It has been
commented on before, but I will comment on it yet again. We live in an
information technology world, where because it is possible to communicate via
so many different devices and platforms, there should be
no problems informing others as to what one is thinking or about
what is going on. Yet, time and again, communication fails, or if it does not
directly fail, it is poor at best. I am not the only one to notice this; I have
colleagues and friends who say the same thing. Emails pile up in my work inbox,
and I start off my workday trying to make sense of them. Most are replies to
previous emails, not necessarily sent by me, but sent by others to multiple
recipients including me. Most of them are non-informative unless you read the
entire email threads, which no one has the time to do. You might as well just
tell me to
‘see below’ instead of
sending me an email that says ‘yepp’ or ‘ok’ or some such thing. The level of
rudeness in work emails has reached an all-time high; it is very rare that you
get addressed by name. I do address others by name; on the rare occasion when I
don’t, it’s to emphasize a point—that the person I am responding to has been
rude and doesn’t deserve a courteous response. Most of the emails just state in
one or two sentences what the email writer wants, or what he or she wants to
inform you about. I have a problem with this lack of professional courtesy. Text
messages can be even worse. They are often the preferred form of communication
for many busy souls these days. And that’s ok, except when they resemble emails
in the form of responses like ‘yepp’ and ‘ok’, with no reference to what has
transpired previously. Again, I am not a mind reader and have no plans on
becoming one. So if you want me to understand what you’re thinking about, if
you really want to communicate with me, take the time to talk to me. Come by my
office and stop in for a chat. I promise to listen.
I know that
this problem has mostly to do with that everyone is so busy at work, that no
one has the time anymore to really communicate, to have a conversation, to
listen to others, or to try to understand others. Some of the ‘multiple
recipient’ emails expect you to be a mind-reader; you’re expected to just
understand what has been going on with very little explanation. I ignore these
emails for the most part; if you cannot take the time to explain what’s going
on, it cannot be that important for me to comment on it. So I don’t. In this
way, I reduce the level of responsibility I feel for certain work situations.
And that suits me just fine. The same goes for cryptic text messages. If you
cannot take the time to write a coherent text message, I will ignore it.
I keep
coming back to kindness and courtesy. We are losing these virtues in our busy
world. They have been sacrificed on the altars of efficiency, productivity, and
saving time. I’m tired of it. If you cannot be kind, if you cannot be courteous
and professional, if you cannot behave in a civilized manner, I don’t want to
deal with you, via any mode of communication. It’s that simple. And I don’t
feel bad about saying that.
