Why written communication matters

and how I helped catch a stealer

So communication, it is pretty important, and we have big challenges, and sometimes it goes wrong, and how do we repair or make it right?

I am going to speak on making mistakes in communication, but also ways I helped make it better. It is not intended to be a personal ego boost, but a way to show some ways that it can be done. That may encourage others to take a risk in making things improve, because we all goof communication.

One of the first times I realized I could write, in a real way and not just at essays, was at a job in college. I had a part time job at a print framing shop at the mall. There was a script for answering the phone, posted right on the wall. It was clear that it was a script, so I warmed it up a little. I didn’t get too busted for that at least. I had been scripting prank phone calls for years. I couldn’t do them because I laughed too much.

I noticed with a new manager a lot of people were quitting. Then I read the communication notebook and saw why. The way he wrote was frankly rude. I couldn’t quit then, and I wanted some experienced people to count on, so this wasn’t good. I went to the manager and offered to write down what he wanted to say in the notebook for him. He agreed instead of reacting badly, which was great. For the rest of my employment he told me what he wanted to say, and I wrote it in a way that staff didn’t want to quit.

There were times that my communication was not so stellar. I recall hearing that my opinions were extreme in some essays. I didn’t do well on standardized test writing because I wanted to make it interesting. Sorry the 5 paragraph standard essay is not interesting. If no one wants to continue reading, including your teacher, then what is the point.

Verbal communication was a toss up. Sometimes I was okay, and other times I would go off on a series of things that made total sense to ME. Then I got the blank stares and ‘maybe you are crazy’ look. Now it wasn’t the crazy ‘all my possessions are in a shopping cart and I live on Colfax’, but confused. One time someone just said ‘why are you telling me this’. Ouch.

Now about a time someone else, that I managed, did some poor written communication and I had a lot of clean up. My staff called me about a kid who got in trouble and let me know there was a write up. I can’t recall the behavior but it was appropriate. However there is a place on the write up form that asks what the child can do to improve. In this space the director said ‘Nothing, she isn’t going to change.” Of course a copy goes to the family and there was a lot of repairing work to do. After that I made sure I saw a copy before it was given to the family. I also spent some time working with my directors on how to write goals, and communicate even when super frustrated. It wasn’t just about checking their writing, but building communication skills overall.

The most interesting writing project was just after I graduated from college. I had worked at the Rec Center for a few years including being moved up to a manager level my last year. My last summer I spent writing a manual on how to do the job. I loved writing it, setting the table of contents, including all the details, and of course organizing it. It was back when a lot of things were still on typewriters but I got to use a computer, which was awesome. I wrote the manual, asked lots of people to edit sections and felt really good about it. Later on I had a job at the Bursar’s office on the same campus. One day 2 police officers came to see me. Apparently the permanent staff (not a student passing through) had been stealing money. She would get the student assistant to do some illegal substances with her and then bring them into the scam. I was not interested in those substances so I didn’t get brought in. However she would take and delete some deposits, then work the checks into the next deposit. Since she was the last person to check the deposit before going to the bank she could do it even if the student assistant was not participating. Of course she had way more money than the average college employee and made up a rich uncle to cover it.