The Harangue

Source: Freedictionary.com

Have you seen the Progressive Insurance commercial with Dads’ Support Group for people who are saying and doing things their dads did?  Are you now equivalent to dad in the office?  One way you’ve become dad, that is a senior staff member, is the harangue.  You tell the history of the program, the project, when most have already heard it.  It’s true some of the new staff may not know the history and history can be important.  Staff want to move on to new programs, projects or solutions.  It just takes up a lot of time when you could be problem solving.  Millenials and GenXers, what are you seeing in the work place, vowing you’ll never say or do?  Senior staff, what are you doing that you never thought you would be doing?  Tell me about the time you…  

Are there solutions when you have someone on the way to the harangue? Sure there are.

Tactics to Challenge the Harangue

The harangue occurs when one person dominates the committee meeting, the staff meeting or just a conversation.  You’ve probably seen the Progressive Insurance commercial with the Dads’ Support Group for people who are saying and doing things their dads did?  The harangue can be interesting and useful at first, but it often takes up time, and you’ve heard it many times before.  It fails to help you solve the current problem.  Here are some things you can do.

1.  Chairs of meetings. You know the drill. Start your meeting on time and end on time.

            This works most of the time although I’ve seen the haranguer hijack meetings.  It takes a strong chair.  I chaired a meeting one time in which I suddenly jumped up and said I had to leave. I had a bus to catch.  It’s true, I did.  You might not have that extreme a need to end the meeting, but you do need to investigate questions that arose in the meeting.

2.  Attendees.  If you are an attendee to a meeting, discretely leave when the meeting should be over.  Don’t leave before the meeting is scheduled to end.

Yes, you might not want to do this if your boss is the chair, but a team meeting might be just the place.  You have to judge how others will feel about this.  Will they resent this actions and accuse you of not being a team player?

3.  Telecommuters. If the harangue is a phone conversation, dust.

            I discovered that a colleague of mine also had this tactic.  I have cleaned places I would never imagine cleaning.  The harangue sometimes contains information you do need as well as the history you’ve heard.  If someone else is home, have that person call you loudly so you can end the conversation.  Don’t use the excuse of another call on the line.  It’s rude.

4. Hallway conversations.  Continue walking. Don’t stop.  

Are there solutions if you are the one who likes to harangue.  Sorry.  We'll need to have a support group for you at work for that.

You can see the Progressive Commercial that inspired me on YouTube.
https://youtu.be/XMaIFg-gMIk