Direct to You

Ever since I was ohhhh probably old enough to talk, I have been told that I am very direct. Being direct pretty much means that I don't beat around the bush and say what I mean. At least, I'd like to think so.

At my last employer, I can't tell you how many times I was given feedback about my directness. "You might want to soften up your message, Mary." "Maybe think through what you want to say..." "Sometimes the way you say things can really hurt people's feelings..." AAAGGGHHH!!!

My question is this... Why do I have to change in order to make the "fluffy" people happy? Why can't they be more direct? Why is it OK for me to sit through a 30 minute dissertation on a topic that could have taken 5 minutes? As opposed to the dissertatee (Is that a word? It is now) getting to the point and not wasting my time.

Case in point.. a "fluffy" person might say, "I really like how you have arranged this spreadsheet. I can tell that you spent some time on it. The colors seem to really bring out the data and expose the information that is needed. You might want to adjust the columns and wrap the text in larger fields."

Me? "Looks good. Just make the columns wider and set the text up to wrap." Hello??? Now didn't we just save a few breaths and get the same point across?

Just think about how many meetings could be shortened if we all were a little more to the point.. damn.. we could probably shorten the work week. What about Congress? Don't you think they could spend alot fewer hours discussing our nation's recession issue if everyone just got to the point? They could actually be putting the plan into action and save thousands of jobs.

I say all direct people should UNITE!!! We could form a union and teach the non-directs how to be more efficient. Direct to You (D2Y)...say it and move on!

LOL - I think I've said enough