How often do you have to dumb down your conversations with your coworkers?

[Braznor]

I have to do it a lot or else they won't understand me and then blame me for it.

 

[brianmanahan]

/r/iamverysmart

 

[OverVolt]

I just agree with everything everyone says because everything sounds so stupid to me I can't really tell the difference between dumb stupid, regular stupid, etc.

Everyone once in awhile a stupid person is joking with me and I can't tell the difference between something they'd normally say vs something they think is so dumb its funny and I just nod and smile with a big shit eating grin.

 

[Platypus]

Never luckily, I would not work in a place at this point where I had to, or I wasn't the one who was having a problem following if anything.

 

[madoka]

For the most part, I work with ambitious, driven, high achieving college graduates. No need to dumb down anything for them.

When I go to P&N though . . .

 

[lxskllr]

The draftsman's a moron, and can barely do his job. I communicate as little as possible with him. The boss is sharp as a spoon, but knows what he knows. I try to teach through ridicule and sarcasm. The engineer knows what he knows, but lacks confidence, and allows his wife to run things. I don't interact with him much. I mostly live life in my head, and curse the robot. It works I guess...

 

[zinfamous]

I've never really worked with stupid people.

 

[BurnItDwn]

We have to usually summarize things for leadership. They are quite smart. We summarize things because leadership is very busy, and they simply don't have the time to get all the details.

 

[lxskllr]

We have to usually summarize things for leadership. They are quite smart. We summarize things because leadership is very busy, and they simply don't have the time to get all the details.

My two answers are "I don't know, I just push buttons", or "Not my job". I semi seriously tell the boss I take care of one client, and that's my job. Anything above that is a bonus. Either that, or I use creative absurdist nonsense as an answer to questions. If The question is interesting, I'll try to give a good answer, or research a good answer, but most questions aren't interesting.

 

[Red Squirrel]

When I worked in IT I had to dumb down everything for the IT manager. He knew nothing about the actual technical part of IT. He just had lot of management type knowledge and certs and knew what toes to step on to get where he wanted. He did not have actual real world knowledge. One of those types of people that would starve to death if locked in a grocery store. He did not care about the technical terms and any idea he came up with, we just had to make it work his way and if we explain anything technical he did not care he just wanted it to work his way.

At my current job, thankfully it's not that bad, rarely do we have to dumb stuff down unless we're talking with other departments.

 

[Thebobo]

Former boss complained that some of our panels were called master and slave panels on the prints. Said he was going to have them change it. Also said he had this new program on a floppy that would pick the winning lotto numbers, So yes. He retired broke and stupid.

 

[Ken g6]

The site designers I work with don't know what an SVG is. So I have to ask them for a EPS file and convert it myself.

 

[DietDrThunder]

If you working with a group of people and you are the smartest person in the room, then it is time to find a new job. The reason I say this is because your personal development will be hindered.

 

[highland145]

I've never really worked with stupid people.

When you look around the room and can't spot the mark....




You guys are my work buddies so....

 

[Chaotic42]

I wouldn't say I dumb things down, but I often have to give high-level explanations of our capabilities and why we can or cannot do certain things.

 

[BarkingGhostar]

I disowned my family because I got tired of talking down to them.

 

[William Gaatjes]

We have to usually summarize things for leadership. They are quite smart. We summarize things because leadership is very busy, and they simply don't have the time to get all the details.

With us it is the same. Sometimes the managers just want a short version and ideally only want to here : "It is al taken care off". But sometimes they wanted the detailed version because they are interested in what we do and have the time. That is the advantage of having managers that once were and still are engineers. When there is a problem, we also have to provide details. It is all about honesty. Rather tell you do not know but willing to learn than pretend to know and fall flat on your face. Because in the former situation, then you get help.

 

[uclaLabrat]

We have to usually summarize things for leadership. They are quite smart. We summarize things because leadership is very busy, and they simply don't have the time to get all the details.

This. Most folks above me have PhDs from MIT or Stanford. I'm kinda surprised they let me play with expensive things.

 

[DigDog]

One of my coworkers is a aliens/area51/blackops guy. Most of them are your average family-mum smart, one of my team leaders fails at understanding basic human conmunication, but then again i also got some coworkers who are pretty darn high IQ, even though we dont really share many common interests, i still like talking to them. Management treats them the same way they treat anyone else.

What annoys me is that dumb or smart doesnt matter.
There is no real decision making in my job, being smart is just a waste of resources .. and counterproductive; you just get bored faster.

 

[ch33zw1z]

Depends on who I talk to. some people often, others.never

 

[Geekbabe]

I work with folks who have forgotten more than I will ever know. I treat every person there as such,makes for a pleasant work experience.

 

[BurnItDwn]

I work with folks who have forgotten more than I will ever know. I treat every person there as such,makes for a pleasant work experience.

Me thinks that would be the most wise approach, at least according to Socrates.


The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.
--Socrates

 

[snoopy7548]

I think my co-workers have to dumb things down when they talk to me. I can't be the only one...

 

[IronWing]

Why would you talk to your coworkers?

 

[Darwin333]

Not actually my coworkers but to architects and rarely GCs. Half the time I don't mind with architects as long as they are smart enough to know what they don't know. It's the architects that think they know everything that are the really stupid ones. They are always demanding that I do shit that flat won't work, will lead to severe issues down the road, won't be warrantied by the manufacturer, etc because it is the way THEY want it dammit! I try to dumb it down as much as possible for them and there are still a few that want it there way no matter what. That is when I start paperworking the ever holy hell out of them, once they realize that the liability will be completely on them they eventually come around.

One supreme idiot wanted to put the windows 1/2 an inch above the surface of a flat roof. Industry standard and a requirement to get a manufactures warranty is a minimum of 8" on all flashings. At 1/2 an inch to a friggen window no less it WILL leak during all heavy rains without question. I went round and round with this asshole for over a month but he wanted it to look a certain way and swore it would work just fine. I had to actually get the owner involved on that one, who was able to understand why it would leak when the friggen architect couldn't, which is something I had never had to do before or since. Architect was pissed the fuck off but fuck him, I'm not going to provide the owner with a product that I know for a fact is going to fail and in this particular case the cost to fix it would have been astronomical. The only other option would have screwed the GC whom I liked, did a ton of projects with and was on my side the entire time. He and other subs on the project were having similar issues with the idiot. I only saw one other bid package by him and I refused to bid it, the low bid was like 30% over the project budget/estimate from everyone adding a ton of "idiot tax" into their prices