sorry for the thread necromancy, but i thought this was a great thread and it's something that's been on my mind lately sooooooo i thought it be nice to bring it back up for discussion.
This is a returning topic in my mind, directness and assertiveness.
I see very often on this forum (less so IRL, but whatever) someone often advising another person to be direct or complaining about the lack of directness from others, which often leads to declarations of insecurity and immaturity towards the "indirect" party.
So I've been trying to think of some scenarios that I would like people to categorize as direct or indirect. I'm trying to figure out what exactly are people's ideas of direct. All of these scenarios have happened to me.
...
How would people rate the directness of each of these scenes?
I wonder if directness is related to a person's ability to pick up on hints, innuendos, and reading between the lines. Think about alternate versions of each scenario as well, i.e. being perceived as bossy, authoritarian, micromanaging, passive, etc.
Also, this ties into calling people passive-aggressive as well. I sometimes think one person's passive-aggressiveness is another's blunt force trauma. One person will accuse another of being passive-aggressive, while the accusee will assert they were being direct. Once again, I think it depends on how a person defines direct and how much directness is necessary for them to pick up on what others are saying.
Thoughts?
Scene 1
When I worked at Starbucks and when it was slow us baristas would sit around talk. If we still had unfinished duties to do the manager would eventually start assigning us tasks around the store (effectively ending our chat sessions) but did not say anything to us about our socializing.
Direct- the key for me here is "if we still had unfinished duties"; i don't see why socializing is a problem if everything is done and i'm not sure most really would, but if it's not, to me what a supervisor wants us to do if he's assigning tasks is very clear.
Scene 2
When I worked at Victoria's Secret I so enjoyed one of my coworkers there. Basically we'd come to work just to talk and hang out. We'd typically choose some low customer interaction task and chit chat while we were working. Once our manager came up to us in full conversational thrall and said, "My! Aren't you two chatty Cathys!"
Indirect- and bordering on passive aggressive as well as rude and ineffective. Do you want me to totally shut up? Not talk quite as much? Do you want us to keep the volume down? What exactly do you want?
I would not respond well to this kind of communication, i'd likely respond by initially keeping quiet out of feeling embarrassed or "bad", but as soon as they'd leave i'd probably go back to talking and talk shit...especially if i actually was working in the first place.
Scene 3
Recently I went to get blood drawn, the lab tech put on gloves and opened every drawer in the area looking for something and even left the room and I heard her rifling through drawers in the other room. She came back to me smiled and said "OK, ready!" I waited to see if she was going to change gloves again but when she picked up my arm I said "Are you going to change your gloves?"
Direct- or rather it's a direct question marking the beginning of a direct exchange. I'd imagine the convo going something like
"are you going to change your gloves?"
*option 1 (most likely)*
"yes" :: changes gloves ::
*option 2*
"no"
"well do you think you could, please?"
"ok"
Scenario 4 (
stole this one)
Imagine you've just hired a new consultant whose job is to help you improve your communication. The first time you meet with her, she hands you an article and says, "Sit down and read this article I've written. Think about it carefully. Then I want to talk to you about it."
Mostly direct- She tells me exactly what she is expecting me to contribute in this activity, but isn't specific with her goals yet. however, i can get a pretty good idea about where this is going. Considering the context, that i'm hiring someone to help me improve my communication skills, it's easy to draw from that.
if this were being asked of me, i would assume either that a conclusion/reason would follow after discussion of the article, or that discussion of the article actually
is the reason. in this case i can see how giving too much info in terms of what goals she wants to achieve with this activity could be counter-productive; the reader might be inclined to "find" the "correct" information, rather give her the information she actually needs.
basically, if it's clear they have a goal in mind and can get a good sense of what it is they want me to do and/or why, i consider it being direct. i don't see direct as necessarily being "specific" or "blunt", although it could.