Workplace conflicts and miscommunications happen all the time. How can you protect yourself from accusations, reprimands, and other misery-causing office situations? Lifehacker’s Gina Trapani says good note-taking skills can save the day. For example:
What do butt-covering notes look like? First, all your notes should be dated. Date the top of each page and when someone makes an important statement, put a time next to it when you write it down. Dates and times become difficult to argue against when one person says one thing and you say another. Time and date specifics trump general claims in verbal arguments every time.
They say: “The other day I asked you to clean fish”
You say: “On September 15th at 9:45a.m. we did talk, yes. But you asked me to send the fish out to be cleaned—which I did. They are at the fish cleaners right now.”After you refer to your notes a couple of times, your manager and co-workers will become aware that you document everything thoroughly. In turn, they’ll rise to the occasion and communicate with you more clearly.
Because a lot of my office communication takes place via e-mail (I work in a home office, so most verbal communication is with my cat), I tend to “take notes” by filing messages in job-specific folders. But if I’m on a phone call, I’ll just type some notes in a Word document as I go. Do you have a note-taking method that works well for you? Have you ever been in a CYA situation where good notes came to the rescue? Tell us about it in the comments!
