Ok folks, I will be the first one to admit that this post is going to walk a very narrow line between social commentary and pet peeve rant. I will also be very frank and admit I’ve fallen into this trap myself recently which is what got me thinking/ranting about it. How many times lately have I (or someone) sent out information, and the conversation or work that follows CLEARLY demonstrates that the information provided was not read.

The first example was at work, an email was sent with a lot of information required to get something done. almost immediately after the email was sent, the individual called and started asking questions, ALL OF WHICH were covered in the email. I answered every question with “as noted in the email, that is blah blah blah.” Not once did the person stop and say oh maybe I should look at the email before calling up.

The second example, another email. Dealing with some parts that needed to be shipped so I sent an email that said please just send them to me and I’ll get them to the proper location, followed by my complete name, phone number and mailing address. The person replied almost immediately saying “sure please give me your address”. In the email window, I could see my address in the email below his reply very clearly. To his credit, about 15 minutes later he replied with “oh you already sent your address” but still. Gees.

I’m seeing this in my quilting hobby too. I’m following a couple of sew along projects on the internet, the instructions for which are very clearly written (in my opinion). People are complaining about not knowing what to do when the questions they ask are very clearly called out in the instructions. I noticed one of the organizers actually had to put out a plea for people to read the instructions carefully as there was a lot of information contained in the instructions and could answer a lot of questions, but people don’t and keep demanding personal answers via social media.

What I’m realizing is that we are equating the word “read” with “skim”. we get something and glance through it looking for anything really glaring and figure that as we go along, we can ask to clarify any information. I don’t see folks (me included, mea maxima culpa) reading for actual comprehension to see if they can work with the information provided before asking for more detail. When did this change and how do we correct it?

In my own world and especially in my sewing, I’m trying to adjust my approach as well. Instead of diving in with only a vague handle on the situation, I’m trying to stop and read carefully any information that I have, maybe even read it two or three times to make sure that I know what detail was provided before I start to call out any perceived gaps.

The most recent garment I made I used this approach and it went together faster than any project in a long time. I had a clear understanding of the pattern, and I even learned a couple of new techniques that the designer used, rather than just assuming it would be done the way I always have done things.

At my day job, I’m working to read emails thoroughly before starting a reply, so that I can answer all questions in a single reply instead of breaking them out into two or three replies or requiring people have to follow up with me.

I can’t tell you why this has suddenly bubbled up, or why it bugs me so much, but it does, and I don’t like it in myself any more than I like it in others. So this is my very public pledge to the world that I need to correct this in myself.