At work, I feel like whenever I speak, I'm interrupting or cross-talking (both trying to speak at the same time) - I do this multiple times a day. Every time one of us says "No, go on" and I feel a bit embarrassed, so recently I've been making more of an effort to listen.
The thing is - the more I've listened, the more I feel like I've realised that.. I'm cross-talking because nobody gives me a chance to speak?! Sometimes I will sit in a meeting of 4 and I'll just be ignored, even when I do the "Raise hand" gesture on Teams it won't be acknowledged, and nobody allows me a pause or a natural gap to join in. The other day I was in a meeting and for 20 solid minutes, the other two participants went back and forth without pausing for breath, as though I wasn't there. In the end I felt I had to say something bland to show I was still awake so I started saying "I think that's a good idea" and I was cut off 2 seconds in.
What is wrong with me? Half of me thinks there must be some magic social rule I haven't learned yet and everyone else has, because I seem to have to fight my way into conversations? But I don't experience this interrupting / crosstalking in my private life, it is just at work. And that makes me think it is more of a hierarchy thing and being unimportant and whatever. I dunno, I just hate it in myself, it's so embarrassing.