Why is everyone away with the fairies?

I suspect if everyone you interact with these days is not responding well to you then you are the common denominator

I only part listen now at work.

I just can’t be arsed to bring 50% of myself to work, let alone “my whole self”.

I voted yanbu.

I have noticed this too op and it’s infuriating.

Yes there might be reasons for the examples you gave, and yes we all make mistakes. But it seems to be all the time, people just don’t listen and don’t read things properly, if at all.

It sounds maddening if it happens all the time.

But your example could easily just have been a overworked person, not hearing exactly what you said, and just automatically saying yes. It does happen. Maybe that driver is hard of hearing? English not first language? Having a bad day? Or maybe he really isn't very good at communicating.

It seems like there are many people like this in your workplace.

I think they struggle to recruit patient transport drivers. My family member uses them and they keep switching companies. They routinely get lost and take him to a different branch of the place despite regular pleas that it's not the right location. Literally diverting the 20 mins journey to two hours!

So yeah it is annoying. But I also do think nobody's perfect.

They are unlikely to be having the same experience with the same people. You are having issues communicating with several different people you meet through work. Unless several of your colleagues have experienced similar, you do need to at least consider you are failing to communicate effectively.

Do you speak quickly, or quietly? Do you fail to make sure you’ve got someone’s attention before you start talking to them? Are you not wording your questions well? (As PP said, instead of asking “have you got Mr Smith?” Which potentially could be misheard, swap to “which patient do you have?” )

Clearly what you are doing isn’t working. That other people aren’t experiencing this suggests not a universal problem, so either you are very unlucky, or you need to at least consider you are the problem.

Honestly yes.. It feels like nobody actually takes anything in anymore. You can say something clearly and it just evaporates out of their heads.

That bit about the lighter in the shop reminded me of another post where a couple at the checkout found they had no cash, cards or phones on them. They couldn't pay, buried an apology in their excuses, and did not offer any solutions (like coming back later or replacing the items). They swore at the assistant as they left. Their post was to complain that the assistant was offhand in response!

I’ll probably get roasted for this but some of the nurses where I work are thick as shit. It’s fucking scary I’ve seen countless number of things that make me genuinely concerned for patient safety and I wouldn’t recommend my place of work to anyone requiring treatment

Two words: social media.

And yes, here we are posting online...

Absolutely
When someone asks on what's app for examples about something already discuss on the same what's app chat.. I scroll back up.. screen shot and circle the relevant bit and send it back.
Passive aggressive i know but calls out their "ditziness " .
Too many people want spoon feed.

Fwiw - I’m autistic and the “I’m communicating clearly but being constantly misunderstood” situation is common for autistic people. As a third option / explanation.

I used to do a job that involved dealing with and answering customers’ complaints by email. After a while I was always given the ‘repeat customers’ who emailed again because their problem had not been dealt with. It drove me mad how few of my colleagues read and understood the initial problem. It used to make me think that reading comprehension must not be taught very well in schools!

Ok- perhaps you communicate perfectly and sadly are surrounded by people who are incapable of working out what you are asking even though you are asking in the most clear way possible. Perhaps the questions you ask, the volume and the speed are perfect for being understood and you are just unlucky that you are the only person who keeps having to interact with people who don’t listen.

or perhaps you are like @Cantbloodyrememberthenameonthreadwho’s described an interaction that went wrong in the supermarket where she was very clearly in the wrong, yet convinced it’s the other persons fault. (Generally understood you don’t get in the queue to pay until you’ve gathered all the things you want to buy, also understood if the law says you need to be over a certain age to buy a product, staff will ask for ID, and a sensible person who was able to think through their plans in advance would make sure they had ID on them when trying to buy an age restricted item. Unless she’s missed a massive bit out of that story, it’s pretty clear she was the one in the wrong.)

People are either on their phones, or impatient to get back to their phones, so not paying attention.

I hear you OP!!

I feel like sometimes I’m walking around in an episode of the walking dead…… so many zombies!! Vacant expressions, grunts in response to anything…….

I definitely blame technology and the ability to mindlessly doom scroll. I’m convinced half the time when you see people scrolling on their phones (instagram and TikTok I’m looking at you) they’re not even taking the information in.

Other posters have also nailed it…… “but I’m bombarded with information, I can’t possibly put any effort into organising and retaining the bits I need to!”

Fine, but you realise that by asking somebody else you are expecting them to do the EXACT THING that you can’t be bothered to do?

Yesterday DH had something in his hand that he had just removed from the box along with the instructions. I had ordered the item online (at his request) and commented that the website said you should start using it on the lowest setting and gradually increase. Cue a million questions about which setting is the lowest? Is it this button? How do I turn it on/up?

I don’t know dear but YOU HAVE THE INSTRUCTIONS IN YOUR OTHER FUCKING HAND!!

I’ve worked 25 years now and there’s definitely been a decline in the amount of information people can take in. It’s partly why Communications is a whole career. You used to write a paper setting out an issue, background, pros and cons, detailed proposal for change. Now you come across very archaic and old fashioned. Complex issues are squashed into PowerPoints or infographics instead. Or you’d write a set of guidance for people to refer to and understand context, when now all they want is the answer to a specific question whenever they need it.

I’m sure there are many reasons for this, part information overload, part concentration spans, part self centredness. Despite claims AI is going to do everything, the world is just too complicated for the human brain and we have not had time to evolve the skills needed to deal with it.

Interpersonal skills including communicating and listening have plummeted. I had a frustrating conversation with a call centre worker recently who just would not listen and respond to the question I was actually asking. She kept going off on tangents about things I hadn't asked about even though I kept saying, 'This is the question I want answered, please tel me what is...."

It took a whole 15 minutes for me to extract the answer I wanted. I should have hung up and tried someone else.

The other thing I've noticed is Gen Z customer service people inventing an answer rather than either admit they don't know or finding out the answer.

This was a you problem. Ask a member of staff where lighters are before joining the queue. Always have your id when you know you could be asked, you knew you would be buying those things

Perhaps you don't speak very clearly or speak quite fast, and quite a lot of people have slight hearing problems that they refuse to acknowledge. On written things, people do have very short attention spans. I tend to write in bullet points if there are things I want people to really see, otherwise they tend to skim things and miss the vital bit. And of course they don't see what they don't want to see unless really forced to.

I find I miss important things my DH says because he tends to ramble on about trivial things, so I'm only vaguely listening, and then drops something in that I'm meant to remember or act on, and usually when I'm doing something else like preparing veg or sorting washing (and half watching something on the tv as well).

The OP have a communication problem with multiple people, what’s more likely, they are all “away with the fairies” - incapable of doing their jobs, or something in the way she’s communicating isn’t working. If it was just one person, then fair enough it could be a them problem, but multiple people (who manage to communicate correctly with others at work to keep their jobs) aren’t able to communicate with theOP correctly.

There is clearly something about the way she talks to people fails to get appropriate responses. Yet her conclusion is everyone else is the problem.

And then if you get exasperated being people's shortcut then you're the unreasonable one. Bleugh!!!