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Running Head: CONSTRUCTING RESPONSES

Constructing Responses

Kilee Saylor

Ottawa University
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CONSTRUCTING RESPONSES
Constructing Responses

Problem:

At my current place of employment, there are many factors have impact how my co-

workers and I communicate and listen to each other. Depending on the scenario of each day, we

spend most of our time in the office, in our cubicles doing our work. Some days, we spend a

significant amount of time in conference rooms for hours of meetings. The factors vary on why

the employees become less effective listeners.

When in the Engineering Office, we see white walls with a couple motivational posters,

alone with poster sized grid paper with illegible writing that were created by the Engineers for

their specific assignments. Depending on the Engineer, their desk may be clean and organized, or

messy and cluttered. When an Engineer leaves his desk while it is a cluttered mess, it makes it

difficult for them to remember where they put their paperwork or other objects they need to

perform their job in the most effective way possible. Being that it is an office with ample space,

there tend to be more than the expected amount of people working in the office. Employees

come from our corporate office, along with contractors, vendors, and suppliers. These expected

visitors tend to take up more space and cause a significant amount of distractions for the

employees homed in our small-town office.

There are three different conference rooms located at the CSP Plant. The Main

Conference Room, the Quality Conference Room, and the Training Room. All being complete

different environments, they tend to have the same distractions and factors impacting the

listening skills of the employees. The Main Conference Room is the one I spend majority of my

time in. The environment is a serious one. With a long and fancy meeting table in the center of

the room, surrounded by chairs that always seem to be pushed in. Not one out of place. There are
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two couches in the back of the room, for when there are companywide meetings and we all need

to pile into one room. There are pictures of the products we make in big frames hung on the

perfectly painted walls. There is a stainless-steel refrigerator tucked into a corner with a

countertop and a sink. When employees enter this room, there is a sudden tension that fills their

face. Knowing they will be sitting through a brutal meeting.

Cause:

As mentioned above, the Engineering Office seem to get more and more crowded as the

days go on. Because of this, there are conversations constantly being had along with conference

calls being made. When this is happening, the conversations tend to get heated with arguments

and disagreements. Causing those of us who are trying to focus on the work we should be

preoccupied with at our desks to slack for the sake of listening to the other employees in the

office bicker back and forth.

If terms of what causes us to become less effective listeners, this tends to be impacted

when personal conversations are being had in the office when work should be being worked on.

For example, if I am trying to focus on revising a Work Instruction for one of the Engineers and

two other engineers are beside me talking about how their wives haven’t spoken to them in

weeks, I can’t help but chime into that intriguing conversation. While trying to half listen to the

engineer talking to me about a Work Instruction, I am also half listening to the personal

conversations around me.

While sitting through a meeting in our Main Conference Room, it is very easy to lose

focus due to boredom. Listening to executives speak to one another about things that do not

pertain to me. This is more-so the case when we are sitting through a companywide meeting and

the leaders of the meeting are only speaking loud enough for the front of the room to hear. This
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causes those who are in the back of the room to stop trying to listen to them because there is no

use in trying to listen to a conversation you can’t hear.

Solution:

Creating the perfect listening environment seems like something that would be

impossible. Having no distractions or side conversations while trying to complete your work. In

reference to the Engineering Office, it could be possible to create a whole different space for

those who don’t have permanent spot in our office. Resulting in them being able to converse and

meet in that space. Rather than in an area where others are truly trying to complete their own

work.

Personal conversations play a significant role in the distractions, as stated above. There is

a time and a place for personal conversations. For example, during lunch breaks. Or even just

when other, more relevant, conversations aren’t going on in earshot. Separate offices could help

with this issue. At the moment, we sit at cubicles that are attached to one another. Making is

impossible to not hear everything going on around us. However, having offices with doors could

easily eliminate this issue.

Not being able to hear those speaking in the Main Conference Room could be easily

resolved with a few ideas. The first being, using microphones while speaking. This way, those

people forced to sit in the back of the room could effectively listen to those speaking in the front

of the room. Another idea is, having these meetings over conference calls. This way, we could

attend the meeting from the comfort of our own desks. Focusing on the meeting over the phone,

rather than not focusing on it at all, in a room where we can get our actual work done. Not only

does this solve those ineffectively listening, but it eliminates the waste of time.
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