Barriers of Communication

Barriers of communication can be an ongoing issue in a workplace and in personal life. Some of the most noteworthy barriers are bypassing, differing frames of reference, lack of language or listening skills, emotional interference, and physical distractions. Once the barriers are examined the process of determining the best way to overcome them can begin.

In a past workplace the barriers that existed were bypassing, lack of language or listening skills, emotional interference, and physical distractions. Some examples of these barriers are; bypassing happened by the employer asking an employee to clean up the greenhouse plants and throw out anything that looked dead. The employee threw out everything they felt was dead. The employer was extremely upset and didn’t want anything yellow thrown out as she felt they would come back with some fertilizer. Lack of language or listening skills and emotional interference happened frequently, one example is several employees were very distracted by personal life issues and did not take in all the instructions from the employer. Distractions also happened regularly. The employer also did not listen to the employees because she was interrupted with work and personal phone calls. Techniques to overcome these barriers are to ask questions and make sure everyone is understood. The employer showing the employee what they consider dead could have avoided the bypassing barrier or the employee could have asked for a more detailed explanation of what they consider dead. If employees are having a hard time overcoming listening skills and emotional interference, it could be avoided by making sure instructions are heard by repeating them in their own words or taking some personal time off. Turning off phones and closing the office door so interruptions are less likely can avoid distractions.
If everyone works together to analyze the issues surrounding communication barriers it makes it easier to identify them and find the reasons