Dear Snarky
I started a new position at work and now I supervise a woman who not only has a high-pitched voice, which I could deal with IF she didn’t constantly use baby talk, and refer to herself in the third person. It’s killing me! At first I wanted to get her fired, but it turns out she’s great at her job. Do I tell her that her voice is like fingernails on a chalkboard or do I just start wearing earplugs. It’s making me hate my job.
Signed, No Baby Talk
Dear Talk,
Ohhh my, you poor litttttle bwwba. Sorry that was mean, but I couldn’t help myself. My advice is immediately check with human resources because I’m pretty sure talking about yourself in the third person should be a fireable offense. Okay, okay, I know it’s not, BUT it should be – just saying.
Enough kidding around here’s the deal – you’re in a tough situation. As her brand new supervisor I don’t think you can tell her to start using her big girl voice in the office. That’s not going to go over well and as soon as you open that can of worms everything might become very uncomfortable. This employee could even has a speech disability. (Although that doesn’t explain the baby talk or the love of the 3rd person.)
So because she does her job well I would do the time-honored office maneuver known as making her not your problem. Promote her, transfer her, do whatever you can to get her to another part of building and hopefully someone that’s higher up and more established on the office food chain can have a serious sit down with her about maturing her vernacular.
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