Communicating At Work

If you wish to move forward in your career then it is vitally necessary to be able to effectively communicate with your customers, peers and superiors. Communicating at work involves non-verbal and verbal cues as well as polished listening skills.    

Nonverbal Communication

We all tend to think of communication as speaking to one another. However, what you do not say is just as important as what you say. Body posture and position say a lot to a person about your emotional state and receptivity. Talking with someone with your arms crossed across you chest means you are not open to the message the other person is delivering and may feel somewhat hostile or intimidated. Your gestures, eyes and distance you stand from a client or co-worker can send both positive and negative vibes.  

Another form of nonverbal communication is your appearance and the environment around you. Trying to convince a potential client to hire you as their lawyer might not work if your office is in your garage and you are wearing torn jeans, a T-shirt with a beer logo and you have not taken a shower in three days.  

Finally be sure to pay attention to the non-verbal cues of your audience. Watch the body language and facial expressions. Take note if your audience is looking confused or bored. You want to be able to quickly respond and adapt to these nonverbal cues.

The Written Word

One of the major ways of communicating at work in today’s technical society is email. You might find yourself spending less time on the phone and more time at the keyboard. Appropriate grammar and spelling are critical to effectively communicating through the written word. Be sure to stay away from slang and abbreviations. If working with a client avoid technical terms that might not be common everyday words. Write clearly and concisely and always run a spelling and grammar check before sending your email.  

Verbal Communication

When you are communicating at work you must speak in clear, simple language. Stay away from technical terms unless you are speaking with a co-worker who is fully versed in your business jargon. For example, a loan officer explaining to a customer they were turned down for a loan because their beacon, and DTI were too low and the LTV on their primary was too high is not communicating in simple language. Instead the loan officer should be saying the credit score was low, their personal debt was too high based on the income and there was not enough free equity in their home due to their mortgages. Not only should you speak clearly and concisely but slowly as well. Speaking too fast can be overwhelming to the listener. More often than not your audience will quickly tune you out. Always ask your audience after you finish speaking if there are any questions. This will give you excellent feedback as to the clarity of your message.

Listening is a Form of Communication  

Carefully listening to a speaker is as important as skill as speaking and writing properly. If you do not hear or understand the message the speaker is trying to convey you will not be able to respond appropriately. One of the tricks to effective listening is to repeat back to the speaker what they just said. Once the speaker has finished you want to reply, “Just to be sure I understand, you said…” and repeat what the speaker just told you. Not only will you be sure you did hear the message the speaker was trying to convey but the speaker will feel flattered and encouraged by your first rate listening skills.

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Take back control and put an end to your hostile workplace this very moment, grab Work Laws Exposed right now. You can’t alter a situation you don’t like and don’t deserve without having an open mind, investing in yourself, and taking action.

Legal Question : Hostile / Uncomfortable Workplace?

I am the department head. I have two workers that do not get along with each other, but everyone else here, including me, likes both of them. They do not need to interact with each other, and do not. There are no problems that way.

My question is, one of the two workers has decided to collect money from everyone here at work, except from the one worker this person does not get along with, for our state lottery drawing. The worker who collects the money does this during the work day, and has a sign posted where everyone can read it to participate.

My answer to the worker who is not included is that “this is not work related, and I can’t make the other worker include you in this.”

I have a feeling that I am wrong, and I do not want any legal ramifications from this. I cannot ask anyone higher than me, as I am it. Are there any web sites you can direct me to that may offer me some guidance, or do you have any knowledge legally concerning these circumstances?

Serious responses only please, as I consider this matter to be a serious one. 10 points awarded to the best answer.

Answer
First off, do not allow the worker to do this during work hours. If they have posted a sign on a “community” board, fine, but insist that the collection, etc be done during breaks, lunch, before or after they are on the clock.

I am not sure where you are, but in AZ you cannot “gamble” without a permit, it is illegal. We had a case here (not sure when) where the employer was fined for allowing gambling. I will try to find the case. The state was notified by an unhappy person who was morally outraged about the betting. (It was a stupid college basketball March Madness thing).

If I were you, I would stop the whole lottery drawing cash collection from being a work place sponsored/ supported thing.

UPDATE
I was unable to find the article on the company that was fined here. This link shows a summary of gambling laws per state. Hopefully this will help you if you should decide to stop the lottery at the office.

http://www.gambling-law-us.com/State-Law-Summary/

best of luck.