In today’s increasingly global workforce, it is easy to forget how culture affects our ability to interact and communicate. Children have this incredible ability to absorb language and culture from those around them, including their parents, then parrot back the conversation tropes at the most inconvenient times (just ask any parent!). As we grow older, the lessons taught by our community (home, school, after-school hangouts) integrate themselves. Short cuts become part of the conversation, where people from similar backgrounds and common references can replace words or entire sentences with a slang phrase that carries a specific meaning.
A few instances of these references (behind the cut):
Most of the born-n-bred U.S. population knows the phrases “Going Postal” and “Twinkie Defense” and have a general idea of what they mean. Only people who lived in farming communities might know the word “detassled” and only people who have ever lived in Jacksonville, FL for any length of time would understand references to “The Ditch” actually refer to the Intercoastal Waterway. In another state or city or country, “The Ditch” might mean something else entirely.Thinking of myself as a worldly kind of girl (as a kid, I traveled to Europe a couple of times and have been on plenty of U.S. cross-country trips), I try to monitor myself when conversing with international-born friends or coworkers. Being a DBA makes things both easier and harder. For one, most conversations I have revolve around SQL Server, programming, financial concepts, and the technical terms used by the tools and the industry I work in. So one would think that when I talk to the coworkers, we would all be talking about the same thing.
Alas, it does not work that way. Where I tend to think in terms of individual buckets (with specific names), my finance contact likes to think and speak “Big Picture” words and often uses those specific “bucket names” to refer to something bigger than the bucket. And when the developers, DBAs, and reporting team all get in the same room, the word “process” or “project” don’t always mean the same thing.
Today I stuck my foot in my mouth again (only not horribly bad). The job – restore a test environment with production-like data, run release scripts, run a database script to turn on a particular process, upload a few fresh copies of SSIS packages, and notify the testers and business users that everything was ready.
I typed up my email with my usual efficiency, making sure everything sounded polite (not too blunt), switching around a few sentences, made the Pronouncement of Readiness and sent off the email. At which point, the tester sent me an email and said “Does this mean I can run a close out process?”
I sat back for a moment. Hrm? Didn’t I make that clear? The last sentence in my email said “The environment is primed and ready for testing. Let ‘er rip!” So I started an IM conversation with the tester and said “Did my last email answer your question?”
“Partially,” said the tester. “But can I run the close out?”
At which point I remembered my coworker isn’t from the Midwest, that said coworker is instead from a different country and might not understand the phrase “Let ‘er rip!” So I did my mea culpa, apologizing for the confusion. At which point the tester responded:
“It’s okay. I am dumb with some words.”
WHOA NELLY! That is not what I meant for the tester to infer. So to lighten up the situation and make it clear that the communications problem was MY fault, I responded with (paraphrased):
“You are not dumb. I just forget that hardly anyone at work understands my slang. I’ll try to do better, but I’m a DBA. I’m PAID to be confusing.”
At which point we had many laughs over the confusion thing and, I hope, my coworker is feeling a lot less self-conscious about the culture clash moment.
Conversations are like a multi-lane highway. Not only does everyone need to know where they are going, but they need to have a good idea where everyone else is traveling too. Otherwise the results are bound to be as catastrophic as the proverbial sixteen-or-more car pileup. This is especially true in international and political conversations, where the wrong reference at the wrong time can spark a war.
I’m so glad I’m not in charge of a country right now. Who knows what people would have taken away from that “simple” email of mine?
