acknowledge that people disagree. Saying ekhtlâf dârim (we have a disagreement) is acceptable. Saying to eshtebâh mikoni (you're wrong) is not.

اعلام کردن. e'lâm kardan. to announce / to declare
Modir e'lâm kard ke. the manager announced that. Formal, top-down communication. When something is e'lâm-ed, it's decided. it's not up for discussion anymore.

گزارش دادن. gozâresh dâdan. to report / to give a report
Lotfan gozâresh bedid. please report (formal). The upward flow of information. Every kârmand reports to their modir, every modir reports to the modir-e koll, and the modir-e koll reports to whoever actually owns the company.

تعیین وقت. ta'yin-e vaght. to set an appointment / schedule a time
Bâyad ta'yin-e vaght konim. we need to schedule a time. Getting a meeting with someone senior in an Iranian office requires going through their monshi, navigating their calendar, and accepting that the appointment might be moved three times before it actually happens.

Documents and Admin

Paperwork is the blood supply of the Iranian workplace. Everything requires a form, a signature, a stamp, and frequently a second signature to confirm the first one was real. These ten words are the bureaucratic skeleton.

فرم. form. form
English loan, unchanged. Form por kardan. to fill out a form. Iranian government offices have forms for forms. You fill out a form to request the form you actually need.

درخواست. darkhâst. request / application
Darkhâst dâdan. to submit a request. Darkhâst-e morakhasi. leave request. The formal channel for asking for anything: leave, resources, a new chair, a transfer. Everything goes through a written darkhâst.

اجازه. ejâze. permission
Bâ ejâze. with (your) permission. Ejâze bedid. allow me / please permit. This word is the Swiss Army knife of Iranian workplace politeness. You ask for ejâze before speaking, before leaving, before doing anything that might be interpreted as independent thought.

مرخصی. morakhasi. leave / time off
Morakhasi gereftan. to take leave. Morakhasi-ye estehghâghi. annual leave. Morakhasi-ye eztirâri. emergency leave. Getting morakhasi approved is a multi-step process involving your darkhâst, your manager's emzâ, and sometimes the mohr of HR.

حکم. hokm. decree / official order / appointment letter
Hokm-e enzebâti. disciplinary order. Hokm-e enteghâl. transfer order. Your hokm is the official document that defines your position, salary, and role. In government jobs, the hokm is sacred. it's the paper that proves you exist in the system.

استخدام. estekhdâm. employment / hiring
Estekhdâm shodan. to be hired. Estekhdâm kardan. to hire. Âzmun-e estekhdâm. employment exam. Government hiring in Iran involves national exams, interviews, background checks, and a waiting period that can last months. Private sector moves faster, but the word is the same.

The Formality Trap: Office Farsi Is Peak Ketâbi

Here's what catches every Farsi learner off guard about Iranian workplaces: the register doesn't match the relationship. You might eat lunch with your coworker every day, know their kids' names, and text them memes at midnight. and then in a meeting, both of you switch to a formality level that sounds like a 19th-century court proceeding.

This isn't hypocrisy. It's code-switching, and it's mandatory. The gap between spoken and written Farsi that trips up every learner? In the office, that gap becomes a canyon. Written Persian. ketâbi. dominates workplace communication. Emails, reports, presentations, and any speech directed at someone senior all default to formal register.

The spoken cracks do appear. Your colleague might slip into casual Farsi when it's just the two of you. "in gozâresh-o key mikhây?" (when do you want this report?) instead of the formal "in gozâresh râ key mikhâhid?" But the moment a third person enters the room. especially someone senior. everyone snaps back to ketâbi like a reflex.

My advice for learners: don't try to be casual in an Iranian office until someone else goes first. Match the register of the highest-ranking person in the room. If they're formal, you're formal. If they start cracking jokes in street Farsi, you can relax. slightly. And even then, keep your shomâs ready.

Quick Reference Table

All 45 words in one place. Screenshot it, print it, or load it into ZabanYar for spaced repetition drills.

FAQ

The Iranian office is where spoken Farsi goes to put on a suit. The same language that gives you "chetori dâdâsh?" (how are you, bro?) at a café gives you "jâye shomâ khâli bud, jenâb-e mohandes" (you were missed, dear engineer) in a meeting room. Same people. Same words, mostly. Completely different operating system.

If you want to keep building vocabulary by topic, the vocabulary hub organizes everything from the 100 most common words to family, food, and daily life. And if you want to practice these office words with someone who's actually survived Iranian workplace politics. and can help you nail the formal register without sounding like a robot. I teach on Preply. We can run through mock meetings, practice your bâ ejâze opener, and make sure your pishnahâd doesn't accidentally sound like an etrâz.

Want to drill this vocabulary on your own schedule? ZabanYar lets you import word lists like this one and practice them with spaced repetition. no manual flashcard creation needed.

Get it wrong and the worst that happens is a warm laugh and a story they’ll tell for years. Get it right — refuse the tea twice, accept on the third — and you’ll watch a face open up. You didn’t just speak Persian. You played the game.