11/21/2024

Responding to Someone Who Dominates the Conversation

Be careful when communicating with "long talkers"

Dear Crucial Skills,

I have a coworker who dominates nearly every conversation. She is outspoken, brash, and often has no filter. Sometimes the things she says are uncomfortably candid. I don’t think she is a bad person, but I often find myself drained after speaking with her. How should I approach this?

Signed,
Exhausted

Dear Exhausted,

It sounds like your colleague is insensitive but not ill-intended. She doesn’t follow the same rules of politeness that you do. That puts a burden on you in two ways.

1. It requires you to be more aware of your tendency to take offense when it isn’t intended.
2. It makes you more responsible for demanding airtime that other people naturally grant you.

Please select this link to read the complete article from Crucial Learning.