Dilbert Cartoon:
A fellow comes up to Dilbert and says,
So, Dilbert, what else are you working on lately?
Dilbert answers,
I’d rather not say because you have a habit of misinterpreting everything you hear and then bad-mouthing it later.
In the final panel the fellow tells another person,
He basically said he’s too paranoid to talk to people.
I laughed out loud because I’ve known people who have misinterpreted and bad-mouthed other people — including me! Fortunately I was in a position to ignore it. Have you ever known people like that? Were you able to get out of their crosshairs?
May 10, 2015
No, I haven’t. Or more likely, I did not know about it if anyone ever badmouthed me behind my back. I was not important enough I guess.
You have a point. When they make sure you hear, it means you’re somehow important to them.
Omg, I think you already know my answer.
I work with a big group of bad-mouthers.
What irritates me most is that most times they don’t even let me finish talking before they twist my unspoken words and bad-mouth me.
I’ve told them over and over that I don’t care about all the politics of our work place, all I care about is the animals. That’s why I’m there. I also don’t care about who the owner is or how powerful or rich or poor or whatever they might be…I ONLY care about the animals.
But, sigh. They only understand their own motivations and therefore twist my words to fit with their way of thinking.
And that is why I prefer to be left alone.
I know. I thought of you when I wrote this post. Scott Adams nailed it with this cartoon.
this is starting to get downright spooky! tomorrow my post is about bullies in the workplace. LOLOL!!!!
or bullies anywhere for that matter.
i read an article the other day that said ‘mean girls’ are starting at younger and younger ages. that was sad news to me.
and i think bad mouthing is another form of bullying. whether to one’s face or one’s back! rummy’s synchronicity at work again! LOL.
I’m looking forward to reading your post!
Yes. Fortunately I can now have nothing more to do with them.
Evan,
That is the best solution when one has a choice. Yay, choices!
‘If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.’
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_whispers
similar
Yes, we used to play that when we were children. It was a good lesson in how communication can get garbled. I’m smiling just thinking of it. 🙂
I can think of a couple of blogmates who always misinterpret whatever I say and use it to have a go at me. I’m not sure if it’s because they simply don’t read what I say properly or because they think their interpretation is somehow more valid than what I’m actually saying. Either way, it’s very annoying.
I have noticed that on your blog and occasionally on mine and others. I agree, it’s annoying to be misrepresented with no hope of the other person wanting a real conversation. All we can do is not engage and hope they spend their time elsewhere.