Life Of E's

A question that came in from someone who downloaded the “Antioxidants for a Toxic Academic Work Environment” teleseminar sent in this question:

I enjoyed your workshop, and felt validated in my approach when I heard your examples of assertiveness. I’d like to ask if I should use the “When you do X, I feel Y” approach even when we write letters, or only in personal discussions?

Here was my answer to her:

This is a really good question…

And I think written communication is touchy…even touchier than face to face communication. So, it’s possible to use the “When you do X, I feel Y” in writing…but I think it’s harder because so many of the other means of communication are lost…tone and body language for example.

So my answer would be ‘yes’ in some cases, ‘no’ in others…particularly those where the stakes are high.

Thanks for writing and listening to the teleseminar. Dr. Julie-Ann McFann and I did a number of podcasts recently, we focused on the topic of the ‘toxic’ environment in academia.  You can go here for recent podcasts and the shownotes/articles:  http://aroundtheacademy.com/

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Tags: assertive, communication, toxic work environment