Ugh… Get to the Point.

You know the type. That colleague who just can’t get to the point. They visit you at your cubicle, apparently oblivious to the fact that you’re busy, and drone on and on about their terrible commute sitting next to a crying baby on the bus, or how their mother-in-law is driving them crazy or how the new Chipotle downstairs never has enough Tabasco sauce available. You politely nod your head, saying you have loads of work to do, sighing about how busy you are, and they just stand there, yapping away.

Considering the rigorous interviewing process today’s office professionals are subjected to, it’s surprising how many people are hired who just “don’t get it” when it comes to effective communication. They lack any situational awareness regarding others, which for most people is common sense. They’re rude, annoying and lack an essential quality crucial to any business: efficiency.

This article explains, “You hear this advice when it comes to all forms of communication, but getting your message across quickly is especially important for email. Long blocks of text look daunting to read, especially for managers who are constantly inundated with messages. If a message is too long, it risks getting pushed aside and revisited when there’s more time (which is, in many cases, never).”

Students learn about the value of economy of words in school in high school. This important lesson cannot be stressed enough in the workplace, both when speaking and writing. For businesspeople, time is money, and nothing waste time more than people who don’t know how to synthesize information, form a cogent idea or express a logical process.

Do you work with someone who doesn’t know how to get to the point? How do you deal with them?

Photo courtesy of yoshipples.