Learn English – Word for sentences that make sense when read backwards

Depending on what you want with shiny, rare words with funny pronunciation and euphemisms could be used. With a rare word, the listener might feel less verbal violence than with a mere "crap". I suggest hokum:

a euphemism for nonsense (from Wiki disambiguation); Something apparently impressive or legitimate but actually untrue or insincere; nonsense (urban dictionary)

or folderal (alternative writings: folderol, falderal), which has an ornamental property (shiny enough?):

nonsense, ornamental objects of no great value (Merriam Webster), from a nonsensical line in old ballads

Finally, in France, abracadabrantesque was almost forgotten, and was resurrected during a political interview. The word comes from authors and poets Mario Proth, Théophile Gautier and Arthur Rimbaud. It looks like poetry, and it is, so maybe more acceptable. It refers to magic (same root as abracadabra) turned into an adjective and superlative. This word was almost forgotten for a century. Then, a former president used it in an interview (Chirac ou l'histoire abracadabrantesque). The journalist wanted to bring a question on a posthumous testimony about his alleged frauds. He used this word to characterize the whole story as "utter nonsense", suggesting it was made-up. The forgotten word has now come to use for the pleasure of many, especially journalists.

Here are some uses for the words above, mainly webpage titles. Opinions are not mine:

• Sanders, Trump and the Politics of Hokum
• Political folderol
• Famous Presidential Lies, Exaggerations, and Folderol
• Scientific Hokum and Its Destructive Political Agenda

I'd say the answer to your question depends on the manager's intention in using the phrase. If the manager is deliberately employing contradiction for rhetorical effect, then this is an oxymoron, as described here. If the contradiction is unintended, then it's merely a contradiction in terms or, if you want to be fancy (as Wikipedia does), a contradictio in terminis.

A good example of an oxymoron comes from the song "Mean Woman Blues," written by Claude Demetrius and recorded by Elvis Presley and others:

She kiss so hard, she bruise my lips

Hurts so good, my heart just flips.

Here, "hurts so good" is an oxymoron, because Demetrius is deliberately using the contradiction inherent in the phrase to produce a particular effect.

Similarly, Truman Capote's famous description of his book In Cold Blood as a "nonfiction novel" was also oxymoronic. Capote was of course well aware that novels are by definition works of fiction; he used the deliberately contradictory term "nonfiction novel" to draw attention to the literary qualities of a book that was (he claimed) a factually accurate work of reportage, and to highlight his contention that he had invented a new genre. As with Demetrius's "hurts so good," the contradiction actually sharpens the intended meaning, rather than obscuring it.

On the other hand, consider the following passage, from a book I'll refrain from naming:

A perfunctory perusal of literature in neuropsychology or the lucid writings of Oliver Sacks, if pressed for time, is all that we need to convince ourselves how sensory experiences can be unarguably real to one person whilst they are not even figments of another’s imagination.

Clearly, this author is not using the self-contradictory phrase "perfunctory perusal" for deliberate rhetorical effect, but is one of those benighted souls who think that "perusal" means the exact opposite of what it actually means. Thus, "perfunctory perusal" is not an oxymoron, but a mere contradiction in terms. The contradiction muddles the meaning, rather than enhancing it.

I should note that many native speakers regard "oxymoron" and "contradiction in terms" as synonyms and use them interchangeably. Personally, though, I find that the distinction between intentional and unintentional contradiction is worth trying to preserve.