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Comment by jonnathanson | Hacker News Reader

Oh man, these almost hit too close to home to be funny. True story below.

Me: So, just to remind you, I'm going in for surgery on Saturday. They're removing a gland from the side of my neck, so the recovery time will probably be three or four days.

Boss: Will you be back in the office on Monday?

Me: Probably not. Like I said--

Boss: --When will you be back?

Me: The recovery time is three or four days, so hopefully Tuesday or Wednesday.

Boss: Will you be taking any meetings on Monday?

Me: I will probably be bed-ridden, and I won't be able to speak.

Boss: That's not what I asked.

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Not to nitpick, but a lot of people would appreciate clear, concise communication. Ideally, communication to your boss should have been:

"Just to remind you, I will be out next week until Thursday. I let the team know, and declined all the meetings scheduled"

all the other details are unnecessary. Let em know what they need to know, and take care of things that need addressed before you go out.

Maybe, but it's a little silly that they can't take a second to listen to what you said.

Bosses seem to hate being forced to reason out the answer, even if it should be readily apparent from what you said.

If you're annoyed and want to annoy them back, you can do the reasoning for them to point out how simple it is, e.g. "three days from now is Thursday" or "not being able to speak would make meetings useless, therefore I will not be able to take any."

ts not a second its closer to several minutes of back and forth. 2 min times 40 enteractions a day, is almost hour and a half of bosses time you wasted.

theres a reason why communication needs to be more concise, more summary, aggregated as it moves up hierarchy.

also as boss i trust you with details. i usually dont need to hear them.

  Me: What time do you think you'll be home?
  Wife: Um, well, first I need to do x, and then I need to go     
    to y, which will probably take an hour.  And then I might
    swing by z.
  Me: So what time do you think you'll be home?

I am not a boss, but quite opposite. But often find myself answering the same way. And later just putting myself into boss's position find that this was not the best answer. Straight and simple yes/not/[number]/today/now/tomorrow much better. Reserve informal talk to a lunch with boss.

Fair, but the backstory is that I'd told my boss about the surgery (he'd asked about the particulars) about three dozen times prior to that conversation. Some of the seemingly extraneous info ("removing a gland from my neck") was added here, per very slight artistic license, to convey information to the readers that was actually mentioned in previous conversations.

That reminds me of when I was 13:

Me: I don't have my homework because I electrocuted myself last night and went to the hospital [true story].

Teacher: You should have planned that into your schedule [apparently serious].

You went to the hospital because you died?

You're misinformed - electrocution does not imply death

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/electrocute

jes5199's wiktionary link says that "Strictly correct usage is to reserve electrocute and electrocution for fatal electric shocks". Do you have a source?

> (informal) To inflict a severe electric shock, not necessarily fatally.

it is derived from 'execute'

Looks like I was misinformed. However, the Wikipedia entry for electrocution (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrocution) does mention that the choice of definition varies from dictionary to dictionary.

It does, only in informal speech does it not imply death. If you get electrically shocked and don't die then you were not electrocuted.

Since when has Hacker News been a forum of formal speech?

Since always HN is a place of clear and precise communication.

I upvoted you. You sound just like the teacher :).

That's funny, but he may have meant you should not put off homework til the last possible day or minute, or just this kind of thing can come up and scuttle it. If the teacher literally assigned it at 3pm, due next day, then a few hours later you're electrocuted, that's understandable. But if it was assigned a week before, and it would have only done a few hours to do, it's much less so. Because stuff comes up. If it wasn't random electrocution it would be random something else. And keep in mind the same teacher probably hears lots of excuses, some real, some made-up, all the time. I imagine it gets frustrating for them, and their empathy wanes away. Cops have a similar effect.

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