Got told my handwritten notes were 'too messy' by a coworker and it stung

I was in a meeting last Tuesday at my office in Austin and passing around my notebook for a project plan. A guy I barely know looked at it and said 'Wow, you really need to slow down or something, this is hard to read.' It felt rude but he wasn't wrong. I've always scribbled fast and used abbreviations only I understand. So I started using a finer tip pen and leaving more space between lines. Also switched to bullet points instead of writing full sentences. Now I can actually read my own notes a week later and it saves me time when I go back to find stuff. Has anyone else gotten feedback that changed how you do something simple?

3 comments

3 Comments

jennifer_jenkins21h ago

So I had this office manager once who told me my emails were too informal, like starting with "hey" instead of "hi" and using lol in work messages. I thought she was just being stuck up at first but then I realized I was missing important details cause people wouldn't take my messages serious. Started putting a subject line and actual greeting on stuff and it weirdly made my life easier cause people actually read the whole thing instead of skimming. Now I'm that person who gets annoyed when someone sends a one word reply to a work email cause it feels lazy. The pen thing you did sounds smart honestly, I might try that since my handwriting looks like a doctor's prescription too.

ericj4520h ago

Wait, people actually don't read whole emails just because you said "hey" instead of "hi"? That's wild to me. I figured that was just office manager nitpicking, not that folks were literally skimming past important stuff.

adamr1419h ago

Yeah @jennifer_jenkins totally nailed it. Once I started copying the tone of whoever I'm emailing, suddenly people actually read my stuff instead of skipping over it.