Is this an epidemic where you work. Holy cow - I've started really paying attention, and it is almost 99% of the time.

Me: "Alice, did you get the weekly TPS Report yet?"

Alice: "So I was talking to Tom about the engineering specs, right?...".

Like nails on a freaking chalkboard.

I've noticed it for the past five years, give or take....the "so" phenomenon.
Glad I'm not the only one. Drives me up the wall. I've noticed it especially among those in and recently out of med school for some reason.

Ghost91 said:

---

Is this an epidemic where you work. Holy cow - I've started really paying attention, and it is almost 99% of the time.

---

It's almost as infuriating as the dingbats who can't be bothered to use a question mark at the end of a question! It's like what second rate middle school did people fail out of that prevents them from using proper punctuation in simple sentences?!

I hate 2 things in business comms tthe most: the phrase I don't disagree. It's soft and just prolongs communication. Just say I disagree and here's why and you'll be surprised how quickly things get solved.

I LOATHE any business communication in the passive voice and I see it more and more lately. Good God to the people who write in passive voice do they even read what they are writing? It's so fluffy and exhausting to read.

Comma space right question mark - at the end of a sentence has been bugging me for about 7 years now.

It started out in NorCal / Bay Area in my business.

But the biggest offender was a t-sip who lives in Austin. I used to actively mock him on conference calls because as soon as he said something, you knew what was coming next, right?

You wanna know whats worse?

"fat fingered"

No no no no no.

No more "fat fingered".

This has been happening in my office for over 6 years and it's downright misery. Haha.

The "so" is drawn out with normally an awkward pause at the end until the thought is finished.

"Soooo..."

(pause)

(more pause)

"he needs this Wednesday."

I liken it to being the "uh" or "um" of today.

Also, the use of email is absolutely horrible and particularly bad for those coming out of school.

It's as though they are so afraid of conflict that they pray email correspondence can save them from it when, infact, email is probably guilty of causing a lot of conflict because it's so impersonal and folks can't get a sense of tone.

Also, if you exchange 10+ emails with only 1 recipient, no attachments are used, and neither are traveling, then you should be using the phone.

People that end every sentence with "so" is just as bad!

Email provides a paper trail and CYA insurance.

I agree with all of that.

I have a coworker that does this. I never noticed until I read this thread. Thanks, jerks.

Quote:

---

a lot of things are handled easier, quicker, and just better over the phone or in person

---

why not use some collaboration tools and be more productive?

so....this post annoys you then, right?

Ghost91 said:

---

Is this an epidemic where you work. Holy cow - I've started really paying attention, and it is almost 99% of the time.

Me: "Alice, did you get the weekly TPS Report yet?"

Alice: "So I was talking to Tom about the engineering specs, right?...".

Like nails on a freaking chalkboard.

---

To some extent, I blame the heavy use of teleconferencing and virtual meetings. I think people resort to nonsense filler words because they aren't receiving the non-verbal communication that we expect. It then spills over to face-to-face communication.

My boss ends a lot of sentences with "right?"...I now almost always reply that I don't know if that's right or not.

Naveronski said:

---

Email provides a paper trail and CYA insurance.

---

Which is exactly why I don't like using it.

I work with someone who says, "and everything [spoken like "and ery'thing"]. She also says, "and stuff". And many times she doubles it up and says, "and ery'thing and stuff".

Once she was having a conversation with my neighbor, and I made a point to count how many times she said, "and ery'thing". It was in the 70s range give or take. And that didn't include the "and stuff". All in less than a 10 minute conversation.

I've worked with a lot of people who have annoying quirks, but this one is so bad I can't even concentrate on what she is telling me half the time. Insane. How can you be so oblivious to what you are saying so repeatedly?

Inserting "just" .... "Lord, just ..."
Starting a sentence with "Well, ..."
Starting a sentence with "But,.." but they are agreeing with you.

I know so many people who won't talk on the phone and will only do so over email because they want to document everything

You don't need a paper trail or to cover your ass on every little thing. That's obsessive compulsive.

And I'm not talking about something like authorizing a work proposal. I'm talking about benign discussion, that could lead to back and forth where two people are talking but 2, 3 or 4 other people are cc'd in.

Any phone conversation one feels absolutely needs to be documented or a "paper trail" created can be done by writing a summary email starting with "As we discussed..."

I'm not a big critic. Email is more convenient in a lot of ways but there are also a lot of times a faceless email isn't the right move.