In certain situations thinking of communication as patterned interaction is needed. The best example that comes to mind is when you start a new job. You learn how to work with others and get a feel for all your co workers attitudes and work ethics. Through this you learn everyone’s styles and adapt to those styles in order to so call “keep the peace”. By doing so only makes the relationship between you and your co worker stronger and therefore this makes the day by day aspect of the job a little easier, due to the fact that you both learn to work together as a team.
After reading chapter 2 in the “Thinking through Communications” book, I now see how I follow the communication patterns that are described in the book. I utilized communication patterns on a day to day basis with every different co worker that I come across. I change up my work ethics depending on the person I am working with. I learned quickly that you need to adapt to everyone. Example: I work for Santa Clara County Juvenile Hall, therefore within this job you must always be on guard. I work with several different people on a daily basis. We have something that is called a 15 minute tier sheet, in which we go around to each minor’s room and take a look then we sign off that we checked into the rooms, this must be done consistently every 15 minutes. With some staff they don’t mind signing the tier sheets, however with others they think that since they have been working in the hall for 10 + years that they are above signing the sheets. So there I go and sign the sheets every 15 minutes. When I leave the unit and go on a break, I come back and the sheets were just how I left them (even if I was out for 30 min). Of course I am not going to complain about it since I don’t have as much seniority on most staff that I work with. I just think that if everyone was on the same page and learned how to communicate with each other it would help out tremendously.
Communication is definitely like a game. As each person talks, that’s just the same as taking turns in a 2+ person game. When one player moves of course its going to have an effect on what the other players do, just the same as when you say something to someone in conversation they must react all the same. People who communicate with each other are just like a payoff in a game. One person could possibly be in competition with the
other, with something as little as putting the other person down, therefore they feel as they won. Lastly each person in a conversation is dependent on one another, because without a receiver there can be no sender.
Communication however is not always like a game. When people communicate it doesn’t always follow a pattern, and sometimes there is only talking at one end. Example: When a teenager is getting chewed out by his/her parents for doing something that the parent doesn’t approve of. At least for me anyway, there is no real form of communication because when I did something wrong and was getting yelled at by my dad I just sat there and listened. I was too scared to say a word to him especially when I knew that what I had done was wrong.
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2 comments:
I, too, believe communication is like a game. In order to have a better relationship with family, friends, co-workers (etc.) we must learn the pattern styles of those whom we communicate with.
However, if each contestant put more effort into studying and applying the rules of the game, we will build much more meaningful and better relationships.
The story about your co-workers, who have more seniority than you, is disturbing. I find it disturbing for good reason.
The pragmatic perspective believes that we cannot not communicate. Your co-workers who fail to sign the tier sheet, may have been employed for numerous years, but they fail at doing the job they were hired to perform. These workers are seriously endangering the children, their fellow co-workers, and themselves.
More poignantly, they are communicating that they don't care about their jobs; they're just waiting to be paid.
I truly believe the tier system was put in place for the safety and security of everyone that visits the establishment.
I'm sorry that you had to experiece this, but experience is a good teacher. At least we can count on you to do the job that you were called to do. I wish you well and God Bless.
I agree with you that communication patterns are needed and especially within a job setting. I work for a large retailer and have come to realize that there are certain people that I can speak to more casually and open while there are others that I know that I have to watch what I say.
Unfortunately for your work situation it is too bad that the people that have worked longer than you are abusing there seniority. If anything they are the ones who should be leading by example and showing everyone else the ropes. It can just take one person to bring down the moral of a team and create negative communication. Unfortunately, it probably is going to take an accident to fix the communication problem between your team and get everyone on the same page.
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