Comments on: Communications is personal

By: David Warren

David Warren — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 01:22:37 +0000

The title says it all. If you didn’t personally get a message from someone,
it’s merely heresay. So many messages that get sent are incomplete, out
of context, or otherwise misleading. Be sure of the content, context and
the source before relaying a vital message. In this instance, Alan, you
really couldn’t do any great harm compared to losing your job, but mis-
information concerning a sensitive subject only makes things worse…
remember the mining accident where the word got out that all those
trapped had survived?

By: Alan Hoffler

Alan Hoffler — Mon, 04 Sep 2006 23:40:32 +0000

John,

So correct. It is hard for an outsider to ever get the full story, and I am definitely an outsider here. I am constantly on the lookout for such stories to see the communication principle at work. I think we can agree that the day’s punchline is correct. Communication should be personal. Now knowing that Radio Shack did that, perhaps their PR department needs to get into the swing of things, and make sure the whole story is told.

Thanks for your comment.

Alan

By: John

John — Fri, 01 Sep 2006 16:17:21 +0000

In concept, you may be right. However, as a laid-off RadioShack employee, you need to look at the entire process, not just one piece of the process (the e-mail). We had meetings, intranet sites, e-mail communications and face-to-face meetings in the 10 days leading up to the announced layoff date. The e-mail notice was actually an invite to a meeting with your senior supervisor, where that “eye contact” you mentioned DID take place. It’s easy for people (and there appear to be hundreds of them) to criticize what we went through, but to not tell the complete story is just wrong.