Always Feel Like You’re Missing Out? Here’s Why You Didn’t Get the Memo (Part 1)

My story: Why I didn’t get the memo

It’s a quarter to 10 on Monday morning, and I’m awakened when my phone starts going off. A notification from a coworker appears on the screen asking if I was planning on attending the 10 o’clock meeting.

A wave of panic hits… That meeting had originally been scheduled for 11. I quickly jump out of bed, wondering why my calendar didn’t alert me of the time change.

I throw on the first piece of clothing I see and dash out the door. It’s only my third day at this job and I’m already late for a big meeting. As I run to catch the bus I play the scenarios in my head of what my coworkers will think of me.

I arrive at the office at 10:00 in a frenzy, racing to make the meeting. I scroll through my calendar to find the meeting room. Conference room B. I realize I have no idea where to find the meeting room.

I still haven’t learned how to navigate the office.

To make matters worse it takes me a few minutes to find the company office map in my email. After finally finding the map I head in the direction of conference room B.

Halfway there I get a text message from my coworker saying that the manager switched the meeting to conference room F during breakfast, but hadn’t updated the event online.

At this point, I look around and realize that conference room F is at the other end of the office. It’s 10:07. Quickly I open up the map once again and scan it for the right room.

Finally, I find room F and run in the right direction. At 10:10 I arrive at the meeting huffing and puffing. Finding my seat, I sit down struggling to open my computer without making too much noise.

Ten minutes late to a huge meeting. On my third day at a new job.

All because I didn’t get the memo.

Looking back, I consider the fact that if all my digital platforms had been synced — if my calendar had updated, if the room had been updated online, if I had a map of the office easily accessible online — then I would have received the notification of the meeting changes and saved myself all the embarrassment.

Top interoffice communication fails

We live in a workspace era of contradictions. We have open workspaces, but we wear noise-canceling headphones. We have a ‘no door policy,’ however, people would rather send instant messages to the person sitting two seats down instead of having a face-to-face interaction.

It seems that the more open channels of communication we have, the less communicative we become.

Here are some of the major issues I’ve experienced:

Too many notifications

It can get overwhelming searching through all your notifications and emails to find the important ones that need immediate attention. Between group chats, company updates, and individual emails and messages, there can be a lot of notifications to go through each morning.

Onboarding malfunctions

When you still aren’t quite sure how to optimize the benefits of each platform because of a lack of digital strategy on the side of management.

Cross-platform coordination

When you don’t sync about which platforms to use for communication, or haven’t properly learned how to utilize the benefits of each platform to its full advantage it can cause a lot of confusion.

Details get lost in the back and forth

When you’re collaborating across multiple platforms, you can write something important thing in one email chain, but it often gets lost in a sea of correspondence.

The takeaway

Technology isn’t going away. It’s inevitable. Companies will continue to expect employees to leverage various digital platforms on a daily basis.

We are expected to successfully adopt to using multiple platforms a day with ease. However, the reality among many workplaces is that employees lack the knowledge to fully optimize each platform.

Often times employees struggle to master multiple digital platforms at once, which is simply overwhelming and can lead to an increase in employee frustration. This is why streamlining communication is the only answer.

The good news: if you utilize a digital adoption strategy, it’s possible to remain productive with all this information flowing at once. In an optimal scenario, one notification will suffice to notify 15 employees about significant schedule changes, instead of needing to inform each one individually.

Digital adoption platforms are used to outline the steps needed for employees to successfully learn how to use each platform.

Didn’t get the memo, part 2: We want to hear from YOU!

Why didn’t you get the memo? I’m sure that I’m not the only one who has experienced the negative consequences of poor user adoption. We’re compiling stories from readers for part 2 of this series, and we’d love to feature your stories!

Comment on this article if you’re interested in featuring your stories on “Didn’t get the memo, part 2.”