USC Hybrid High School Communications Discussion

Interpersonal Relations in the Workplace1. It is important to improve interpersonal communication at the workplace because it can improve not only
your everyday emotions, but also your co-workers. Even if you’re having a bad day masking your emotions
can help you not to cause conflict within your environment. When you are surrounded by co-works that are
unhappy it can lead to emotional contagion. Not only will you be unhappy, now the people you surround
yourself with will start to feel unhappy as well. Trying to stay positive and find the good through the bad,
can help you keep a more positive outlook. When you are feeling happy, your co-work will feel happy as
well.
Not everyone is has an extroversion personality. You are going to work with people that many have
personalities that display neuroticism or agreeableness, either way finding a way to communicate with them
will be important to maintaining a heathy work environment. Using your emotional intelligence to gage your
co-workers’ feelings can be a great asset. Building relationships with the people you work with takes good
communication. Having someone at work to talk to about what’s going on at work or confide in, can relieve
stress and make you feel more comfortable and content.
2. Based on the lecture on Communication Climate, Confirming Messages, Disconfirming Messages,
Defensiveness, and Non-defensive Responses, here’s how I believe it can help improve interpersonal relations
in the workplace. Week four lecture emphasized the importance of communication climate, which refers to
the emotional atmosphere of a conversation. A positive communication climate is crucial for fostering
healthy relationships at work. One way to create a positive communication climate is through confirming
messages, which validate and acknowledge someone’s thoughts and feelings. On the other hand,
disconfirming messages can lead to defensiveness and conflict, which can negatively impact relationships.
Defensiveness is a common response to disconfirming messages and can result in communication
breakdowns. However, the lecture provided strategies for reducing defensiveness, such as using “I”
statements and avoiding criticism. Non-defensive responses were also discussed as a way to maintain a
positive communication climate and prevent conflict.
Overall, understanding the concepts of communication climate, confirming and disconfirming messages,
defensiveness, and non-defensive responses can help individuals improve their interpersonal relations in the
workplace. By creating a positive communication climate through confirming messages and reducing
defensiveness, individuals can build stronger relationships with their coworkers and contribute to a healthier
work environment.
3. This chapter was most important to me because, being in the military, you deal with all types of issues from
all walks of life. The part that makes this both challenging and rewarding at the same time is the fact that
you are dealing a lot with a younger generation who are away from home for the first tim e in their lives. I
have had Marines come to me asking for help, but I don’t know how to articulate the issue. By sending
confirming messages such as eye contact, active listening, questioning, etc., you can, in many cases, pull
information pertinent to finding the solution. It also lets the individual know that you are doing what you can
to help, which makes things much better for everyone. To me, everything we’ve learned thus far is vital to
success in the military.
I have seen and been in instances where the person trying to communicate an issue is not being taken
seriously. You can see that person almost immediately shut down when the receiver is distracted by other
things. This could be messing with their phone, typing on the computer, giving passive responses, or any
combination, as mentioned earlier. The receiver almost always loses the trust of the person trying to
communicate with them. Something else I have seen from some people in the past is a lot of disconfirming
messages. They disregard the situation, claim it’s not a big deal, or ignore a part of the message. I’ve seen
times when the receiver will try to turn the problem around and make the other person think it’s their fault
for what they are going through.
Identifying Deceptive Communication
4. Being deceived by someone you thought you could trust can be extremely damaging. It can cause emotional
damage, as well as mental damage. This can be especially true if you have confided in this person over a
period of time. As far as me personally I was affected by this after being deceived by someone that I looked
up to as a mentor. I confided in this person about some personal issues that I was having, only to have him a
few days later use it against me. I don’t want to go into details about what it was, but it still to this day is
making me think twice about trusting others that I talk to on a day-to-day basis. This person told me
repeatedly that I could trust him and made me feel comfortable enough to talk to him. Looking back I can
almost point out every time he was sending a disconfirming message. Whether it was ignoring part of the
message or making me somewhat feel like what was going on was my fault. Looking back to other times
when talking to this person, he would send confirming messages like endorsing what I would tell him by
saying I was right and that he agreed with me. Prior to this incident he would always ask questions to try to
gain a better understanding, or he would show enthusiasm over the ideas that I had. Nothing like that
happened this time around though, which should have been an indicator but because of the trust I had, I didn’t
even think about it. The good thing is that I am moving on to a new unit and will never have to deal with this
person again. The downside is that I will not intentionally cause other people to pay for that by not trusting
them.
5. My scenario is vulnerable, but I am happy to share it because I’m sure many people can relate. I fell for a
deceptive ploy of “pillow talk” that resulted in me getting hurt and terminating the relationship completely.
The person I was dating, A, was a friend for six months or so before we became romantic. After we started
dating, he left for three weeks to visit his family across the country, and we talked every night. I still felt
cared for and special because he said sweet things on our phone calls; that he missed me, wanted to spend
time with me, and could see a serious future with me. We talked like that all the time he was gone. When he
got back, though, and we saw each other in person, things felt off. Our conversations became consistently
superficial, he avoided eye contact, he seemed annoyed to see me. It didn’t match the energy of our calls. It
wasn’t until a week or two later that I found out that his intentions were not serious , and that he only talked
like that because it felt good in the moment. He didn’t actually want a future with me, I think he just wanted
to feel like he had that with someone. I consider this deceptive because “if you communicate in a way that is
meant to make someone believe a fact or form an impression you know to be untrue, then you are engaging
in deception” (Floyd 386). While it was not high stakes in the sense that no one risked getting arrested or
losing thousands of dollars, I got incredibly hurt. It honestly affected my relationships with men as a whole
for a period of time— I was scared and felt like I could not trust them. If he and I naturally and mutually
drifted apart and agreed to stop dating, I could see staying friends, but this deception so iled whatever trust I
had with him. I forgive him, but I would not want to be friends with him again, my memory of him is too
soured.
6. The mother of my oldest son did the biggest deception I have ever experienced. After our divorce was
finalized, we remained friends for the sake of our son. We attended co-parenting classes, and I thought we
were both at a healthy position in our separate lives while co-raising our son. Little did I know that she was
busy acquiring information from my son whenever he was at my house. I never understood why my son
started to ask me questions about how much I made at work and he would do random searches throughout
my house. I thought it was odd, but never took keen interest on the behavior, I simply assumed that he was
more curious as he was getting older. Long story short, not too long from me observing my son’s behavior
change, my ex-wife served me court papers demanding more money in child support and shorten the time
my son would spend with me. Only to find out she did this because I was in new relationship with my
current wife. My ex-wife was using my son in a deceptive manner to know what was going on in my
personal life instead of been honest with her intensions and ask me directly. Floyd (2020) wrote, “In fact,
people have several motives for engaging in deception, many of which are altruistic.” (p. 391).
I am not too sure of her honest intension, but I believe she did not want me know that she was upset that I
had moved on with my life. She saw it would be less confrontational to use my son as a buffer. Floyd
(2020) wrote, “Deceptions committed in the service of politeness help maintain social harmony and avoid
disruptions in relationships.” (p. 391).
This encounter made me pay more attention to people who change their behaviors drastically especially if
we have some sort of personal relationship with each other. I also try to me more straight forward when
addressing them by directly asking for the reason of their sudden behavior change.