Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

Sometimes we just don’t understand when someone else doesn’t understand.

I was recently attending a meeting online. This was one of those ZoomerTeams things where the PowerPoint was on the screen and the presenter was talking in a room with one of those microphones on the conference table.

I couldn’t understand what the presenter was saying. Once an hour I would say something like, “Excuse me, I don’t understand what the presenter is saying.”

Speechless confusion followed. “What? How can you possibly not understand what we are saying?”

I proceeded to explain about microphones and facing the microphone instead of facing into the computer screen and speaking clearly instead of with a hand on the jaw and all sorts of basic presentation skills and the like.

“Can you understand us now?”

“Yes, I can because you are now facing the microphone and trying to speak in an understandable manner.”

Then the meeting would resume and the speaker would speak into the computer screen while leaning their jaw on their hand and speaking quickly with hems and haws and such. I couldn’t understand. I would say that once an hour.

I gave up. Just my problem. I guess I need to improve myself.

Or maybe we could all do a little better at these things.