Communications Homework Help

(1)

I have a very strong personality and I am also one who takes charge. When it comes to my job I take it very serious, I am someone who pays attention and does my best to prevent mistake.  A couple months ago we welcomed a new co-worker to our team. Though this co worker had worked in our department in the past it had been a couple years and things do change. I also had never worked with this individual. As I am re-training this new co worker I could tell right of the bat she did not like me. She had no interest in being trained or taught by me. I think a lot of her issues with me was that I was young. Though I am younger than all of my co workers I am very professional. I also am very good at my job and I know what I am doing.  Though I tried to talk to her and be friendly it was as if she had no interest in being friendly with me. A few weeks of her working and she was making mistake after mistake though I kept reminding her of the proper way to do things. Now because I was showing her the mistakes and trying to get her to correct them in the future, she took this as I was attacking her and she stated I was “trying to make me look like an evil person”. When in reality I just wanted her to learn from the mistakes. This individual eventually quit after multiple meetings between her, I, our boss, and HR. We both explained what was going on multiple times between us during these meetings, but somehow she always felt like I was manipulating our boss and HR into being on “my side” of things. Though I tried to professionally communicate my feelings she never could get past that I was young and better at my job. She could have learned from me, but instead decided to put a wall up. This has taught me to be cautious about how you approach different co workers. I treat everyone the same no matter age, but sometimes you have to evaluate the person you are going to communicate with before approaching them about an issue. 

(2)

When I was preparing for interviews for an upcoming promotion, I was going over what my strengths and weaknesses were.  I had always perceived myself as being very approachable with my co-workers.  When discussing this as a potential strength with my co-workers, I was then advised that I was not approachable.  I was told my directness makes me intimidating.  However, my co-workers that have been working with me for a while appreciate this personality trait of me but stated that it was off putting for new cops working with me.  This observation really set me back in my self-perception of myself, and how I thought I was presenting myself.  I really love helping my co-workers and teaching new detectives that come into the unit and new patrol officers.  I have been a detective for a while with my department and have worked in various units during my time.  The perception of me from my co-workers developed when I was responding to call outs.  I was very brief with everyone there, so I could start my investigation and get everything done quickly to free up road patrol.  It was not till these same patrol officers came to work in detectives that they realized that I was not being rude, but that I was just being focused on my task at hand.  However, since this has been brought to my attention, I have been consciences my actions and how I speak or how my tone is when speaking with my co-workers.  By being mindful of my actions, words, and tone; I am completing symbolic interactionism since I am developing myself from the feedback of my co-workers (Pearson et al., 2021).  I do not want to be perceived as unapproachable, but as a person who is willing to share my work knowledge and help others to do their best work.  This adjustment of my self-perception only occurred when I was prepping for a promotion interview.  If it were not for that preparation and me seeking out responses from my co-workers, I would have been oblivious of this perception of me.  

(3)

  Language is arbitrary because depending on the individual, the relationship between the word used and their interpretation will be different. Not only does this apply to those from different countries, where what would sound like gibberish to me, would make sense to natives of that language. You can find this within our country as well, where a slang word can mean something different to me than that of an individual in the northeast or even west coast. 

About 13 years ago, when I was still in high school, I was switched from regular math to pre-calculus (which sadly I am currently taking again because I never took the college exam to receive credit for it, and struggling to remember all that math from so long ago!), and right off the bat, my teacher did not like me. I was not a bad student by any means, but I did not carry the same “chipper go-getter” demeanor the rest of my classmates shared. Because of this, my teacher assumed I was lazy and did not belong in her class (even though there was a reason I was moved to her class). Shortly after our first exam had passed, she came up and apologized to me for judging a book by its cover, and from there on out, I was one of her favorite students. I could understand how from her past experiences, she could come to this conclusion about me before meeting me, but I’m sure that I could maybe made a better first impression that could have avoided the situation entirely.

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