Gender Differences in Workplace Conversation and Future Skills

Gender and Conversation in the Workplace

An employee hears that a critical order may arrive late. "I'm sorry," she says when reporting this fact to her manager. The delay is not her fault — she is merely the bearer of bad news — but the manager assumes that the woman's apology means she is at least partly to blame for the unfortunate occurrence. According to Talking from 9 to 5 by Deborah Tannen, this apologetic approach is a typical "female" style of expressing concern or sympathy. The employee may merely wish to convey that she is empathetically sorry that things are not going as planned, even though she has nothing to do with the matter, but the male manager interprets this gentle verbal gesture as a sign of weakness. In contrast, a male employee in the same situation might make a joke about the incompetence of the supplier, which conveys the same information but does not place himself at fault.

Men often approach conversation as a power game — a way of demonstrating one-upmanship. In the traditionally competitive sphere of the American workplace, this has placed the male style of self-expression at a distinct advantage over the female style. "I have information and you do not; therefore I am superior in the hierarchy" is the implicit message behind a male employee's use of information in a meeting, or even his citing of obscure sports scores that the other party is unaware of. Both behaviors use verbal dominance and factual superiority as a kind of friendly power play.

Report Talk vs. Rapport Talk

Rather than conveying information or asserting power, women more frequently use conversation as a means of relating. Saying "I'm sorry" indicates that the speaker feels another's pain; saying "I really like those shoes — where did you get them?" shows mutual interest and approval while expressing genuine curiosity. In these exchanges, the information itself is less important than the dialogue that takes place. Tannen calls this the difference between classically male report talk — conversation oriented around conveying facts and establishing status — and the emphasis on rapport talk characteristic of women's speech.

Women often acknowledge mutual or individual weaknesses to build community, and problem-solving is not always the primary goal of the exchange. This is not to say that such conversational styles cannot be used by women to show dominance in a power relationship. Between themselves, women may employ a kind of "one-downmanship" — "oh, these old shoes" — either to reinforce social bonds or as a form of implicit superiority that is far less direct than male styles of displaying conversational power.

Skilled Labor Shortages in the United States

According to Workforce 2020 by Richard W. Judy and Carol D'Amico, a profound skilled-labor shortage is likely to emerge within the United States in the coming decades. The increased demands of globalization placed on U.S. businesses, combined with the more technologically sophisticated requirements of white-collar occupations, means that American businesses will need to cast their nets farther afield to remain competitive with other major industrial powers. As the population continues to age and highly skilled workers retire — or lack the desire or ability to acquire new technical skills — businesses will need to draw on other populations to fill vacated roles, including skilled immigrant labor and outsourced workers.

Judy and D'Amico also identify seniors as an underexploited resource of potential talent in service jobs and a variety of other professions requiring part-time, conscientious employees with a solid skills base. At the foundation of their concern about America's future is the need for all workers to possess more sophisticated basic skills — though their overall assessment is far from pessimistic. In brief, they argue that a more creative approach to human resource management is necessary, or the United States risks falling behind its major competitors and failing to maximize its potential as a nation.

Conclusion

The collapse of major American automotive companies such as GM and Ford, coupled with the meteoric rise of technology corporations such as Microsoft and Google in the U.S. marketplace, underlines the essential truths of Workforce 2020. The shift away from traditional manufacturing toward knowledge- and technology-intensive industries confirms that technical fluency, adaptability, and ongoing education are not optional — they are prerequisites for national economic competitiveness. Perhaps the workforce transformation described by Judy and D'Amico will occur even more quickly than the authors originally projected.