Up Front by Emma Hart

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Up Front: A Word in Your Ear

172 Responses

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  • AllanM,

    What?

    Auck • Since Nov 2009 • 10 posts Report Reply

  • AllanM,

    Auck • Since Nov 2009 • 10 posts Report Reply

  • recordari,

    I disagree.

    [Check please! And hurry, as I'm about to be run over by rhetoric.]

    AUCKLAND • Since Dec 2009 • 2607 posts Report Reply

  • Sacha,

    You know you're dealing with a poncy fucker when they use footnotes, eh

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report Reply

  • Kyle Matthews,

    And all because I chose to retain my own cultural practices in the workplace.

    There should be a treaty claim over the right to swear in the workplace. Currently we're mostly just doing it under our breath, so we're being repressed.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report Reply

  • Grace Dalley,

    I think you're right, up to a point. Here on PAS we like to show off our cleverness and our education, but I'd like to think we weren't just finding fancy ways of slagging each other off. I'd like to think that we also have an appetite for discussing facts and interpretation and an openness to changing our views in the light of these.

    To have an intelligent debate, people need to be able to explain why they think the way they do, and what their choices are based on. Sure we need a level of articulacy to do that, but we also need an environment where reasoning and reasonableness is favoured over invective. One thing I enjoy about PAS is that everybody (mostly) plays nice and we can share stuff we know without everybody shouting.

    Christchurch • Since Nov 2008 • 138 posts Report Reply

  • recordari,

    In light of the overwhelming evidence, I no longer disagree*.

    *Footnote of no particular relevance, other than to support Sacha's argument.

    AUCKLAND • Since Dec 2009 • 2607 posts Report Reply

  • Bart Janssen,

    It's a dangerous weapon you have Emma. My parents taught me how to argue and how to win arguments. What they didn't teach me was when to use those skills. Why didn't my flat mates want to argue for four hours about whether the milk should be on the third or fourth shelf???

    In my work I've been criticized for being articulate because my ability to explain my projects gave me an unfair advantage over those who couldn't clearly articulate what they were planning to do with the money. Interestingly that criticism was accepted as fair.

    As for your issue with swearing in the US. You were facing two issues, yes they are puritans, but what you actually needed was a man to repeat what you just said to make it worth listening to, and yes I have been in meetings where precisely that has occurred. Female presents idea, idea ignored, male repeats what she said, idea brilliant. In this case being articulate didn't help her - she didn't even swear!

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 4461 posts Report Reply

  • Isabel Hitchings,

    Fortunately defending a faulty premise with dazzling rhetoric doesn't usually make anyone look smart for all that long. Though due to esprit d'escalier one may never actually find out what ones 'victims' really think.

    Christchurch • Since Jul 2007 • 719 posts Report Reply

  • giovanni tiso,

    What being born articulate allows me to do, however, is to win arguments even if I'm wrong.

    Okay, now imagine growing up in a country where *everyone* can do that.

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report Reply

  • Bart Janssen,

    now imagine growing up in a country where *everyone* can do that.

    I didn't realise you were of Dutch extraction too Gio!

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 4461 posts Report Reply

  • giovanni tiso,

    I'm not saying Italy's the only one. I'm picking at least Ireland and your ancestral digs.

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    It's not just about rhetorical persuasion either.

    In any disagreement with a public agency, you will be better served if you are articulate, literate and persuasive.

    More than once, I've felt privileged in this respect.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Isabel Hitchings,

    In any disagreement with a public agency, you will be better served if you are articulate, literate and persuasive.

    The time I made my Income Support caseworker get the book off the shelf and look up the law that stated that I was eligible for the dole is a tremendous example of this sort of privilege in action.

    Christchurch • Since Jul 2007 • 719 posts Report Reply

  • Islander,

    Maori are pretty good with words...we cherished & cherish them so much (and recognise the power they have over other humans) that we are paticular, exact & potent wielders of words.

    And we love argument-

    but we dont relish people who confuse rhythym & repetition as the sole form of dialogue, nor people who limit themselves to an overarching language while being wholly ignorant of any other-

    Big O, Mahitahi, Te Wahi … • Since Feb 2007 • 5643 posts Report Reply

  • Tim Darlington,

    What being born articulate allows me to do, however, is to win arguments even if I'm wrong. Just ask my ex-husband

    No. I'm sorry, but that has far less to do with being born articulate than with having the correct gonads. No level of skill at argument avails a husband against his wife.

