Miscommunication

This week, I'd like you to think about an experience you have witnessed in which information was miscommunicated in the work setting. If you have not yet had a job, you may also reflect on a miscommunication on a sports team or within any social organization. What happened to cause the miscommunication to occur? What was the aftermath? How might the miscommunication have been prevented?

During this past summer, I worked as a waitress at a Bubba Gump’s Restaurant in Downtown Charleston. Communication is an integral aspect while serving customers. I have messed up many a meal order because of miscommunication or carelessness.

During one such occasion, one of my co-worker’s (Suzy) customers asked me if I could tell Suzy to cancel his steak order because he had to leave dinner early. Because I was in the process of getting drinks for my table, I didn’t feel like finding Suzy and so told another co-worker (Mary) to relay the message to Suzy for me. Well – as the popular children’s “telephone” game goes – the message got mixed up during the transfer, and Suzy thought the request was to speed up the meal so that he could take it with him. The miscommunication was realized when the food (and check) was brought out to him. He, of course, refused to pay for the food; and a perfectly good steak went to waste. The fault was completely mine – if I had taken the message directly to Suzy myself, there wouldn’t have been a mix-up.

Thankfully this miscommunication only resulted in the loss of a cooked steak. And, this small mistake forced me to be more cautious in the future: as a prospective health-care provider, the importance of proper and accurate communication will only increase.