it is not just Tumblr that has reading comprehension problems. Tumblr users, in my experience, are the most likely people to actually read and mostly comprehend any long text they encounter. Nowhere near 100%, of course, but higher than any other general cohort of people.

in my experience, the least likely end of that spectrum is occupied by bosses and coworkers whom you’ve just sent an email that is vitally important that they read and understand.

but i still don’t call this a reading comprehension problem.

because their comprehension is equally abysmal whether you try to communicate with them in writing or vocally.

so I’m an overnight pharmacy technician. We work 10-hour shifts, which can range from slow to wildly busy. So any possible staffing decision will seem both understaffed (when it’s busy) and overstaffed (when it’s not). Currently they’ve been going with 1 pharmacist and 1 or 2 technicians depending on the time of night.

As long as there’s enough downtime, we can take bathroom breaks and eat and drink at our desks and whatever else we need. And each one of us also gets one “real” break, 30 minutes to use the tiny little back office as a private breakroom.

For technicians, we usually get that whole 30-minute break without interruptions. But the pharmacist gets interrupted on his break a lot, because sometimes a patient comes to the front and needs a pharmacist, and there’s only one of him.

I was talking about this with another technician (whose prior experience was in the military, and she seemed to use that as a baseline for what sorts of conditions people should tolerate at work). We were on the topic of required minimum pharmacist staffing, and I asked something like, “so… does the legal requirement for at least 2 pharmacists get waived for overnight shift because we don’t have the payroll for it?”

And she said, “no, the requirement is just that there’ll be one pharmacist on duty at all times, not necessarily two.”

And I said, “but what about when he’s on break? Then there isn’t any pharmacist on duty unless he’s interrupted. So… is the legal requirement for uninterrupted breaks the thing that gets waived for overnight, then?”

And my colleague goes, “no, that hasn’t been waived, what are you talking about?” like she’s only half listening to me.

and, still trying to understand, I said, “so… then does that mean we’re technically breaking the law?”

and for one moment, i could feel her eyes and ears suddenly laser-focus on me.

like I had hit on the exact words of some sleeper-agent trigger that awakened The Cop in her head, now training absolutely every faculty on me, because I was about to Admit to A Crime, or Testify that someone I knew was Committing A Crime, and this now required her Absolute Full Attention…

and she said “what? what do you mean”

and I said, “…well, because the pharmacist is legally required to be on duty the whole night, but he’s also legally required to have an uninterrupted 30-minute break, and by having only one pharmacist we are not complying with those laws…?”

And she goes, “Oh. Oh, yeah, that's… unfortunate… but yeah, with only one pharmacist that’s how it happens.”

And then I could feel how she instantly dropped all that focus– like she realized the Discovery Of A Crime was all a false alarm. This wasn’t about breaking laws that mattered, it was about breaking laws that didn’t matter, and it was so very palpable, the sense of her relegating it to that category and immediately losing interest.

and this is how conversations go at workplaces. Listening… hearing comprehension… they just don’t exist, not to the extent that I used to assume they do. People are in their own worlds, and those worlds are sometimes galaxies apart.