Assignment 2: Interpersonal Communication Problems in the Workplace

“There are two barriers that often prevent communication between the young and their elders. The first is middle-aged forgetfulness of the fact that they themselves are no longer young. The second is youthful ignorance of the fact that the middle aged are still alive.” ~ Jessamyn West

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Communication barriers in the workplace between the older generation and younger generation workers is a common problem in most organizations. Even if the company is said to have a'hip' or 'vibrant and young' working environment (Eg, Facebook, Starbucks), there is still bound to be miscommunication between different generations, or even age groups. A fresh graduate of 25 years old may communicate very differently from an older colleague of 30 years old, even if they are supposedly in the same generation, and the age gap merely 5 years.

A specific problem I faced in the workplace was miscommunication with my supervisors, who belong to another generation.

My 30 year old mentor and I think very much alike, and we like to communicate using whatsapp at work. On the other hand, my supervisors who are both in their 40's prefer using email and skype. My mentor and I also like to use singlish, jargons and abbreviations when communicating within team. We do this because we are very comfortable with it, since we text like that with our friends on a daily basis. We are also somewhat lazy, and prefer to keep things short and sweet by typing messages quickly. However, this habit has transferred from our daily communication to our work, which may affect things badly. One such incident was when I used the abbreviation 'PS' when speaking to a Gen X client from Singapore. Thinking that since she was a fellow Singaporean, she would understand what it meant. However, she did not reply my message, but instead called my supervisor to clarify what I was talking about! She thought that it meant 'post script', when I actually meant to say 'paiseh', which means sorry is singlish.

Dear friends, I think it will be a challenge for me to change my habits which are so deeply rooted. So what are the possible steps I can take to improve, especially since I am embarking on my IWSP soon? (Please feel free to share your suggestions and solutions! Thank you! :)

Edited: 25 March

Commented on Yanxuan's blog.