Empathy

I had an interesting night at work. I was told to do some stacking while my partner would load the trucks and do the unloads. Now from my perspective this made sense to me however I wasn't able to communicate this to my partner effectively. She was very upset with me because of my lack of communication. I was unable to resolve this because she was no longer talking to me. So I went over in my mind the conversations we had and I am starting to see how I made a mistake. She was not present for my talk with the supervisor so was not made aware of the goals for the evening. I did not communicate with her effectively enough to clear up this misunderstanding. She spent the rest of the night upset with me and did not talk with me further. What I should have done was make myself clearer on our instructions from the supervisor so she would have know the same goals as I knew them to be.
Going forward from here I have to have another conversation with her and clear the air so she knows why I made the decisions I did that night. I knew she was mad so did not antagonize her until she was able to cool down. It did not happen last night so I'll have to wait for Tuesday to give it another try. By blogging about this It has helped me see the part I played in our misunderstanding. I usually beat myself up over these disagreements but I now see the argument in a clearer light. I did not communicate all the information I had with her and because of this she was offended by what looked to her as a lack of empathy i did not have for her. The silence was our saving grace so as not to further offend each other with harsh words that are not needed.Now I need to go to her and explain further the miscommunication we had so I can work with her again.
Thank you for letting me share this with you all. I hope this makes me better at communicating with people because I did not mean to offend her yet I did. So my bad I will try to do better in the future and watch my words more carefully.
Sifu Jeannette Langner