The barrier in communication presented in the article was mostly the ambiguous nature of her
response regarding his report. As stated in the article a response such as "good job" was very
unclear to the receiver and a more in-depth response would have clarified and elevated any of his
internal questions. Things like good job for turning it in on time, good work in itself, was this what
was expected or exceeded expectations, and things of that nature. It leaves a lot of possibilities
open and can create confusion when not elaborated on.
At my company we are experiencing one of the biggest hardships in company history. Management
is keeping everything extremely quiet and making people very nervous. They give up titbits of
information in the sense of unpaid "free" days off during the week which will not count against us.
It started as Fridays but recently posted the May and June calendars now offering Mondays and
Fridays. No formal communication has gone out and things are even more tense than before
because of this new found information. People are now talking about utilizing the vacation days
they get in June all at once to find other employment because they seem the company is slowly
but surely going completely under. People are perceiving information differently and with the lack
of communication things are going haywire. I maintain the fact that if the company would call a
company wife meeting and explain something is this may put people's minds at ease and they will
not continue to lose employees by the hundreds. We were once one of the largest and best
employers in the state of Pennsylvania with over ten thousand employees and over the last two
years have staff rates at approximately half if not lower and is no longer one of the top employers.
I have even been considering seeking out other employment because my future here is so very
uncertain due to the business running’s or lack thereof.
The article provided in the reading material is an excellent example of miscommunication.
Sometimes employees do not speak out, so the managers do not know that the message received
on the other end differs from the message the managers intended to deliver. As a manager, I
always encourage my staff to speak up, involve, and share opinions. We listen and understand the
staff's needs, not only through verbal communication but from their actions as well.
The miscommunication examples I want to discuss are technical terms and different lines of work.
As accountants, we think and do things a little differently. We must comply with the U.S. GAAP and
other rules. When we talk to the IT or Finance departments, they often misunderstand our
intentions. One recent example happened as follows. The procurement manager received an
invoice for $500,000 and coded it to an expense account. We researched and found that it was for
a project involving multiple plants and needed to be amortized over three years. We asked the
procurement manager to provide us with the allocation for amortization. He said he has yet to
receive the information, such as how much to charge each plant. We told him we would reclass
the invoice to a prepaid account and wait until he provided us with the information. The
amortization period starts next month, so that we can wait. He then told us not to do anything
until he got the information. We were already on the last day of closing. I spoke to my boss and
received my boss's approval to reclass the invoice to a prepaid account. The procurement manager
does not understand that we must reclass the cost to a balance sheet account and amortize it over
the years the service covers. I even told him we would get hit with $500,000 in expenses this
month if we did not reclass, and he still said no until he had the correct allocation. This is one of
many examples we do as accountants but have issues communicating with others who are not
accountants. I always explain as much as possible and go to my boss for a decision if an agreement
is not reached.
As accountants, our responsibility is to produce accurate and reliable financials. Not only do we
learn to communicate effectively, but we also are patient and understanding because not everyone
'speaks' accounting. I have seen accountants get frustrated and quit because they explained the
same matter ten times, and others still messed it up. Other departments do not always know
when to code an invoice to a balance sheet account (such as a prepaid one) or when to expense it.
They usually pick one GL account for each invoice, even if the invoice has multiple lines that must
be coded differently. I have been an accountant for so long I do not get frustrated anymore and
accept it as a part of my job.
Miscommunication happens constantly at work, and I have learned that confirmation is a very
effective way to prevent miscommunication. I have my staff send out confirmations and
reconciliations quarterly to our internal business partners to ensure both departments understand
the same thing. For example, every month, we accrue a 2% extra 401K to be paid to all employees
at year-end. At the end of each quarter, we confirm our year-to-date accruals with the benefits
manager to ensure our numbers align with his expectations. This would prevent issues at year-end
when we make the payment and find that we either short-accrued or over-accrued significantly
and finger-pointing each other because of poor communication.
I have experienced a lot of workplace miscommunication. I manage the recruitment unit and in
our many tasks we handle probations reports. Managers are required to complete 3-month
probation reports for all employees that are in their first year of employment at our agency. The
purpose is for employees to set up a private meeting with an employee to provide feedback on the
last three months. If by the end of the twelve months the employee does not prove satisfactory
performance, they will fail probation which means they will be terminated effective immediately.
In my occasions, managers have provided the employee with probation reports with good
comments and then at the end they reach out to HR to get an employee terminated and it’s
because they couldn’t or didn’t want to have those difficult conversations. According to Wienclaw
(2021), providing feedback and active listening are great ways to foster a healthy two-way
communication. It is very important to think about the damage that a manager is doing by not
providing feedback. An employee will continue to do what they are currently doing and will be
prohibited of the opportunity to improve if they are not given the proper time period to improve.
Reference
Wienclaw, R. A. (2021). Communications in the Workplace. Salem Press
Booher, Diana (2022, January 14). The 5 most common causes of
b b b b b b b b b miscommunications and what to do about them. Forbes.
b b b b b b b b b https://www.forbes.com/sites/womensmedia/2022/01/14/the-5-most-common-causes-of-
miscommunication-and-what-to-do-about-them
