"You need to use your common sense."

Post Reply New Topic

I was was at work last night working and I was talking to my office clerk and when I said my other office clerk tells me I need to use my common sense, she said she didn't like it and that's not right and said I need to talk to my boss and I said "he hasn't done it in a while, it's been maybe two or three weeks since" and she said "Don't care. He shouldn't be saying that to you. I'm going to tell him he can't treat you like that."


Is it really wrong for someone to say to a say to an employee they need to use their common sense? I thought he was doing his job.

Be careful what you share with this colleague. She seems like she could get you into a lot of trouble. Bosses very often tell you to use your common sense, when they want you out of their hair or they don't have a clue how to solve a problem themselves. This colleague making a fuss about it and complaining on your behalf can only spoil things for you.

"Common Sense" is typically defined in the mind of the person who says it. I'd be very careful about talking with anyone at your work about anything anyone else says to you in the context of you doing your job. If you are unhappy with the person who said this to you enough that you feel your job is in danger, or that you would not want to continue working there, then bring it up with someone on the management ladder who is just above the person. Just be aware that, if you do, and that person is asked to explain themselves, you're still going to have to work with them afterwards.

Depends, but I usually take it as an insult like, "where are your brains?" I always have taken comments like that as offensive. But again it depends on what they mean.

Yeah, I sometimes tell people they need to use common sense, when what I mean is something like... how would I describe it?

When I'm describing some principles I try to live by, and they start applying them in some really bizarre and extreme ways that don't have anything to do with what I was saying. So I kind of say "use your common sense" to mean, "don't make a rigid construct out of what I'm saying, if it seems really wrong to use an idea a certain way then it probably is and it's probably not what I'm advocating, but I can't foresee and explain beforehand every single situation that you might have to do this for".

I don't know what it'd mean in a work context though.

nope. and a good way to get fired from your job is to get lippy with anyone who out ranks you

Yes, I'd be careful with that one. It can be a real minefield. The trouble with situations like that is that people are not always straightforward. Sure, you could ask for clarification, but as lawyers like to say, never ask a question you don't know the answer to. The risk is that by asking for clarification you have revealed that you don't know something, and since knowledge is power you have just handed that person a key. What will they do with that information? Will they help you or more likely will they backstab?

If the person saying this really was interested in helping you they would be more explicit instead of using a vague phrase like "use your common sense." They are capable of doing so; they just, for whatever reason, don't want to.

You should use common sense before gossiping with your coworkers.

Ah yes! Good old common sense. At work it's what they tell you to use instead of following officially approved procedures. Doing it by the book will take longer, be harder, and will likely be more expensive than the "common sense" way. So you go ahead and do it the "common sense" way to be a team player. Go along to get along. Something goes wrong and all the sudden the noose is around your neck because you didn't follow the official procedure that they told you to disregard in favor of "common sense".

For me "common sense" is one of the biggest bear traps of having Aspergers. NT's have issues with it too but not as chronic as us.

I know; a lot of people have said in snobbish or disgusted tones for me to use my common sense and therefore it was an insult like "Where are your brains?" I don't know how Spokane's supervisor said it so I don't know if it was an insult then...

It really depends on tone of voice and the circumstances.
It could be meant like "I trust you to decide the best course of action"
Or, it could be like "Quit bothering me with stupid problems you should solve yourself"

In any case, I agree that your coworker overstepped her bounds. If I were you, I'd restrict future conversations with her to the weather.

Common sense costing more than common sense topic

Ambiguous terminology. I always ask for clarification, which invariably leads to more chastising by NT co-workers. The less they say to me, the better, so I can get my job done.

The reason why he says it to me is because I fail to read between the lines and connect the dots. I take things so literal. Like the time he told me to bring up the rollaways, so I did but at the end of my shift he asks if I made them and I say no and he asks me why didn't I and I said "I didn't know I was supposed to" and he said "Why would I tell you to bring them up and not have you make them" Then he said I have worked there long enough so I need to use common sense. he also said he is too busy and he can't spoonful every words in everyone's mouths so we have to use our common sense. At least I knew what he meant by spoonful every words despite the funny picture I had in my head.


And I wasn't doing gossip. The office clerk I was talking to, she think I'm very smart and intellegient so I asked her how does she know and what do I do that shows it and she says I can take care of myself, don't let men take advantage of me, I pay all my bills, know how to manage my money, I have a job, I do a very good job, etc. and then I told her I don't figure things out very well and can't read between the lines very well because I get told I need to use my common sense and she asked me "Who tells you that?" and I say, "One of the other office clerks" and she says "Who?" and that's when I tell her and then she was mad about it. I told her it hadn't happened in a while and it's been two weeks or three weeks since he has last told me it.

Yes the common sense thing annoys me but I ignore it. What can I do about it? Tell him I have troubles reading between the lines or connecting the dots and I'm literal. Heck I even take the assistant general housekeeping director's jokes literal too so I don't really believe anymore what he says. I have to ask if he is serious or joking. He does that to everybody.

I just take such comments, with a grain of salt. Those people don't have the type of common sense that it takes, to deal with our species of Man.

Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.
- Albert Einstein

When people ask you to use your common sense, they are really asking you to think like they do. They have a number of things they figure to be common knowledge, and they expect you to know the same. They have a way of thinking that they consider to be common sense, and they expect you to think the same.

1000 years ago it was common sense that the earth was flat.

People who ask others to use their common sense are ignorant.