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People who cannot answer a direct question with a direct response. I'm not talking about cozy intimate conversations, or questions in the therapy session. But simple direct questions in a public conversation.
For example, I listen to a lot of talk radio, shows in which people call for career, financial, or relationship advice. The host asks a simple question-- "what is your combined gross annual income?" That question requires a simple response, a number. Maybe a number combined with a few words "My wife and I together gross 95,000" or "I can earn between 85 and 100,000 per year depending on commissions."
But no, the caller instead goes into a tangential story, usually starting with "So..."
It usually goes like this:
Host: What is your gross annual income?"
Caller: So, about 3 years ago, my wife got this new job, and.....(goes into a long tangential story)
Host: Again, what is your annual income?
Host: How long have you been married to your husband?
Caller: So, we first met when he was 22 and I was 21. Then we.....(goes into long tangential story)
Host: But how long have you been married?????
Host: What are your top 3 skills or talents, things you excel at, in your current job?
Caller: So, I used to love doing (xyz job task) but now I really love doing (another task).....
Host: Okay, that's great that there are things you've loved about the job, but what do you do best? Your top talents or skills?
I'm usually in my car yelling "answer the *&!$^ing question!!!!!"
But it happens at work too:
Me, to the head of another dept: When do you think you can have that report to me?
Guy in charge of other dept: So, first I have to.....then I need to.......
Me: Okay, but what DAY can you get it to me?
Just save your breath, and answer simple question simply!
ROFL - Yes so true.
You reminded me of another aspect that I've noticed in my local market. The other end is radio hosts - we have a couple local radio sports talk hosts who do post game and they have irritating speech patterns for radio. They consistently sound like they are talking with food in mouth or chewing gum / lip smacking and made sounds of uptake breaths of slight snorts which you would hear if you were sitting across a dinner table from someone talking with food in their mouth. Fortunately, I can change the channel or shut off the radio.
I can't figure out how they get a job in an industry where talking continually is the norm.
People who cannot answer a direct question with a direct response. I'm not talking about cozy intimate conversations, or questions in the therapy session. But simple direct questions in a public conversation.
For example, I listen to a lot of talk radio, shows in which people call for career, financial, or relationship advice. The host asks a simple question-- "what is your combined gross annual income?" That question requires a simple response, a number. Maybe a number combined with a few words "My wife and I together gross 95,000" or "I can earn between 85 and 100,000 per year depending on commissions."
But no, the caller instead goes into a tangential story, usually starting with "So..."
It usually goes like this:
Host: What is your gross annual income?"
Caller: So, about 3 years ago, my wife got this new job, and.....(goes into a long tangential story)
Host: Again, what is your annual income?
Host: How long have you been married to your husband?
Caller: So, we first met when he was 22 and I was 21. Then we.....(goes into long tangential story)
Host: But how long have you been married?????
Host: What are your top 3 skills or talents, things you excel at, in your current job?
Caller: So, I used to love doing (xyz job task) but now I really love doing (another task).....
Host: Okay, that's great that there are things you've loved about the job, but what do you do best? Your top talents or skills?
I'm usually in my car yelling "answer the *&!$^ing question!!!!!"
But it happens at work too:
Me, to the head of another dept: When do you think you can have that report to me?
Guy in charge of other dept: So, first I have to.....then I need to.......
Me: Okay, but what DAY can you get it to me?
Just save your breath, and answer simple question simply!
I can defintely relate to this one. Answer the damn question!
I watched an old boss lose a potential contract that way. I was cringing inside. He is part of a somewhat isolated religious community, and in that religion, one discusses and studies the religious writings by answering questions with other questions, and by specifically NOT having direct responses. But this doesn't work in the business and engineering worlds.
He was up to get a lucrative contract for his engineering business, and when called in for an interview that I attended with him, he was asked specifically what his methodology would be for approaching the challenges of the project. He went off on this weird tangent about his education and what he experienced in engineering school as an outsider who wasn't accepted until he was able to prove his abilities, and the three men who were making the business decision just looked perplexed at first, and then I saw their eyes glaze over as he rambled on as if he was discussing text with religious scholars. He never answered their very specific technical question about how he would perform the work, and of course, he didn't get the contract, either.
One I like to trot out because it's silly, I know it's petty, but it just annoys me...
In offices I've worked in, a common thing is, you'll greet a coworker with something like "How's it going?" or "How are you?" and they will respond by telling you what day of the week it is. Like "It's Tuesday." What does that even mean? How is that an answer to the question that I asked? Is there a secret meaning to Tuesdays that I don't know? Have you appointed yourself my automatic desk calendar? What is happening right now?
That and other absurdly meaningless office jargon.
Going forward, we will leverage the synergy of dynamic production! Unless we get any push-back on this at next week's Team Scrum, I'll reach out and get back to you when I know more. Do the needful! (That last one courtesy of our friends in India.)
Oh. Another silly one. People referring to things as "careers" that are not, in any way, shape or form, careers. Not just little dead end jobs, either. When my sons were in high school, it was referred to as "their high school career" (by the school, usually in written materials.) And when I was on a pool league...not the kind of thing where anyone is hustling or getting rich or anything, just a fun little activity with friends...I had a team captain who was high ranked and certainly a very good player, but who was never going to make a living at it, though he was obsessively (absurdly) competitive at times, constantly talk about his "pool career." Dude was an engineer. He has a career. It isn't pool. It was weird.
People who take their bad moods out on whoever is around.
Long post ahead: Had this happen recently at work, with a coworker who is pregnant. We usually get along fine, and were chatting the other day. She seemed very touchy (not towards me at that moment, just in general) and I could tell she was in a bad mood. A little later she mentioned feeling "hormonal."
As the day progressed she seemed to get more and more grumpy. At one point I asked her about the way she had done a certain task, and mentioned that I had been told to do it a different way. I didn't say this in a judging or condescending tone, just mentioned that I had been told something different. (This is, unfortunately, a common occurance at our work.) It causes confusion, for obvious reasons, and I was double-checking to see if we could figure out which way was actually correct.
This made her super angry and she then announced that she just wasn't going to complete the task. (It was something currently assigned to her.) I said that it was really not a big deal, and just go ahead and do it how she usually does. She even more angrily refused to do it at all. I was extremely surprised, because it was such an out-of-proportion reaction. So I just said "oh, okay" and let it go. (Our boss wasn't there, and I have no authority to make her do anything.) I did my own thing for a while, hoping she would cool off.
When she eventually had to speak to me again, she was very short with me, and was glaring at me. Gotta say it really ruined the rest of my work day. Later, I asked another coworker who witnessed this what she thought the problem was, and she also said hormones. Well screw that! If your hormones control you to the point of becoming a borderline psycho, then stay the **** home! I would have never tolerated being spoken to like that in my personal life, but I don't want to say or do anything that may affect my employment.
This is not the first time she has put an extremely bad mood and attitude out there- others have noticed it as well- but the other times, although still unpleasant, she did nothing directed at me. I'm actually starting to change my opinion of her from a "work friend" to a "work person to try to tolerate." And I won't be able to avoid her because this is small office where we're together in one room. It's a shame, and so unprofessional and unnecessary.
It just turns my stomach.
They are either:
1.) people who think they are uber-cool and uber-sexy, and expect you to think so too, and are way too impressed with themselves, or
2.) people who are trying way too hard to appear cool or sexy.
LOL seriously? Wow, you have way too much time on your hands. My girlfriend and I say "babe" on occasion, and we don't do it to think we're "uber-cool," nor do we care what anyone thinks of it.
Don't worry, I'll get off your lawn now.
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