1. Clear Books Must reads | July 2015
27 reasons why
communication in the
workplace fails
Effective and clear communication is essential for maintaining
a productive and harmonious work environment
Here are 27 of the worst behaviours which cause
communication to fail — and what you can do to prevent
them from having a negative influence on your business...

2. Clear Books Must reads | July 2015
1. Hiding information
Obviously, everyone doesn’t need to know everything, but if staff
feel like a new bombshell is dropped on them every day, morale
will decrease and, in turn, perhaps they’ll start keeping important
details from others too. Make sure you keep staff up-to-date with
the big decisions and deliver news in a timely and considered way.
2. Gossiping about colleagues
Although it might be tempting at times, talking badly of others
behind their backs, especially at work, can only reflect badly on
the person doing it. If you get a reputation for being a gossip,
people will think twice before trusting you with important
information.
3. Delivering inconsistent
messages
Nothing is surer to frustrate an employee than being told to do X
one day and its opposite, Y, the next — particularly if the reason
for this U-turn is not clearly communicated. If you clearly state the
strategy and reasoning behind a reversed decision, people will be
more accepting.
4. Failing to create clear business
and team goals
If a stranger visits your office, they should be able to ask any
employee what your business’s overarching goal is. If the
employee doesn’t know the answer, it will affect both how they
do their own job and how they communicate with colleagues to
achieve objectives.
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3. Clear Books Must reads | July 2015
5. Covering up mistakes
If you make a mistake, own up to it. In a professional
environment, there’s no excuse for lying, particularly on issues
that affect your colleagues and could harm their job or even
career. People respect someone who admits they’re sometimes
wrong and is willing to learn from these mistakes.
6. Letting people down
If someone asks for your help, you should either assist or clearly
explain why you can’t. Never agree to something that you don’t
have the time or inclination to do. Wasting other people’s time
causes resentment and makes you look like you’re unwilling to
work in a team.
7. Overreacting to the small stuff
Similarly, it’s important for staff to recognise when a task is urgent
or when it can be left to resolve itself. If you get a reputation
for micro-managing or panicking over small things, it will harm
communication as people won’t know whether to take what you
say seriously or dismiss it as trivial.
8. Neglecting employees’ personal
lives
Everyone has a personal life, which from time to time will affect
their work life — whether it’s a bereavement, child care or illness.
Create an open environment where staff can talk to you as an
adult so you can come to a reasonable arrangement that suits
everyone.

4. Clear Books Must reads | July 2015
9. Failing to practise what you
preach
If you expect employees to be at their desks by 9 or to call you
if they are ill, then make sure you abide by your own rules, or at
least don’t contradict them. Younger employees, in particular,
expect to work in a flat hierarchy and to be treated fairly.
10. Demotivating employees
If employees are stuck doing the same thing every day with
no opportunity to progress or even discuss their levels of job
satisfaction, they will become demotivated and this will affect
their ability and inclination to communicate with colleagues,
customers, and managers.
11. Crossing wires
Some people aren’t natural communicators and may prefer
to work alone or perhaps dislike explaining things. If you spot
someone like this, it might be worth giving them communication
or assertiveness training, or making sure that someone who does
have these skills is responsible for managing certain projects.
12. Preventing people from
contributing ideas
When someone joins your company, particularly if they’re
young or new to the industry, it’s important that they know they
have both the right and the responsibility to offer opinions and
suggestions. In turn, more seasoned staff should be open to
hearing new perspectives.

5. Clear Books Must reads | July 2015
13. Failing to set clear deadlines
and instructions
If you want something completed by a certain time, you must
make this very clear to the person you’re asking. Most people
are juggling multiple projects so it will help both you and them if
you’re explicit about what you need and by when.
14. Reacting badly to requests
Even if you’re incredibly stressed, keep in mind how you react to
requests to make sure people don’t become wary of asking for
your help, or even start avoiding you. If you do get to breaking
point, try to remove yourself from the situation, even briefly.
15. Lack of training
If staff are not adequately trained to do their jobs, tasks won’t
be completed properly and this will cause resentment amongst
colleagues. Keep an eye out to see if anyone seems to be
struggling with certain aspects of their workload and arrange
appropriate training.
16. Dismissing others’ experience
and value
The most important aspect of any workplace is respect. It’s
important that staff are open to listening and responding to each
other, no matter what. Diversity awareness and training can help
to ensure employees know what is expected of them and help
everyone to learn from each other’s varied experiences.

6. Clear Books Must reads | July 2015
17. Sticking to work chat all the
time
We’re not robots and we can’t work without being influenced by
human qualities such as emotion, judgement, intuition etc. If you
can bond with your colleagues on a personal level, even in a small
way, you’ll know their communication style and be able to work
more efficiently.
18. Forgetting to catch up
regularly
It’s easy to drift along day to day without having an in-depth
conversation about what’s going on. Make time for your staff by
arranging regular catch-ups to make sure they’re happy and that
you’re both on the same page in terms of the company goals and
direction.
19. Arranging pointless and
uninspiring meetings
On the other hand, it’s important that when you do meet, the
meeting is productive and has a clear schedule. There’s nothing
more frustrating than a bunch of people staring at each other
waiting for someone else to speak because no one knows why
they’re there. Make sure someone is responsible for taking charge
of every meeting.

7. Clear Books Must reads | July 2015
20. Rationing resources
If employees have to share scarce resources, this can cause petty
arguments, and resentments build up. Of course, you don’t need
to buy a separate kettle for everyone but make sure that a lack of
basic items isn’t needlessly making your employees’ days just that
little bit worse.
21. Making snap-judgements on
others’ ideas
If no one was allowed to fail, then no one would ever take risks.
Make sure that employees know that they can take the odd
(calculated) risk or can share a seemingly ridiculous idea in a
brainstorming session without fear that they will be laughed at or
treated negatively.
22. Working from home
If no one ever sees each other because they’re working remotely
this can have a bad effect on general communication. The same
goes for being in the office but always wearing headphones or
creating other barriers to talking face-to-face. Of course there
are times when both of these things can be helpful — but in
moderation.
23. Restricting employees’
environment
It’s important that employees have somewhere they can go
besides their desk where they can gather informally to chat and
spark conversations. A lunch room, a pool table or an area with
comfy sofas can all fulfil this need.

8. Clear Books Must reads | July 2015
24. Segregating teams
If different teams are never forced to work together or
encouraged to understand each other’s roles, resentment will
build as everyone heads off on their own path. Everyone should
be aware of other departments’ needs to work together to achieve
a common goal.
25. Leaving integral people out of
the loop
When beginning a new project make sure you consider everyone
who will play a role. Don’t just pull people in at the last minute
when their opinion and expertise have become irrelevant because
all of the decisions have been made.
26. Allowing an unclear
organisational structure
Everyone in the company should know who to go to for certain
things. If someone needs information, they should immediately
know, or be able to quickly find out, who holds this knowledge. A
dedicated table or chart in an obvious place can help with this.
27. Relying on email
Staying at your desk and sending messages to someone sitting
just across the room is becoming more and more widespread.
However face-to-face communication is fundamental to ensure
you have correctly communicated and understood a message’s
nuances — particularly if it’s a difficult technical or sensitive
conversation.
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