Let me finish a sentence, please!

Office Etiquette Rule #2:  Let the person you’re talking to finish their sentence.

Audio meetings can make communicating difficult. I’ve had the experience of dialing into many audio meetings where it was tricky to get a word in edgewise. Last week I experienced some extreme frustration in attending an audio meeting. I was dailed in with 2 people that interrupted my every sentence.

There were three of us on the call, the host, one of her co-workers, and myself.  My initial thought was that this would be a quick meeting. I had a clear understanding of what was being requested by these 2 users when they sent the meeting information over with the outline of their request.

The meeting got underway and the meeting host started to go on saying that she knew what her coworker was requesting. She then proceeded to go into a long question and answer session with that co-worker about everything that was stated in their initial request.  I attempted a couple of times to interject that I had a good understanding of their request, and explain that we would just need to make a couple of quick updates to accommodate the request. Every time I started to explain this, one of them would cut me off in the middle of my sentence. They would either exclaim that what I was talking about was exactly what they needed, or they would interrupt with another question. Each time I began to respond to them, one or the other would then jump in and cut me off again.

If it had been just one of them interrupting, I would’ve chalked it up to them being rude and having no social skills, but both of these workers constantly interrupting? This was clearly more then rudeness. They were feeding off each other and showing that this is how their group communicates within itself.

I tried my best to stay cool on the call and use all the patientience I had.  I know my voice was getting louder and louder as I would try to finish my sentence as they talked over me.  Even as I continued to talk at an elevated volume, they’re talking over me continued. 

It did end up being a short call, but not short enough for me. I was trying to get off the soon after it had began. Both of the other meeting participants seemed to be ignorate to the fact that they had frustrated me.  From the sounds of the wrap of of the meeting, never of them had any thoughts other then this had been a wildly successful meeting.