I think the title says it all.
I wish more people would actually think before they speak. I don't mean just think about the words they are going to say, but also how they are going to say them. Tone is important.
For example, I work with a woman, J, who is our PIO. She is a very intelligent, well-spoken individual. Unfortunately she speaks with this imperious tone that is so grating. I know she's arrogant. She graduated from one of the top HBCs in the area. (Sometimes I think they have a class entitled Meglomania 101.) So, she does have this air of superiority about her, but she seems to NEVER think about how she's going to say something before it leaves her mouth.
Yesterday she left me a voice mail about one of her staff members. She couldn't remember if the person were going to be off and made a remark about not having seen a leave slip. I'm not responsible for haivng any employee fill out a leave slip, so I ignored that comment. Then she said something about my voice mail being incorrect because the number I refer callers to when they can't get hold of me is non-functional now. Well, no one gave anyone instructions on what number to call so the entire agency has the old number. Get over it or do something about it! Geez!!
Also yesterday our training director was in a bit of a snit about one of her employees receiving erroneous information about the type of leave she could use for a court appearance. I had told the person that I thought they could use administrative leave (court leave) but to ask our HR person. I don't know what the HR person told her but I got a nice-nasty e-mail from the training director that the employee was not entitled to use that type of leave. She copied the HR person. I responded that I had told the employee to contact the HR person because I wasn't sure. I copied the HR person and our manager.
I can give the training director some slack. Whenever she gets stressed she doesn't always communicate in the best way. She reacts to situations emotionally, and can often be abrupt and rude. However, she should recognize this about herself and work on it. Okay, maybe that isn't going to happen. Most people aren't introspective.
I know the propensity of today's society is to simply tell people what you think or feel without censoring yourself, but is it healthy overall? I mean, if we all went about blurting out what we felt or thought at any given moment WWIII would have happened by now. However, perhaps it's time for us to all be a bit more thoughtful in what we say and how we say it. Or maybe this is a pipe dream I'm having and reality is about to curse me to my face telling me what it really thinks!
