Thursday October 2nd, 2008

The exercise:

I just want to say that the quote of the night from the federal leaders debate goes to Jack Layton for this comment towards Stephen Harper: you either don't care or you're incompetent, which is it? Also kudos to Elizabeth May and Gilles Duceppe for being the two most honest people at the table.

Anyway, today's starter is: constant interruptions. For the record, I had already decided on this one before watching the debate.

Mine:

I've been temping in the same office for the last few days and I've been noticing almost everyone that works in and around my area share a personality pet peeve of mine.

They are constantly interrupting each others speech. They'll hear five words, think they've figured out where the conversation is headed, and break in to finish things off. I'd say about half the time they're right... but that means they're wrong the other fifty percent of the time.

It's a pretty busy office, so I guess they're just in a rush to get the talking done with and get back to work. But half of the time the original speaker has to explain that no, that wasn't what she was going to say, this was. And suddenly the conversation is doubled or tripled in length.

Aside from this time efficiency business, there's also the fact that whoever is being interrupted can't feel too important. If you behave like you're too busy to listen, people will notice. There's a very large difference in respect between rushing a conversation to its end and telling someone that you don't have time to talk right now, come by later.

I'm usually a slow speaker, thinking as I go, so I tend to get interrupted a lot in general. It infuriates me to no end. Thankfully though, the people I'm working with at the moment are letting me speak, maybe because they don't know me as well or whatever. But it is pretty aggravating to listen to others being denied their right to speak and be heard.