When John comes to me to ask
about a raise, he has only one way of being direct--he can
say, 'I'd like a raise.' He has a thousand ways of being
indirect. He can talk about the cost of living, family
problems, his excellent work record, the threat of
unionization, the raise just given to someone else and so
forth.
There are as many was of
being indirect as there are people and occasions for
communicating. There is usually only one way of being
direct. The best rule of thumb is to assume that someone
is talking about something else and try to figure out what
that is. If a person is being direct a few checks will
verify that. If a person is being indirect, responding
to the first thing they say will only confuse matters.
