All categories/Workplace communication
Workplace communication
Reporting up, refusing, chasing, conflict, managing. The hard part is what not to say.
39 entries here · one process per category, checkpoints written per job
- Reporting up: three sentencesMy manager is busy and interrupts every report.
- Bad news: impact before causeA project problem must be reported and questions will follow.
- Refusing work: no offence takenAlready at capacity and more work arrives.
- Chasing: firm without frictionWaiting on a delivery that keeps slipping.
- Asking for resources: arithmetic firstThe team lacks people and budget and a request must go up.
- Asking for a raise: scope not needWanting a raise without sounding like a complaint.
- Peer conflict: separating issue from personA disagreement over approach has turned personal.
- Being criticised: absorb, then explainPublicly criticised and my instinct is to explain.
- Giving feedback: behaviour not characterA colleague's behaviour needs addressing without damage.
- Apology: without excusesI made a mistake that affected a colleague and an apology is due.
- Cross-team ask: making it worth their whileAnother team's help is needed and they owe nothing.
- Speaking in a meeting: the first contributionA room of senior people and I hesitate to speak.
- Group chat: do not resolve conflict thereSomeone deflects blame in a group channel and I want to rebut publicly.
- Email etiquette: worth replying toEmails go unanswered or answered late.
- Remote work: async that holdsA team across time zones where communication keeps breaking.
- Asking a stranger: one clear requestNeeding one answer from someone I barely know.
- Reporting a mistake: the recoveryI quoted a wrong number in a report and was corrected in the room.
- Credit taken: how to handle itMy work was presented in a meeting as someone else's.
- Leave request: short reason, complete handoverA week off with a fear of refusal or resentment.
- Resigning: graceful and cleanDecided to leave and unsure how to raise it.
- One-on-one: let them startThe weekly one-on-one is me talking and them saying 'fine'.
- Setting goals: deliverables and criteriaGoals are set and remain vague.
- Performance feedback: facts over verdictsA performance review and a fear of being harsh.
- Underperformance: cannot or will notTwo months below target and a conversation is due.
- Delegation: authority with boundariesWork cannot be handed off, or breaks when it is.
- Praise: specific, not genericPraise that ends at 'good job'.
- Criticism: one thing at a timeAn error must be addressed without turning into a history lesson.
- Onboarding: productive in three daysA new hire spends two weeks asking basics.
- Team conflict: facts then rulesTwo reports refuse to cooperate and both come to me.
- Meetings: cutting half the agendaA one-hour team meeting that needs twenty minutes.
- Assignment: who does whatThe brief seemed clear and the output was not what I wanted.
- Promotion case: evidence they are readyA promotion case that must not read as a tribute.
- Layoff conversation: clear and humanTelling someone their role is being cut.
- Team retro: mechanisms not culpritsA failed project turning into mutual justification.
- Cross-team work: boundaries firstTwo teams collaborate and blame bounces when things break.
- Motivation beyond moneyLow morale and no budget for raises.
- Exit interview: hearing the truthSomeone is leaving and I want the real reason.
- Culture: what actually gets rewardedThe values are on the wall and the behaviour contradicts them.
- Remote team: managing without seeingA remote team I cannot see.
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