{"id":19487,"date":"2010-12-09T13:56:06","date_gmt":"2010-12-09T20:56:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/?p=19487"},"modified":"2010-12-09T14:13:51","modified_gmt":"2010-12-09T21:13:51","slug":"hmm-hrm-rrg-and-other-grunts-i-make","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2010\/12\/09\/hmm-hrm-rrg-and-other-grunts-i-make.html","title":{"rendered":"Hmm, Hrm, Rrg, and other grunts I make"},"content":{"rendered":"

Communication — it’s important!<\/em><\/p>\n

A series of emails between me and one of my direct reports, Fred:<\/p>\n

From<\/strong>: Me
\nTo<\/strong>: Fred<\/p>\n

Hmm. Okay.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

From<\/strong>: Fred
\nTo<\/strong>: Me<\/p>\n

Does \u201cHmm\u201d mean you disagree or does it mean you are ok with the rationale?<\/p>\n

Sometimes it\u2019s hard to read your responses both in email and IM when they include prefaces such as this.\u00a0 Maybe if I had a translation of each? \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

Hmm
\nHrm
\nRrg<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

From<\/strong>: Me
\nTo<\/strong>: Fred<\/p>\n

Hmmmm …<\/p>\n

Hmm –> “I’m considering what you said.”
\nHrm –> “I’m considering what you said, but I’m not thrilled about it.”*
\nRrg –> “Unhappy” (see, also, “Ugh,” though “Rrg” has a bit more of a growling, tooth-grinding\u00a0tone.)<\/p>\n

So “Hmm. Okay” means, “I see your point. That’s fine.”<\/p>\n

“Hrm. Okay” would mean, “I see your point, aren’t in full agreement, but I acquiesce for the moment.”<\/p>\n

“Rrg. Okay” would mean, “Damn, I really wanted another answer, but if you say so …”<\/p>\n

I’ll try to be a bit more clear.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

*I’ve been using this since Rorschach, by the way. Not that I was going to explain that to Fred.<\/p>\n

From<\/strong>: Fred
\nTo<\/strong>: Me<\/p>\n

Perfect, this is very useful!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

From<\/strong>: Me
\nTo<\/strong>: Suzie, Bob
\nCc<\/strong>: Fred<\/p>\n

I’m fwding this on to the team, just because it might be useful to you guys, too.\u00a0 I don’t try to be cryptic, but clearly I’ve not always communicated as clearly as I thought I was.\u00a0 That being the case, great feedback from Fred, and, hopefully, a “key” for you guys.<\/p>\n

I should have also added:<\/p>\n

“Huh.” –> “Well, that’s interesting, though not necessarily in a particularly pleasing way.”\u00a0Less disgruntled than “Hrm.”\u00a0 \ud83d\ude42<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I offer this up, not just for its amusement value, or even stylistic\u00a0 understanding of the things I write, but because it really did not occur to me that these little “noises” were causing any level of confusion.\u00a0 I thought it was perfectly clear, as though I were saying them aloud (and the recipient would be able to figure it out from my tone of voice, etc.).\u00a0 And nobody had ever asked me to explain before …<\/p>\n

It’s always good to get that perspective<\/a> on ourselves and our assumptions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Communication — it’s important! A series of emails between me and one of my direct reports, Fred: From: Me To: Fred Hmm. Okay. From: Fred To: Me Does \u201cHmm\u201d mean you disagree or does it mean you are ok with the rationale? Sometimes it\u2019s hard to read your responses both in email and IM when … Continue reading “Hmm, Hrm, Rrg, and other grunts I make”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[21,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-job-jollies","category-writing-and-language"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":15657,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/08\/27\/tweets-from-2009-08-27.html","url_meta":{"origin":19487,"position":0},"title":"Tweets from 2009-08-27","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 27-Aug-09 11:30pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Rewatched S1 \"Leverage\" premiere with Margie last night. She enjoyed, I re-enjoyed. Hope to get rest of DVD set into regular TV rotation. # Action-packed weekend starts tonight as @meoswell arrives. Should be fun visit. Still need to tidy before she gets here. # Cryptic is offering the original #ChampionsOnline\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~Tweets"","block_context":{"text":"~Tweets","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/tweets"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9446,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/07\/06\/the_dangers_of.html","url_meta":{"origin":19487,"position":1},"title":"The dangers of being distracted first thing in the morning","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 6-Jul-06 6:32am","format":false,"excerpt":"Doing about twenty things at once, first thing in the morning,\u00a0can be hazardous.\u00a0 Especially when folks are pinging you for information in IM. Fred: Hi Dave - Me: Morning. Fred:...","rel":"","context":"In "Job Jollies"","block_context":{"text":"Job Jollies","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/job-jollies"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6760,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/01\/06\/katherine_x.html","url_meta":{"origin":19487,"position":2},"title":"Katherine X","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 6-Jan-05 11:39am","format":false,"excerpt":"Okay, home sick today (rrg), watching the Star Trek Season 1 DVD set I got from my folks (thanks, guys!). Strip out the \"love-sick adolescence\" bit, and Katherine behaves a...","rel":"","context":"In "Media & Culture"","block_context":{"text":"Media & Culture","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7428,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/03\/08\/so_so_so_busy.html","url_meta":{"origin":19487,"position":3},"title":"So … so … so … busy","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 8-Mar-05 8:25am","format":false,"excerpt":"Rrg. And, rrg. This SOx stuff is a monster. Plus there's a VP bugging me for a deliverable. Plus my boss is bugging me for a bunch of stuff for...","rel":"","context":"In "Job Jollies"","block_context":{"text":"Job Jollies","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/job-jollies"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8437,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/11\/17\/i_hate_it_when.html","url_meta":{"origin":19487,"position":4},"title":"I hate it when I’m not only not right, but actually wrong","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 17-Nov-05 12:52pm","format":false,"excerpt":"This morning, Tom came up to me. \"Ellen said I should give you this.\" He handed me a piece of paper -- the cover sheet off Fred's review, with my...","rel":"","context":"In "Job Jollies"","block_context":{"text":"Job Jollies","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/job-jollies"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4591,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/08\/02\/here_let_me_pic.html","url_meta":{"origin":19487,"position":5},"title":"Here, let me pick at that wound for you","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 2-Aug-03 7:23am","format":false,"excerpt":"Rrg. On a mailing list I'm on, someone in the UK is just discovering that Firefly has been cancelled. Rrg....","rel":"","context":"In "Firefly \/ Serenity"","block_context":{"text":"Firefly \/ Serenity","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/franchises\/media-tv-fireflyserenity"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19487"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19487\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}