Loquacious

It has recently been suggested to me that I give people in general too much credit for being intelligent and that I use big words. This reminds me of a personal story.

In the winter of 1991 I had sent my resume to a head hunting firm in Cincinnati, Ohio on a blind ad. The firm was prestigious by all accounts. I received a call from the top dog himself, he was handling the screening process because the client was a close friend. Mr. Hunter, that's what will call him, gave a brief description of the management position in question and asked if I understood the general concepts of team management as the client was restructuring his company. I said yes, the 80's and early nineties were plagued with Japanese style team management, but I didn't tell him how much I despised the concepts. Mr. Hunter was sufficiently impressed to want a face to face. He said he would come to Indianapolis and we could meet in his lawyer's offices downtown.

A few days later high in a skyscraper we met. The office was plush and Mr. Hunter well dressed and of middle age. About three quarters into our conversation Hunter said he was concerned about whether I would be able to communicate with my employees because my vocabulary was at a high level and many of those who would be working for me had very little education. I responded," pardon me, are you serious? That is without a doubt the stupidest thing I have ever heard. We are sitting in your high priced lawyers office in a prestigious building and you're wearing a thousand dollar suit, I was under the impression that you were literate and treated you accordingly. The word you are struggling to find is called communication and it is adjusted as needed to suit the environment. I assure you I can communicate at any level required. If you would like we can go down to the street and I will give it to you loud and dirty and you'll have no confusion about what I'm saying."

This surely should have been the end of it, but it wasn't. Two interviews later I would however tell the client and Mr. Hunter what I thought of them and their complete lack of professionalism and silly ass notions about how to run a company.

Captain Verbosity strikes again!