Page 55 - Today’s Business Communication; A How-to Guide for the Modern Professional

44 TODAY’S BUSINESS COMMUNICATION

for you to share our understanding of the word. The online version of the
Oxford Dictionary supplies the following definition of relationship, and
we like it: “the way in which two or more concepts, objects, or people are
connected, or the state of being connected; the way in which two or more
people or organizations regard and behave toward each other.”
2
In Chapter 1, we discussed the differences between
verbal and nonverbal communications. Now, we will
turn our attention to the ways that both verbal and
written communication can build positive relation-
ships or destroy them. Consider, for example, Brooke
Wilson’s workplace experience:

I assumed I was entering a reasonably professional job, and I
respected professionalism. However, when I got to my first day
at my home branch, my assistant manager met me at the door,
before the branch opened. She walked me to her office. She sat
down at her desk, and I took the seat beside her. I expected her
to show me around or begin to tell me how the day begins at the
branch. Instead, she begins to tell me about my coworkers. She
literally ran down the list of all my coworkers, their names, how
long they had worked there, whether they were a good employee
or not (according to her), and even volunteered personal informa-
tion about them. In those first few moments, I realized this lady
took the cake as far as being wrong in so many ways. I immedi-
ately developed an opinion of her that wasn’t good. I later learned
the supervisor had a similar talk with a coworker who had been
hired about a year before me. Needless to say, I found it difficult
to respect her or her position as supervisor. I worked at that job
for more than 2 years and I can honestly say I hated it. It was hard
to take orders from her and to take anything she said seriously
because I didn’t think much of her. She ruined her first impression
with me from the beginning. I often wonder what she said about
me to those coworkers who came in as new employees after me.
3
Brooke survived her yuck job with the supervisor from Hades. She
completed her business degree in 2013, after having returned to school
full-time and working several years in retail and financial services. Today