4 ms·

Communication skills are important, but you need to know when to shut the fuck up. That's what's universally important and entirely true. Instructions are neve

by unabst 11y ago

Communication skills are important, but you need to know when to shut the fuck up. That's what's universally important and entirely true. Instructions are never perfect. It's whether you can get the job done anyway, once you know what is being asked of you, which is mostly a one time initiation. Ever see someone repeatedly asking and questioning what is being asked of them? That's someone who is going to struggle for the rest of their lives in every professional environment someone accidentally put them in. Supervisors don't want to hear about imperfections that you could have worked around yourself. You aren't being paid to call and talk and yap. You're being paid to deliver. Your approach is academic already, and goes to prove my point. Instructions only need to meet you half way. In fact, less the more for you. This is why it's completely academically backwards. The more you get done with fewer instructions, the more valuable you are because you cost less time. Imagine a Postal Worker questioning the features on their mobile device (which clearly suck). They're being paid to work with it, not question it and talk about it. Communication skills are important, but communication itself is an absolute bottleneck in any workflow (with emphasis on flow). Minimize communication volume, and maximize communication value. Work is no excuse to talk. But that doesn't mean all work is anti-academic. Most of it is though. The best academic jobs will always be in academia.

onion2k 11y ago
Work is no excuse to talk. I understand that there are people who prefer to work in silence, concentrating on nothing but the task at hand, but the suggestion that everyone should be like that is idiotic. There is a wide variety of people in the workplace; we aren't all the same. The idea that office hours should be limited to work and nothing else betrays who we are: living, sociable human beings.
- unabst 11y ago
  Right. You continue to exemplify my point. Talkers truly underestimate the bandwidth it takes to engage someone properly, and if you're not engaging someone properly, your presence is just insulting. If you're in an open office without walls or cubicles, and people kept talking to you, you wouldn't get anything done. Their excuse? That they're living, sociable, human beings. Well, tell that to your boss. Think of a busy kitchen. People don't talk beyond the signals required to advance workflow. Of course, everyone can chat when they're not busy. But that's also when the business isn't making any money. Restaurants close to take you off the clock. Think of all the jobs that require focus, like programming and writing. Think of all the jobs that are so much easier with focus, like almost every job. Of course, if you like to talk, just get a job that requires it. Waiters get to talk while they wait for customers, and get to talk with customers. Journalists, teachers, lawyers, consultants, entertainers. And my suggestion was to know when to shut up, not that everyone must work in silence. There is a time for communication, and for your presentation skills to shine. It just isn't "whenever I feel sociable because that's who I am, yo". But that's school! Get it? And all this, they DO NOT TEACH IN SCHOOL.
  - RobertKerans 11y ago
    Right, sure, knowing when to shut the fuck up is very important. But learning to be good at communication, and learning social skills is brutally important in life. Learning when to speak and when not to speak and how to speak to other people is so important: how are people supposed to learn this if you teach them to just shut up and take orders? If you learn good social skills, you do better in life, and you don't learn social skills by not interacting socially. Also, school is a point in life where there is literally no downside to constantly asking questions, all the time. You even say, teachers are paid to put up with you: well, in that case, make them work!
    - unabst 11y ago
      For the most part, they don't teach either. They don't teach good communication skills, nor do they teach you to shut up. Typically, students will talk, and get scolded when the teacher doesn't want them to talk. That's not a lesson. It's a power grab. They don't teach how to ask questions either. They need to. I know these things because I have had to teach them to every person that I hired. The modern system was suppose to create a smart and dependable work force by teaching students how to study, which is basically how to follow instructions and absorb anything handed to them. Except, that is only a small fraction of most work, and even the studying part they stop doing because it was never fun or important to them, or they never got good at it to begin with. Because, ironically, most schools don't teach you how to study. They just make you study.

by unabst 11y ago

onion2k 11y ago

Work is no excuse to talk. I understand that there are people who prefer to work in silence, concentrating on nothing but the task at hand, but the suggestion that everyone should be like that is idiotic. There is a wide variety of people in the workplace; we aren't all the same. The idea that office hours should be limited to work and nothing else betrays who we are: living, sociable human beings.

unabst 11y ago
Right. You continue to exemplify my point. Talkers truly underestimate the bandwidth it takes to engage someone properly, and if you're not engaging someone properly, your presence is just insulting. If you're in an open office without walls or cubicles, and people kept talking to you, you wouldn't get anything done. Their excuse? That they're living, sociable, human beings. Well, tell that to your boss. Think of a busy kitchen. People don't talk beyond the signals required to advance workflow. Of course, everyone can chat when they're not busy. But that's also when the business isn't making any money. Restaurants close to take you off the clock. Think of all the jobs that require focus, like programming and writing. Think of all the jobs that are so much easier with focus, like almost every job. Of course, if you like to talk, just get a job that requires it. Waiters get to talk while they wait for customers, and get to talk with customers. Journalists, teachers, lawyers, consultants, entertainers. And my suggestion was to know when to shut up, not that everyone must work in silence. There is a time for communication, and for your presentation skills to shine. It just isn't "whenever I feel sociable because that's who I am, yo". But that's school! Get it? And all this, they DO NOT TEACH IN SCHOOL.
- RobertKerans 11y ago
  Right, sure, knowing when to shut the fuck up is very important. But learning to be good at communication, and learning social skills is brutally important in life. Learning when to speak and when not to speak and how to speak to other people is so important: how are people supposed to learn this if you teach them to just shut up and take orders? If you learn good social skills, you do better in life, and you don't learn social skills by not interacting socially. Also, school is a point in life where there is literally no downside to constantly asking questions, all the time. You even say, teachers are paid to put up with you: well, in that case, make them work!
  - unabst 11y ago
    For the most part, they don't teach either. They don't teach good communication skills, nor do they teach you to shut up. Typically, students will talk, and get scolded when the teacher doesn't want them to talk. That's not a lesson. It's a power grab. They don't teach how to ask questions either. They need to. I know these things because I have had to teach them to every person that I hired. The modern system was suppose to create a smart and dependable work force by teaching students how to study, which is basically how to follow instructions and absorb anything handed to them. Except, that is only a small fraction of most work, and even the studying part they stop doing because it was never fun or important to them, or they never got good at it to begin with. Because, ironically, most schools don't teach you how to study. They just make you study.