Miscommunication – the funny and the frustrating. Between e-mail and working in the global marketplace, we are all at risk of an unintended interpretation of our communication. I had a co-worker who had recently immigrated from China. But he spoke English so well that I didn’t even think twice when I told him we were going to eat chicken fingers for lunch. Have you ever once thought about that literally? So you can imagine the look on his face.

And e-mail is a minefield. Unlike a phone call, it is a one way communication. When you aren’t clear and you are on the telephone, you hear the person’s immediate reaction and make a swift correction. But in email you may not know you have offended or been unclear until you get an angry reply – or worse, no reply at all. If I hadn’t seen the look on my Chinese friend’s face, it wouldn’t have occurred to me that I had horrified him.

It is also frustrating when you get a reply to a question, but not an actual answer. Recently a volley of e-mail involving several people resulted in an agreement that one of two actions had to be taken by “Mary.” When following up about the problem I specifically asked Mary was action A done or was action B done. The answer I got back was “Yes.” Technically speaking I guess that would be a correct answer if I only wanted to know if either action had been taken. But in the context of the e-mail I thought I was clear that I wanted to know which! So I tried again asking Mary WHICH one was done. The reply was “It was done.” I asked another recipient of the same e-mail if I was being obtuse, but she reassured that my question still had not been answered. So she offered to find out from Mary’s boss. When she asked him about it, his answer was “Mary did it.” At that point we actually stopped caring about the entire thing. I am certain that this question will come up again before the project is over. If asked, I will just say “Ask Mary.”

Meanwhile, buffalo wings anyone?

“… if I turn out to be particularly clear you’ve probably misunderstood what I’ve said.” Alan Greenspan