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It’s good to talk

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Neilds

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The recent garage roof drama on the Irritation thread got me thinking about how modern communication is now all on screen. That problem was ‘sorted’ when the 2 parties actually spoke instead of texting. How many people actually speak to someone nowadays instead of email, Skype, etc. I get a lot of messages at work that are unclear or ambiguous and I end up calling to clarify, why didn’t the person ring in the first place so I could check understanding?
We have all seen on this forum how things in text can be taken the wrong way ?
 
Totally agree. I work for a software company, my boss sits at the desk next to me when I'm in the office, and still asks me all work questions by electronic chat, drives me nuts. I have been working at home a few days a week long before covid, and always make a call to speak directly if someone wants info from me, or I need info from them. It's so easy to take electronic chat out of context, miss the intonation etc. It's fine for quick notes or messages that don't need responses, but anything more than a couple of sentences, I'm on a call or talking face to face. I haven't been to the office for over a year now, so speak to my colleagues daily via teams, but I use the headset not the keyboard. I was chatting with a colleague the other day, just passing the time of day before getting to the nitty gritty, turns out that aside from online meetings, I am apparently the only person in the office who ever calls him to talk.
 
The thing with my work is that people feel the need to put things in writing, even when there's been a conversation, so you can prove you said what you said.
 
RichA said:
The thing with my work is that people feel the need to put things in writing, even when there's been a conversation, so you can prove you said what you said.
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..and in many circumstances i would record (minute) what I thought we had discussed and agreed...or not as the case might be.

Though on the general point of the OP - it does baffle me when, say, my wife is in an extended text chat with my daughter - why not just phone and speak to each other?
 
I prefer to write emails or text personally, because I'm very good at putting my thoughts into written word, whereas in conversation I often forget pertinent details of what I wanted to say. There are multiple benefits to emails over phone calls for example as well, such as having an easy record of what was said, and being able to copy several other parties in so everyone is aware of the same information and has that record. If someone phones me at work I typically have to write down the important parts of what they said or I will forget them, whereas in an email it's already written down for you.
 
I'll always remember the Communications Study part of of my Supervisory Management course - only put in writing what needs to be in writing and only file what needs to be filed.
 
Orikoru said:
I prefer to write emails or text personally, because I'm very good at putting my thoughts into written word, whereas in conversation I often forget pertinent details of what I wanted to say. There are multiple benefits to emails over phone calls for example as well, such as having an easy record of what was said, and being able to copy several other parties in so everyone is aware of the same information and has that record. If someone phones me at work I typically have to write down the important parts of what they said or I will forget them, whereas in an email it's already written down for you.
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I'm the exact opposite. I could speak to anyone either in person, on the phone or zoom in great detail about an issue at work, and remember what was said. But I struggle to get anything like the same detail down in writing.

The problem now is dealing with people who are either incompetent or just don't do what they say they will. There used to be a time when you could have a conversation with someone and they would do what you've spoken about or asked of them.

Now they either won't and will deny all knowledge, or mess it up.
 
RichA said:
These days it's more a case of trust no-one, record everything. In my organisation, anyway.
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3 rules I live by.

Trust no one, assume everything is a test, and never drink in a pub with a flat roof.
 
BiMGuy said:
I'm the exact opposite. I could speak to anyone either in person, on the phone or zoom in great detail about an issue at work, and remember what was said. But I struggle to get anything like the same detail down in writing.

The problem now is dealing with people who are either incompetent or just don't do what they say they will. There used to be a time when you could have a conversation with someone and they would do what you've spoken about or asked of them.

Now they either won't and will deny all knowledge, or mess it up.
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We are driving people back to having conversations using Teams, rather than long email chat threads which are the bane of my life! If I ever get one, I just the people involved on a call, and follow up in writing what was discussed & agreed - I can't stand it when someone tags a request onto an email that has nothing to do with the subject.
 
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