naturalplastic wrote:
When I was younger I sometimes had that problem. Its almost embarrassing to think back now on some moments because it seems obvious to me now why folks didnt get things I was trying convey.
Example:the store I worked at had a trash dumpster outside. On the dumpster was posted a sign "For the XYZ Drugstore use only". But the dumpster itself was enclosed in little gated fence. You could put trash into it, but the fence blocked you from reading the sign. So the stupid sign was useless because no one could read it.
The result was that every resident in every house in the surrounding community used our dumpster to put their own trash into. I would catch folks putting stuff in it and none even thought they were doing anything wrong. They honestly and innocently thought the dumpster was there for the whole community to use.
The young lady store manager and I got to talking about the problem of non-store trashing filling up the dumpster, and I said that I thought "we need a sign people can read". She replied 'we HAVE a sign out there". I left the conversation angry. But when I am reminded of it now it embarrasses me how naive I was to think that she could have parsed out that I meant "a sign that people can read" as opposed to "a sign that is always hidden from view that obviously no one would obey because they cant read it".
Should have said "we have sign, but no one obeys it because ....duhhhh....its hidden from view so you cant read the sign in the first place." Something like that.
There is more to the tale. I was also wrongly assuming that boss knew things I knew - like who the culprits were. She and others in the store thought it was some one party (some other store in the mall) that was using our dumpter. And from catching people in the act I actually knew the truth that it wasnt one party. It was every damn person in the surrounding neighborhood. The whole public. And not some baddies at anther mall store.
You might be making similar sorts of mistakes. Assuming folks know things that they dont know. And/or expecting them to parse things out in a hurry.
The lesson. You have to get into the other person's head and see it from their pov before you explain stuff to them.
This helps me out a lot, thank you for sharing. The lesson is what I needed to learn because I usually do not think of other peoples pov. I always focus on my thoughts and not others. I will be working on this in the future.
_________________
Do whatever makes you happy! <3
06 May 2017, 9:24 am