    Since Nov 2006 • 56 posts Report Reply

  • Emma Hart,

    The time I made my Income Support caseworker get the book off the shelf and look up the law that stated that I was eligible for the dole is a tremendous example of this sort of privilege in action.

    It was a doctor in my case. A doctor at Student Health, but still a doctor.

    In any disagreement with a public agency, you will be better served if you are articulate, literate and persuasive.

    Oh yes. I mean, you'll get so far on sheer 'squeaky wheel' just refusing to shut up and go away, but still...

    what you actually needed was a man to repeat what you just said to make it worth listening to

    My bosses were female, but in one case this was still true.

    Christchurch • Since Nov 2006 • 4651 posts Report Reply

  • Jackie Clark,

    I'm the complete opposite, Emma. When I'm passionate about something I'm neither clever nor articulate, and when I'm angry, forget about it. Which is strange, because my family culture is very much one of arguing, and sounding really convincing because we're so authorative that we must be right. But only to outsiders. To each other, we're just know it alls and bullshitters. And bossy.

    Mt Eden, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 3136 posts Report Reply

  • Joe Wylie,

    In any disagreement with a public agency, you will be better served if you are articulate, literate and persuasive.
    More than once, I've felt privileged in this respect.

    I don't doubt it. Howevah, when being stonewalled by the Australian Commonwealth bureaucracy a few years back, all my attempts at articulacy and quoting of the rules (I'd done my homework) got me nowhere. Breaking my cheap umbrella over the back of a chair got instant results - the Stalinist facade evaporated, every bureaucrat on the floor looked up from their monitor, and a woman who gave the impression of having attended a seminar in dealing with this sort of thing offered sympathy and a cup of coffee, while the security guard twitched in the background.

    Embarrassing as hell, but suddenly I was upstairs in the carpeted office for special cases, where everyone was so polite and understanding, and I got what I'd come for. Sometimes giving the appearance of being a loose cannon trumps articulacy.

    flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report Reply

  • Grace Dalley,

    I've been informed that being persistent and hopeless or persistent and shouting are also techniques that work well with bureaucracy. The thing is to make it more bother for officials to not sort out your problems.

    I've always been too chicken to try these techniques, myself.

    Christchurch • Since Nov 2008 • 138 posts Report Reply

  • Grace Dalley,

    Huh, well there you go, I wrote that before Joe's comment popped up. Nice story, breaking the umbrella and all! :-)

    Christchurch • Since Nov 2008 • 138 posts Report Reply

  • Joe Wylie,

    Truth is, I'm far too chicken to do my balls in cold blood. The aggro was spontaneous and short-lived. If I'd kept it up no doubt I'd have been escorted down the stairwell in a headlock by the security bouncer-bureaucrat, but being suddenly contrite - and, I have to admit, articulately apologetic - clinched it for me.

    flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report Reply

  • chris,

    Perisitant and hopeless is a goer, persistant and shouting will get you arrested.

    As Joe discovered, reckless abandon with your own property does tend to flick attitudinal switches hastily, but I wouldn't bank on it as a solve-all. Nice work Joe. I'm guessing that the umbrella breakage following a warm up of reasoned articulation served as a fine explanation point. But you can never underestimate the gaming element in these things, and that may have been the third umbrella this week and that's just standard procedure.

    In cases like these, it's always worth observing what you can of office politics/ dynamics, there's always someone out to get someone else, and if you can play them off against each other, necessitating worker A to step in to solve the problem that worker B has exacerbated, getting what you need regardless of the turmoil,.

    Mawkland • Since Jan 2010 • 1302 posts Report Reply

  • Jeremy Andrew,

    I'm picking at least Ireland

    Not if my neighbours are anything to go by. OTOH, they're Northern Irish, which, depending who you talk to, doesn't count.

    Hamiltron - City of the F… • Since Nov 2006 • 900 posts Report Reply

  • David Hood,

    Oh, for a sodding muse of fire that would ascend
    The brightest heaven of effing invention?

    Dunedin • Since May 2007 • 1445 posts Report Reply

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