Lack of Communication

This crazy, mixed up world that we live in has me a bit concerned. Now I will be the first to admit that I am not the most talkative, expressive person on this planet, but I will open my mouth.

You have all heard the one about the extroverted accountant right? He’s the one who looks at the other person’s shoes when talking instead of his own!! (Roll laugh track)

I am talking about the prevalence of email and other nonverbal forms of communication.

A few disclaimers about my use of such communication methods:

1. I regularly use email. I am not an email junky. I prefer to pick up the phone, go to a coworkers’ workspace, or make a visit to a client than shooting off an email. Email can become such a distraction that you don’t get work done. I try to limit the number of times a day I respond to email simply so I can focus on what I am current working on. In my line of work clients pay for my time and at my billing rate they deserve dedication and focus. I certainly wouldn’t pay my billing rate if I knew how often my coworkers were ‘multi-tasking’ while on my account.

2. I Instant Message (IM) at work and at home, but I do not use it to IM friends and family as a replacement for speaking to them in person or on the phone. It is an easy way to say hello to my sweetheart while at work and not tie up a phone line. Lately my ten-year old son has taken to IM’ing me during his computer time. It is quite entertaining to read his SLOWLY typed little messages.

At home our IM program is our link to family spread far and wide. We regularly webcam my kids’ grandparents and cousins. When they only see each other once a year, or less in many cases, this is the only way for my kids to have a relationship with these cousins that they hear about or see photos posted on websites.

3. I have a cell phone that is capable of texting, but in the five years of having a text-capable cell phone I have possibly sent 10 texts and received the same number. Last year when my office changed cell providers I was given the opportunity to get a Palm Treo or “Crackberry” to enable me to be more accessible to clients. I politely declined this opportunity. I am not as hip and young as I once was and as such will never understand the constant need of the next generation to type messages on a number pad. I guess I just don’t have that much to say.

4. I love music but do not wear earphones at the office. I have a CD boombox (GASP) with a remote control that I turn on when I want and always turn off when someone enters my office to speak to me. I have no plans of upgrading to an ipod speaker sytem.

5. I have a blog, but as you can tell I don’t use it as my sole source of communication with the outside world. It is just my way of having a larger voice—not that anyone is listening.

So with those disclaimers I wish to now fret about the inability to communicate rampant amongst my younger coworkers.

How often do you receive emails from coworkers who would rather sit at their desks (less than 50 feet away) and send an email that obviously took longer to formulate and type than to walk to your office and use their vocal chords?

Here is a classic example. This week I gave a project to a coworker. The project is not complicated, but it does involve some interaction with me since I have worked on this project for a number of years. While I try to pass on the experience and knowledge I have about a project inevitably there are some details about the client that just reside in my head due to my tenure as their accountant. Anyway, I received an email from the person to whom I delegated this project informing me that they had finished several items and had a couple of questions. The email then said they would come see me when they were ready to go over the questions.

Hours later, after having walked past this person’s desk on several occasions, I stopped and asked this person whether they would like discuss the questions. This person politely deferred until later because they were in the middle of something else. That was Thursday afternoon. I didn’t hear from them the rest of the day Thursday nor did this person come to see me on Friday. So now I don’t know what the questions are nor do I have any idea the status of the project.

How often have you received an email addressed to ‘All’ that clearly didn’t apply to you? I especially hate these emails when no thought was given. I am a salaried employee who is paid once a month. Why do I have to receive the email reminding me to fill out my time sheet in the middle of the month that only applies to hourly employees? Just because it is easy for those who aren’t involved to delete an email doesn’t justify being that inconsiderate and lazy. Would you walk around the office with a bullhorn announcing the same thing you sent in an email when it only applied to 10 percent of the workforce?

Our office isn’t progressive enough to allow IM’ing. Our IT guy says it takes up too much network bandwidth. I can’t believe that an IM program could be any worse than the constant viewing of YouTube videos that come attached to email forwards from near and far. One day perhaps that IM’ing will replace an intercom call to a coworker on another floor of the building.

How often do you find your coworkers with earbuds in their ears so that they can’t tell that someone has entered their workspace? They always act so put out when they have to remove their earbuds to talk to you. I understand the need for music to zone out to, just don’t give me the “why did you have to bother me” look when I come to discuss something.

Humans are social creatures and isolation only breeds insanity. So please get out of your chair and walk the halls instead of sitting stone-faced and type emails or tap out text messages all while rocking out to the tunes filling only your ears.