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I started this new job recently and my supervisor is an extremely talkative person. He gets in very early before me and leaves some time after I do and I'm in there for at least 8 1/2 hours each day. So I know he's doing his work but he also spends copious amounts of time each day chatting with people nearby (I sit in the next large cube over and we're still in visible view of each other). He'll spend up to an hour sometimes chatting with someone and he is usually talking about 95% of the conversation. Everyone basically just listens to him. He's an interesting person but he talks a lot! Meanwhile, I'm always having the hardest time even getting one word out of mouth when I'm in these situations at work. I just wonder how people are able to chat for that long and have seemingly infinite amounts of things to tell other people. I recognize that I'm extremely quiet and introverted and going to work on improving that, but even if I wasn't he talks a lot to the point of distracting me from doing my work. I'm thinking about putting on some headphones and listening to music but I don't want to look like I'm trying to ignore people or something. How are people able to do that?
I want to get better at being able to contribute something to a conversation even if it's a small amount but have no idea how. I'm the youngest person in the area I work in and everyone else is probably a good 10-15 years older than me. A lot of the topics are more sophisticated and I never have any clue what sort of questions to even ask without putting my foot in my mouth. Everyone else always seems to know what to say and I never do. How do I get better at this? I've been listening to audiobooks about communicating and interacting with people. I've also thought about joining a Toastmasters club (I heard that they have sessions where they make you talk on the spot for some time about whatever). How can I improve in these situations?
Listen. See how other people are responding to your boss. Find out what topics people in the office are talking about and read up on it so that you can have some input in the conversations. While listening and observing people, you'll see which ones like this or that and find out about the topic so that you can talk to them about it.
It's a learning experience but as time goes on, you get pretty good and forget about your shyness.
i think just practice. What do you think the people in ur workplace have to done to be as talkable as they are. They just spent more time talking. I think the toastmasters thing is a great idea. Try it out and try to commit to it for a while first.
I started this new job recently and my supervisor is an extremely talkative person. He gets in very early before me and leaves some time after I do and I'm in there for at least 8 1/2 hours each day. So I know he's doing his work but he also spends copious amounts of time each day chatting with people nearby (I sit in the next large cube over and we're still in visible view of each other). He'll spend up to an hour sometimes chatting with someone and he is usually talking about 95% of the conversation. Everyone basically just listens to him. He's an interesting person but he talks a lot! Meanwhile, I'm always having the hardest time even getting one word out of mouth when I'm in these situations at work. I just wonder how people are able to chat for that long and have seemingly infinite amounts of things to tell other people. I recognize that I'm extremely quiet and introverted and going to work on improving that, but even if I wasn't he talks a lot to the point of distracting me from doing my work. I'm thinking about putting on some headphones and listening to music but I don't want to look like I'm trying to ignore people or something. How are people able to do that?
I want to get better at being able to contribute something to a conversation even if it's a small amount but have no idea how. I'm the youngest person in the area I work in and everyone else is probably a good 10-15 years older than me. A lot of the topics are more sophisticated and I never have any clue what sort of questions to even ask without putting my foot in my mouth. Everyone else always seems to know what to say and I never do. How do I get better at this? I've been listening to audiobooks about communicating and interacting with people. I've also thought about joining a Toastmasters club (I heard that they have sessions where they make you talk on the spot for some time about whatever). How can I improve in these situations?
I don't have the time to talk much DURING the actual work. Going to and from locations, I can though. It's rush-rush-rush and you might get a few minutes or so. Outside of work I can go on for days and ALWAYS be talking something different. I have 30 years of experience on the subjects.
I am a talker too, but I wasn't always. I used to be very shy around people, even panic a little. I worried what people would think of me or that I would say something stupid. Now I don't give a damn and it's easier.
I started this new job recently and my supervisor is an extremely talkative person. He gets in very early before me and leaves some time after I do and I'm in there for at least 8 1/2 hours each day. So I know he's doing his work but he also spends copious amounts of time each day chatting with people nearby (I sit in the next large cube over and we're still in visible view of each other). He'll spend up to an hour sometimes chatting with someone and he is usually talking about 95% of the conversation. Everyone basically just listens to him. He's an interesting person but he talks a lot! Meanwhile, I'm always having the hardest time even getting one word out of mouth when I'm in these situations at work. I just wonder how people are able to chat for that long and have seemingly infinite amounts of things to tell other people. I recognize that I'm extremely quiet and introverted and going to work on improving that, but even if I wasn't he talks a lot to the point of distracting me from doing my work. I'm thinking about putting on some headphones and listening to music but I don't want to look like I'm trying to ignore people or something. How are people able to do that?
