In reading Elizabeth Wardles “Identity, Authority, and Learning to Write in New Workplaces”, I realized that it’s so interesting to realize just how people tend to adapt to their new work places. Wardle focuses on a story about a man named Alan. Alan is a computer specialist. He chose not to learn to write in the way that his new job deemed as appropriate. This caused for his co-workers to not see him as an important member of their community. Alan’s co workers saw him as someone who simply made getting their work done easier. His emails and such weren’t taken serious because they weren’t written in ways that the company was used to. Alan knew that he was viewed as the “help” at his job. His sense of this showed up in the way he wrote emails.
After reading about Alan I can pinpoint someone in my life who reminds me of him. This person is administration at my current place of work. Now, what they haven’t adapted to is how to speak to parents. Just like Alan, they have yet to adapt to their discourse community. Their body language and tone is off and it shifts the mood of the parent. Now, we have an upset parent that still hasn’t been able to resolve the solution to their problem and
Finally, after seeing them do this multiple times, I asked why they chose to speak to parents the way they do. I brought to their attention that they don’t make eye contact and are kind of dismissive. Then, I was told that parents are even asking to speak directly to our director instead of them first. In general, it goes to show that not adapting can be detrimental to how we are seen in our place of employment.
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