Communication breakdown
There’s few things more irritating than when you ask a question or communicate something, only to have the other person respond in a matter completely tangential to the original, or which misses the point entirely. I find that for some reason this happens quite commonly with email – either the respondee will latch onto one small facet of what you are saying and get the big picture completely wrong, or they will answer a question that you never asked.
The current example in point is an email I sent to my bank via their internet banking “contact us” section. I just wanted to make a simple enquiry about one of my accounts for future reference so as to know how best to divert funds. And since then I’ve received 3 answers from different people, all responding to a completely different question that I never asked. And now they are apparently posting me some forms to do something I presently don’t want to do. Crazy.
This is one particularly frustrating example but it’s not unique. Sometimes people just don’t seem to really read emails properly. Maybe it’s because it’s such an “instantanous” form of communication we just skim it, think we have the gist and then dash off a quick reply, or store a concept in our heads that may not be accurate. One of the negatives of our modern age perhaps - the carefully considered letters of the past, poured over several times and then a thoughtfully composed reply – this may be a dying art form…
Anyone else share these frustrations?
