Jumping to Conclusions


Blog / Tuesday, January 10th, 2017

Some of the poeple I work with are quick to jump to conclusions about what people are saying, usually these conclusions put them on the defensive. I’m not entirely sure why they do it, but my assumption is that most of the time they do not let people finish their thoughts before they have decided what that person has said. Often, they cut off the person to defend themselves, needlessly.

As a person who tries to calmly and slowly explain things so people do not get lost, this is rather frustrating. I rarely get to finish my sentences and wholly explain myself. In doing so, I would be able to save a five minute back and forth (or just a one way version of that). Part of this problem for myself is that I try to be cognizant of being a man and not talking over people or cutting them off, but it seems to put me in the position of being talked over and cut off. Because of that, I cannot explain and people jump to conclusions.

There are other factors at play here, as my former boss pointed out too. In defense of one of our co-workers, he pointed out that she’s a 50 year old woman, who did not live through the best of times for a woman to be working in an office. She isn’t old enough to be in that first poat-war wave, but she is old enough that she had to fight for every bit of respect she deserved in the workplace. So when she gets defensive, she’s just displaying the cultural training she was brought up with. I can get behind that idea.

Anyway, I think the point I’m getting to is that I want to work in an office where everyone is equally respected and is allowed to finish their thoughts before other people talk.

Okay…wait…maybe that’s not quite it. One of the co-workers in our office sometimes just talks to talk and it doesn’t really add to the conversation so that perfect world office would need to have a way to discern that when someone is talking and then cut them off appriately. That would be great. Just because you have things to say, does not mean they add value to the conversation.

Also, still tired, so I feel more rambly than usual.

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