Melanie Page

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…

“They are people who take and hold a generous and neighborly view of self-preservation; they do not believe that they can survive and flourish by the rule of dog eat dog . . . They know that work ought to be necessary; it ought to be good; it ought to be satisfying and dignifying to…