I want to get better at being able to contribute something to a conversation even if it's a small amount but have no idea how. I'm the youngest person in the area I work in and everyone else is probably a good 10-15 years older than me. A lot of the topics are more sophisticated and I never have any clue what sort of questions to even ask without putting my foot in my mouth. Everyone else always seems to know what to say and I never do. How do I get better at this? I've been listening to audiobooks about communicating and interacting with people. I've also thought about joining a Toastmasters club (I heard that they have sessions where they make you talk on the spot for some time about whatever). How can I improve in these situations?
Your boss is a bore. He isn't having conversations. He's having soliloquies.
I started this new job recently and my supervisor is an extremely talkative person. He gets in very early before me and leaves some time after I do and I'm in there for at least 8 1/2 hours each day. So I know he's doing his work but he also spends copious amounts of time each day chatting with people nearby (I sit in the next large cube over and we're still in visible view of each other). He'll spend up to an hour sometimes chatting with someone and he is usually talking about 95% of the conversation.?
My female boss talks too damn much. She's talks about everything and nothing. Her hubs, kid, the dollar she lost in the machine, gym time and anything. GEESH!! The people around her cubicle love to talk with her. I don't. We may talk on occasion, if the conversation goes too long, then I'm thinking okay go away.
I started this new job recently and my supervisor is an extremely talkative person. He gets in very early before me and leaves some time after I do and I'm in there for at least 8 1/2 hours each day. So I know he's doing his work but he also spends copious amounts of time each day chatting with people nearby (I sit in the next large cube over and we're still in visible view of each other). He'll spend up to an hour sometimes chatting with someone and he is usually talking about 95% of the conversation. Everyone basically just listens to him. He's an interesting person but he talks a lot! Meanwhile, I'm always having the hardest time even getting one word out of mouth when I'm in these situations at work. I just wonder how people are able to chat for that long and have seemingly infinite amounts of things to tell other people. I recognize that I'm extremely quiet and introverted and going to work on improving that, but even if I wasn't he talks a lot to the point of distracting me from doing my work. I'm thinking about putting on some headphones and listening to music but I don't want to look like I'm trying to ignore people or something. How are people able to do that?
I want to get better at being able to contribute something to a conversation even if it's a small amount but have no idea how. I'm the youngest person in the area I work in and everyone else is probably a good 10-15 years older than me. A lot of the topics are more sophisticated and I never have any clue what sort of questions to even ask without putting my foot in my mouth. Everyone else always seems to know what to say and I never do. How do I get better at this? I've been listening to audiobooks about communicating and interacting with people. I've also thought about joining a Toastmasters club (I heard that they have sessions where they make you talk on the spot for some time about whatever). How can I improve in these situations?
I feel your pain. I had a boss who would...not...shut...up. There was no such thing as asking her a yes-or-no question, because there was no such thing as her providing a yes-or-no answer. Everything became a dissertation. It drove me insane.
Better yet, after wasting so much of my time, she would then turn around and wonder why I hadn't made as much progress on a project as I could have if she had only shut up.
See how other people handle it, but know that if your boss turns out to be hypersensitive, any attempt you make to shut the world out can and will be taken as an affront. I had an office with a glass wall and a glass door. When I was concentrating on writing, I'd shut the door. People were free to knock and come on in. I only shut the door to get some quiet in which to concentrate. My then-boss saw that as "withdrawing."
My female boss talks too damn much. She's talks about everything and nothing. Her hubs, kid, the dollar she lost in the machine, gym time and anything. GEESH!! The people around her cubicle love to talk with her. I don't. We may talk on occasion, if the conversation goes too long, then I'm thinking okay go away.
No one who monopolozies a conversation for 95% of the time is "interesting." Maybe if it's 1969 and you're chatting with Neil Armstrong (who just returned from the moon), it would be OK. Otherwise... this is a self-absorbed BORE.
Anyway, this is not conversation. Anyone who takes up 95% of any chat is engaging in a monologue. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.....
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Meanwhile, I'm always having the hardest time even getting one word out of mouth when I'm in these situations at work. I just wonder how people are able to chat for that long and have seemingly infinite amounts of things to tell other people. I recognize that I'm extremely quiet and introverted and going to work on improving that, but even if I wasn't he talks a lot to the point of distracting me from doing my work. I'm thinking about putting on some headphones and listening to music but I don't want to look like I'm trying to ignore people or something. How are people able to do that?
