Talking from 9 to 5

Talking from 9 to 5: How Women's and Men's Conversational Styles Affect Who Gets Heard, Who
Gets Credit, and What Gets Done at Work by Deborah Tannen
Format: Paperback, 368pp.
SBN: 0380717832
Publisher: Avon Books
Pub. Date: August 1995

From barnesandnoble.com
Examining communication in office settings, this book explores the implications of hierarchical relations and how conversational style differences are influenced by such factors as gender, ethnicity, geography, class, & personality. The author presents information that will have a dramatic impact on those who are struggling with co-workers, jobs, & companies, and will help individuals as well as companies thrive in a working world made up of increasingly diverse work forces & ever more competitive markets. Filled with real-life examples of speaking styles. —Our Bargain Book Editors

Synopsis
The bestselling author of You Just Don't Understand and That's Not What I Meant enters the realm of the workplace and shows readers how they are too often foreigners to each other. Tannen maintains that there is no one style of speaking that is superior in all situations, fully recognizing that differences in gender, ethnicity, geography, class, and personality effect communication in the workplace.

From The Publisher:
You say something at a meeting, it is ignored, then someone else says the same thing and everyone embraces it as a marvelous idea. You devote yourself to a project, but don't get credit for the results. You work around the clock to avoid a crisis, but your efforts are not recognized because no one notices a crisis that never occurs. You give what you think are clear instructions, but the job is not done, or is done wrong. Sometimes it seems you are not getting heard, not getting credit for your efforts, not getting ahead as fast as you should. Many of us spend more of our lives at work than we do at home, yet while we choose our life-partners and friends, at work we are thrown together with people we did not choose, some of whom we don't understand and may not even like. In Talking from 9 to 5, Deborah Tannen brings to the workplace the same compelling voice, keen eye, and deep insight that made That's Not What I Meant! and You Just Don't Understand best-selling classics. Here, she offers powerful new ways of understanding what happens in the workplace, ranging from the simplest exchanges to the complex contemporary issues of the glass ceiling and sexual harassment. Work is a special world because as we talk to get our jobs done, we are also being evaluated. How we get others to do what we want, and how we accept or avoid responsibility for mistakes, display or challenge authority, reveal or conceal what we don't know - all affect how we are regarded and rewarded. Individuals in positions of authority are judged by how they enact that authority. This poses a particular challenge for women, since the ways that women are expected to talk are at odds with our usual images of authority. Women at work often have ways of creating authority that can be misinterpreted as a lack of confidence or even competence. Tannen maintains that no one style of speaking is superior. She does not tell women to speak like men or men to speak like women. Instead, she explains a variet

From Library Journal:
Tannen (You Just Don't Understand, Morrow, 1990) describes differences in men's and women's public communication as found within the business setting. These differences appear to influence actual perceptions of worker skills and abilities. For example, women say "I'm sorry" without actually apologizing and tend to use an indirect manner of speech. These styles make women appear less confident, competent, and professional. However, women who learn to speak like men are accused of being aggressive and unfeminine. Written for the general reader, Tannen's work is entertaining and filled with illustrative conversations. It raises many issues of concern to working women, from knocking against the glass ceiling to dealing with sexual harassment. Unfortunately, Tannen's research has not yet suggested any linguistic solutions. Highly recommended for general public and academic libraries. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 6/15/94.]-Kathy Shimpock-Vieweg, O'Connor Cavanagh Lib., Phoenix

From Derek Bickerton - The New York Times Book Review:
{This book} draws on studies by a number of sociolinguists, but its core is Ms. Tannen's own research. . . . The results of that research, expressed inher lively and straightforward style, provide a novel and sometimes startlinganalysis of workplace dynamics. . . . Ms. Tannen shows clearly that differences in speech styles do not always correlate neatly with sex: many types of verbal behavior . . . are shared by women and subordinate men alike. . . . {This work} is not without weaknesses. Ms. Tannen sometimes strays from her theme: much of her material, like her discussion of clothes and her chapter on sexual harassment, has little to do with language and has already been said by other writers. She is aware that additional factors, like ethnicity, can affect speech behavior, but she does not always take such factors sufficiently into account. These defects, though, do not seriously detract from a book that everyone who has ever apologized needlessly, snapped at a subordinate or withered from lack of praise should surely read.

From Publisher's Weekly - Publishers Weekly:
This wise and widely informative book fulfills its promise to do for the workplace what Tannen's You Just Don't Understand has done for the home front-heighten the reader's perception of the ways in which gender, power structures and cultural constraints affect communication. Basing her discussion on extensive interviews with workers, managers and executives at a range of businesses, Tannen identifies-and decodes-various conversational ``rituals.'' For example, women tend to use the words ``I'm sorry'' as an ``expression of understanding-and caring''; but men generally interpret ``I'm sorry'' as an acceptance of blame. Tannen demonstrates that women, conditioned in childhood not to sound too self-confident, are likely to issue orders or implement plans indirectly (and therefore don't receive full recognition for their work); men, conditioned not to sound uncertain, may perceive requests for feedback as an admission of weakness. Offering clear explanations of various conversational ``styles,'' Tannen passes few judgments; rather, she offers readers a wider variety of strategies to express themselves. Filled with gracefully analyzed examples of job-related conversations, every page delivers a shock of recognition. Major ad/promo; author tour. (Oct.)

From The Reader's Catalog:
A fascinating look at the subtleties of speech and how it may affect your job as well as your relationships

Table of Contents
Preface
A Note on Notes and Transcription
1 Women and Men Talking on the Job
2 "I'm Sorry, I'm Not Apologizing": Conversational Rituals
3 "Why Don't You Say What You Mean?": Indirectness at Work
4 Marked: Women in the Workplace
5 The Glass Ceiling
6 "She's the Boss": Women and Authority
7 Talking Up Close: Status and Connection
8 What's Sex Got to Do with It?
9 Who Gets Heard?: Talking at Meetings
Afterword
Notes
References

EMPATHY

Textbooks

Supplementary books