Melanie Page

On Sunday, April 13th, I thought I was taking a local St. Louis, Missouri, interpreter out to lunch as a thank you to her for all the time she’s invested in me. When I arrived, she was there holding a big rainbow balloon. For me. And said not everyone was there yet. And people kept…

D. Tannen (1994) is slowly making me angrier with Talking from 9 to 5: Men and Women in the Workplace, because I am digging into all these memories of watching my parents’ dynamic, both at home and with their colleagues, and how poorly they fit in. My dad could not stand working with other men…

D. Tannen (1994) explained in Talking from 9 to 5: Men and Women at Work that women in her studies did not notify their superiors of their accomplishments. Today, we are in the perfect position to look at how “tooting your own horn” is perceived by the masses. When former President Donald Trump says that…

Before reading chapter four in D. Tannen’s (1994) book Talking from 9 to 5: Men and Women at Work, I had never heard of women being “marked” and men having the privilege of being “unmarked” (p. 109). It is easy to notice the variety in women’s clothing, which, for some of us, makes it hard…

Tannen’s (1994) third chapter in Talking from 9 to 5: Men and Women at Work did not make me nearly as bristly as chapter two because she presented a nuanced look at the pros and cons of directness and indirectness and their use with both men and women. Thus, I had to think harder about…

D. Tannen’s (1994) second chapter in Talking from 9 to 5: Men and Women at Work left me feeling bristly. Communication norms I saw my mom navigate in the 1990s in her office seemed just plain stupid to me. For instance, Tannen mentioned the complaint sessions women feel it is normal to engage in that…

D. Tannen’s (1994) book Talking from 9 to 5: Men and Women at Work addressed a time that preceded a major shift in how we communicate. When this book was published in 1994, we had cell phones, but not in the ubiquitous way we do now, nor did most people have in-home internet. Because information…

At the end of every semester, whether I was teaching or learning, I’ve developed depression and a stress rash, and sometimes a seized-up back. I recall laying on the floor at Christmas because it hurt to move. Not only does illness related to the hard stop at the end of a semester destress me, it…