On being talkative in the workplace

Ferdie is a talkative department manager, he talks and shares with his subordinates anything that he wants to share. Even topics of no importance he shares. What he doesn’t know is his subordinates are not interested to hear about what he shares because it distracts their work focus.  

Many managers and even ordinary workers are talkative in the workplace. They share topics that are not anymore meant to be shared and topics of no importance. For example, family matters; should it be shared in the workplace environment? Of course not!

What is to be shared or talked about in the workplace are work related topics no more no less. This simply means that there should be less talk but more work in the workplace. Many of us are talkative in the workplace. For the simple reason that we want to impress our subordinates and colleagues about what we know but it ends with the talk. We don't actually do what we say we would do, we don't put action into our words; talk is cheap.

We also want to project power, knowledge and influence by being talkative. However, the more we talk the more we expose ourselves even our hidden ignorance and incompetence we expose by being talkative.

We have to remember that the less we talk the less we commit mistakes and the less we talk the more powerful, admirable and mysterious we appear.

Are you talkative in your workplace? – Marino J. Dasmarinas