Interpersonal Skills Stack Exchange
Interpersonal Skills Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [written-interaction]

Questions about using written medium to interact with people. This includes note, text, chat, email, and letter.

17 questions
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17 answers

How to let tech support subtly know that I am proficient without showing off?

I manage a couple of small websites for friends and family as their admin, ranging from installing wordpress to full-stack web development. In this position I often have to contact the support of hosting companies or domain providers because some…
Wolter
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3 answers

How can I assert my domain knowledge, while signalling openness to useful information, over email?

My current project at work is part of a product that many people use internally, with an active email list for user feedback. I recently pushed out a rather visible change and unsurprisingly someone started a thread on the list with some feedback. I…
Em C
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2 answers

How to inform my family of my child's new gender identity?

As an extension to this question, my daughter was very relieved when I offered to talk to my family for her. My husband thought of having a brunch with our kids not in attendance. I thought of doing an online meeting (Zoom etc.). Now I've come…
SnappingShrimp
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11
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4 answers

Love Confession by Personally Handing Over Handwritten Letter

There is a person I've met at the workplace who I've become interested in since I was introduced to on my first day at work. The development of our relationship was slow due to being in a different department but we eventually got close enough to…
josephting
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10
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4 answers

How to tell when a girl friend is not a girlfriend?

As a non-native English user, I sometimes have difficulty determining when someone mention "girl friend" really means girlfriend in a romantic relationship. Related post in ELU Does “girlfriend” or “boyfriend” always indicate partnership? There…
Vylix
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10
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2 answers

Why is it considered bad form to break up with someone over written text?

I am autistic and, when I was a teenager (10 years ago), I had always heard that it was "rude" to break up with someone over text. However, I never understood why. What's wrong with communicating by writing? Is it just that you would be deemed a…
Ael
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1 answer

How to tell someone that I'm on the autism spectrum while mitigating the risk of not been believed?

I'm on the autism spectrum. My manager knows about that but my coworkers don't. I have been working here for a little more than a year and not telling my coworkers that I'm on the spectrum is really becoming a burden for me. I feel like I'm stuck in…
Ael
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6
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1 answer

How do I encourage my literature penpal to share her opinions more?

My penpal and I have become great friends. We email about every three days, sometimes more, and in just a few months she's turned out to be one of the most positive relationships in my life. She's very polite and carefully spoken, but near as I can…
Random
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4
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5 answers

How should I explain technical things to non-technical people?

I'm a programmer who is trying to explain a concept to a non-technical person, in particular the Azure Event Hub and Big Data. I also need to explain why there is an elephant on the picture: When speaking to an audience with diverse and…
makerofthings7
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3 answers

How can I convey my sympathy to friends who have recently told me they can't have children while avoiding hurting them?

Friends of mine recently wrote me that they would really have liked to have children but unfortunately can’t. I would like to express my sympathy for them while avoiding hurting them more than they already are. I was considering something like I’m…
blue_2018
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How to have friend doing a favour sign a contract without making it look like I'm taking advantage of him?

I have a tendency to over think things, get paranoid and get anxiety when it comes to the law. I had a couple of very unfortunate experience, even one I was completely in the right going to court is a huge headache. I would like to make an…
user20887
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2 answers

Do I say 'You're Welcome' to a thank you message that would normally not require an answer?

Context I work in a company in Germany and I'm fairly new to my colleagues. Recently our team got a new boss. During a task that my boss performed he pointed out the the outcome was not to his pleasure and so I volunteered and fixed it. The next…
Webster
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1 answer

How to ask people not to send me voicemails via text messaging apps

I find listening to voicemails on Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp very time consuming. In particular, the Facebook Messenger interface doesn't let me skip in the message if most of it is irrelevant to me. People leaving a voice message tend to umm…
Tom Hale
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As a customer, how to deal with an unresponsive company representative without poisoning the relationship?

I am currently in the process of building a house, which is quite a stressful experience. The site administrator (my immediate contact person) was recently replaced. The previous administrator was a great communicator, giving me a call once a week…
LeopardSkinPillBoxHat
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1 answer

How to deal with people who annoy me by ignoring my question in text communication?

For this question, I am talking about informal texting conversation with friends, acquaintance only. Suppose I am talking to someone and they ignored my question (either intentionally or not), I feel very annoyed and insulted. Like they don't…
PoorCommuter
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