Workplace Communication Quotes

I've just been fired over the phone by Yahoo's chairman of the board.

Always Postpone Meetings with Time-wasting Morons

I called a company and asked to speak to Bob. The person who answered said, "Bob is on vacation. Would you like to hold?

I've worked on jobs where there are almost 200 people on set... you always make an effort to have a relationship but you can't really when there's 200.

Being able to hear an opinion. And then how to apply that opinion is something I am learning and working with every day. What can be tricky is how to differentiate a good suggestion that you should apply to your work [from] someone's personal taste at their opinionated best.

Who's more annoying to work with, boomers or millennials? Depends on how you feel about emojis.

Managers have traditionally developed the skills in finance, planning, marketing and production techniques. Too often the relations with their people have been assigned a secondary role. This is too important a subject not to receive first-line attention. In this regard we could learn much from the Japanese. We must reinvest in the human side of management.

Occasionally, I make waffles for breakfast for any employee who wants to talk to me. I make them around 8 A.M. as an incentive for people to show up early.

Some people find that if they share a profession with their partner, they don't talk about anything else.

If possible, try to avoid pushing each other over the edge, as that would cause me extra paperwork.

Talking things over has its place in an organization [but] so-called conferences are being grossly overdone. One executive stops at the desk of another to tell him, perhaps, about the wonderful score he made at golf on Saturday afternoon. This chin-chin immediately becomes a conference, and neither the office boy nor the telephone operator must disturb either gentleman. More idle gossip is indulged in at many business conferences these days than an old wives' sewing circle would be guilty of.

At work, conversation increases productivity. And yet people go into work, put on their headphones. In one interview, somebody called it - they become pilots in their own cockpits.

We don't have meetings unless absolutely necessary.

[To a woman whose cellphone rang during a formal meeting:] You'd better answer that. It could be someone important.

Usually, you know, you're at a table and you're the only woman, you've got this idea, you finally speak up - I mean, I've been in some settings where every head turns toward me and then they all turn away as if I've never spoken. Which I think happens when whatever I said was so out of the blue, or so awkward, that they just didn't know how to respond.

I think most working relationships could benefit by excluding personal matters from the office chatter.

You have to listen to the people who employ you.

I don't recommend that people speak their minds to their bosses or to somebody who's directly over them. You need to know when to speak your mind and what the penalty will be for doing so. Sometimes it's worth it, and often it's not!

You cannot foster a collaborative environment when people's offices are completely locked, where you cannot even see the assistant because the offices are so big.

Take your job seriously, BUT don't take their complaints personally. If you take it personally you'll get upset and lose your edge. If you take it too personally, you'll lose your edge and your job. If you take it seriously -- it's you with them. If you take it personally, it's you against them. What steps can you take to ensure keeping your cool?

Everybody sounds stoned, because they're e-mailing people the whole time they're talking to you.

Incidentally, it's best not to argue with the nursing staff. I find the best course of action is to throw some chocolates in one direction and hurry off in the other while their attention is distracted.

It's not really about confidence. It's just something that isn't really in the vocabulary of what goes on at work. The writers write and the actors act.

I do have someone that I work with and she is amazing and I definitely don't have unmitigated abusive tendencies towards her. She is very sweet. I also know what that is like. I have heard my agent thinking he has hit mute on the phone before he, you know, physically unleashes broken glass and cellphones at his poor assistant. It is a tough job under the best of circumstances. I understand that.

A company is people … employees want to know… am I being listened to or am I a cog in the wheel? People really need to feel wanted.