Communicating in the Workplace

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I have been offered the opportunity to attend a full day course entitled "Communicating in the Workplace".

(EDITED TO ADD: This has been offered to me by employer, and would be paid for by them).

I am undiagnosed (though am almost certain that I have an ASD), and my employer is not aware of my suspicions (as far as I am aware).

It is a full day in a location I don't know with people I don't know. Sounds like hell.
But on the other hand, it might have potential to help me improve my situation at work.

If it were you, would you take the opportunity to go?

The content of the course is as follows:

Introductions and icebreaker exercise

Understanding the process:
-Why we communicate
-Who we communicate with
-What methods we use and why

Core communication skills:
-Listening
-Questioning
-Conversing
-Speaking
-Writing
-Presenting
-Non verbal

The barriers we overcome:
-Personal
-Hierarchical
-Cultural
-Environmental
-Vocabulary

Assessing the effectiveness

Last edited by YellowBanana on 11 Mar 2011, 7:28 am, edited 1 time in total.

Hi
I think that if you are interested in pursuing this for yourself go for it (money permitting).

Connecting something that is really quite personal (and that we are fairly likely to struggle with) to your job would stress me immensely.

For me also, there is not a lot I would ever get out of a one day course in an unfamiliar place- By the time I felt like I was somewhat settled it would be time to leave!

I'd go. Typically all expenses are picked up by the employer.

It sounds like a good way to learn what skills you should have.

Yup, this is why I said it sounds like hell... but on the other hand, it is being offered and may help.
I guess I need to figure out if it's worth the stress.

Unless you are in danger of a panic attack or meltdown, not going would be a bad signal to your boss. If you are ASD, he may have noticed communication difficulties in you. He doesn't need to know your Aspie to see this. Offering this course is a the way a company deals with such things. It's called professional development. If you refuse, you will appear to not care about communicating.

Suck it up and go. Score a few points with your boss Eat the shrimp. I hate these things too so I really understand not wanting to go. But you can do it and you might just learn something useful.

If you think you can pull through, do it. It sounds like a good opportunity to learn about communication. And if you're an aspie that's probably an area where you can use help. For you it's free, you learn stuff and you score some points with your boss. So please go if you can.

Hate 'em, but struggled through a few just for the brownie points gained with management.
"team player", and all that.

I'd be tempted to give it a try. I think that knowing everybody there was interested in communication skills would make me feel a ray of hope that they were on my wavelength, which usually gets me out of my shell. They do things like that at my workplace, I've gone along and never come to any harm.....I only stopped going because it was all self-assessment, so you could go to sleep and still get your certificate, which was too wishy-washy for me, I like to be tested and given objective feedback on how well I've done, otherwise I've no idea if I made it or not. I think they only ran the courses so they could tick boxes to say that they run them. But this here course looks a bit more serious.

The thing that would worry me most would be the tea breaks, where I'd have to either do pure socialisation with people I hardly knew, or sit there like a pudding feeling ignored and inferior. I'm quite good at hiding my shyness, but on the inside I always feel lousy about it.

I think you should go. Who knows? You might learn something you never knew.

Heck yes you should go. It has been suggested time and again that we can improve in communication skills just like NT people can. Sure the classroom time is potentially tiring but doesn't make sense to not go or learn if you have the chance.

I think my indecision about going is to do with the possibility of meltdown.

In my case this is often triggered by issues surrounding communication/speaking, especially if I am already struggling with a high background level of stress (which I will be since the course takes place in a new location with people I don't know).

While I usually manage OK at work (i.e. without meltdown), this is because I am familiar with the location and people and feel pretty confident with what I am talking about related to work.

But clearly, yes, there may still be issues with my communication that my boss has picked up on, hence the offer of the course. And yes, it would be a bad signal to my boss if I did not attend.

On the plus side - it's being run by an external company, in a place I'll never have to go back to and I won't know anyone there, so if I do end up a crying, gibbering, self-harming wreck at least I'll never have to face any of them again ...

Hmmmm.

Perhaps you can go there in advance to make sure you have no issues with transportation or finding the place. Then go there early--so you aren't rushed.

That could be useful......I was always more reluctant to pursue relationships with women who knew my friends or colleagues - if I'm going to make a complete as*hole of myself, I'd rather do it in relative secrecy.

When I do these sorts of courses I make sure that I find a quiet area somewhere and take as many breaks as I need throughout the day. The good news is that NTs love these classes and there will be more than enough volunteers for the exercises. You can just sort of observe these most of the time with minimal participation...

THIS!

You can help yourself hugely by planning for ways to relieve the stress. Bring a squishy ball and squeeze the hell out of or something. Get there a little early and scout out some quiet spots. You know what your stressors are better than anyone but you also know your best ways of de-stressing.



And if they try to pull you into some touchy feely thing, just let loose a huge sneeze and sniffle a bunch (snort a little pepper to make it real, if you must ).