Misunderstandings

Do you ever find you don't understand people at work?

If I don't understand a task at work, I feel frustrated. It can be a bit stressful.

It's really annoying. And you have to ask other people to help you with something.

Nobody likes to keep asking how to do something so you can end up feeling a bit stupid, really.

In today's episode of Office English, we're talking about what to say when you don't understand.

Hello and welcome to Office English. In this series, we talk about the language you need in the modern workplace. I’m Phil.

And I'm Pippa. Find a transcript for this podcast on our website

We've just heard from some of our BBC Learning English colleagues that it can be frustrating and embarrassing when there are misunderstandings at work. Is that something you've experienced, Pippa?

Yes. I think it can feel quite awkward if you realise that you and a colleague have interpreted something in a different way. Sometimes it just is annoying because it leads to kind of wasted time, wasted effort, and it can lead to conflict. Not in my experience. Usually, you know, we just said, 'we've got our wires crossed there and we've misunderstood each other.'

It can depend what the misunderstanding's about, of course. If we're thinking about conflict, some misunderstandings might be more dangerous than others. Today we're going to talk about what to do when you don't understand, or when you think someone might have misunderstood you.

Let's start with a scenario, Phil. So, imagine your boss has given you a task to do, but you're not sure if you've understood them correctly. You don't want to do the task wrong, but you also don't want your boss to think you're not good enough, you're a bit stupid. What should you say to them?

You could just ask them to explain it again, you know, 'Can I just check that I've understood that right?'

Yeah. That's nice because it's still polite. You could also say 'I'm sorry but could I just clarify?' I think people would usually rather explain it more times and it be done right than think you have understood them and then you do it wrong, because that actually is going to waste more time. What about if somebody can't ask their boss? Maybe they're just not able to, or they're a bit worried to ask for a clarification from their boss. What would you recommend then?

It might be that you've got a colleague who's really experienced in that area, and you're confident that they know, they know what they're talking about. So, you could always ask them.

Yeah, you could say something like, 'can you walk me through how you usually do this?' And then you've just made sure that you're understanding the process. This is particularly useful if you're new, I guess.

Sometimes I think it can also be useful to know why you're doing something that can help avoid misunderstandings. So, you might be asked something like, 'Are we doing this because...' and then giving what you think is the reason for something.

Yeah, it will depend on your kind of workplace culture where you work and the kind of thing you've been asked to do. Some places, it's not normal to kind of question your boss. You wouldn't want to kind of give the impression that you think you know better, or you have kind of thought that they're wrong. So, it's just about kind of clarifying rather than kind of questioning the whole task altogether.

OK, so that's some ideas for when you don't understand your boss. What about if you don't understand something that a colleague says. For example, you might be in a meeting and a colleague makes a contribution, but you don't understand what they mean.

Yeah that's a tricky one, I think. I would often start with an apology. So I might say 'I'm sorry Phil, but could you explain that a little bit more?' And just get you to kind of tell me more about it.

Yeah. Or another way of saying it is 'I'm not sure I follow you. Can you just talk me through that again? '

Another phrase you could use is 'I just want to be sure I've got you 100% right. Do you mean...' And then again, explain what you think they've said. So, then you're just kind of checking that you're both interpreting what's been said in the same way. Right. We've talked about lots of things we can say when we don't understand other people at work. But what if we think somebody doesn't understand us, Phil?

Well, we can always ask other people 'Does that make sense? Or invite questions maybe.

Yeah. Sometimes I'll say things like 'if any of this is confusing just let me know' or 'just shout'. I would put that in an email as well, often. If I've sent a really long email with lots of complicated instructions, I'd usually end with 'If any of this doesn't make any sense, let me know' because sometimes it makes sense to you, but you maybe haven't explained it as well as you could have done.

Also, yeah, you, sometimes you might want to say things in different ways, particularly, I don't know, you're in a meeting explaining something and you could see lots of blank faces, or you're getting the feeling that people haven't understood exactly what you said. You might say, 'let me make myself really clear. What I mean is...' and then you find a different way to explain what you've just said.

Yeah. So, rather than just using the same language all the time, particularly, I guess, in an international workplace where people are speaking English as their second language, you kind of want to use a few different ways of saying it so that you make sure that everyone knows what you're talking about. And maybe in that kind of workplace, trying not to use a lot of very complicated language, trying to keep things very simple and very clear.

So, we have lots of ways we can try and avoid confusion and misunderstandings at work. But sometimes they happen. Let's listen to our BBC colleagues Neil and Beth again.

It's not a problem that you have misunderstood. It's just it's got to be explained.

I think first of all, you have to draw attention to the fact there has been a misunderstanding. Then you have to explain how you saw something from your perspective, and then maybe that will reveal why a misunderstanding happened, and that helps to get it all smoothed out.

So yeah, as we mentioned at the start of the programme, if there's been a misunderstanding, sometimes it can lead to conflict. Sometimes maybe someone's misunderstood someone, they've become offended. But also it just might mean that somebody ended up doing something wrong. They've ended up doing a task in the wrong way or wasted some time on a task they didn't need to do in the first place.

Yeah, and it can also often be best to deal with the consequences of the misunderstanding first, rather than, you know, getting angry and blaming people. Sort out the issue first.

Yes. And then once you've dealt with the consequences, it can be useful to know why the misunderstanding happened. But you probably want to focus on why it happened and making sure that in the future you avoid the miscommunication. That's it for this episode of Office English. We'd love to hear about the English you use in the office and answer your questions. Email [email protected].

Next time we're going to talk about cold calling, which is where you have to contact people you don't know at work.

I hate cold calling, but I'm looking forward to talking about it. See you then, bye.

Bye.