Nicole King: Mixed messages

I feel totally blessed to have spent my birthday this year with my children and my grandchildren.  It’s hard to believe my daughter had her first daughter 4 ½ years ago and now also has a 7-month-old baby girl too.  My son and his wife are also proud parents, of a 2-week-old baby boy. Seeing them settled and happy is possibly the best gift any parent could wish for and us all being together to celebrate my special day was almost overwhelmingly wonderful.

Adding the cherry to the top of the family celebrations were all the heart-warming messages I received from so many of you, some bringing more than just a tear to the eye. It’s so nice to feel love and be loved.

However, whilst on the subject of messages I’m going to take the opportunity to share one of my pet peeves: some work-related messages can be stressful, particularly the “voice” ones.  When I have nothing to do and am sitting on my own it’s quite fine to receive a recorded communication, but as my days are usually spent recording for the tv, in meetings or surrounded by people, they can also be overwhelming.

I too find it easier to talk into the ‘phone rather than type with my thumbs but I do so on dictation mode so that they come out as written words, to be read when the recipient has the time.  If it’s an important message I do check that I’ve spoken clearly and it makes sense, but it’s a question of seconds.

Often if I’m in a meeting I can still read a message and perhaps even respond without being rude but there is no way I can press “play” to interrupt everyone else’s proceedings to hear what a third person has to say.  Therefore, I usually have to save all voicemails for when I get home and if that day I had a lot of messages, it might go unheard.  Sometimes they’re so far down and I don’t realise I have to go back that far.

The reality is that unless you’re on your own or somewhere quiet, you can’t even hear what’s being said.

I’m only bringing this up as I don’t think I can be the only person who works and “suffers” this situation and I’d like to explain to those who do send voice messages that I’m not ignoring you, it’s just I can’t always find the moment to “chat”.

We often talk about communication and getting our messages across is one of the priorities on most of our lists in this networking city of ours.  Finding the right medium to convey our intentions can be as important as the content.  I am very interested to receive your information and don’t want you to think otherwise.  In order to avoid mixed messages, please note that I can handle written text more efficiently and I look forward to hearing from you and to responding with a “promptish” reply.