John's Blog

I started a new job with a new company about 3 weeks ago. This new job has its technical challenges as well as it communication challenges. I struggle most with the communication problem because the team is spread out in 3 different states and they love to communicate by phone. We have 3 conference calls weekly where up to 10 people will join the call. Half of them are Indian with very strong accents. These calls are utterly impossible for me to participate in.

Next step was Captel phone, a phone that displays text with help of automated voice recognition and human relay person. It works quite well one on one with someone who speaks good English. But wow, was it a joke with out conference calls. Much of the conversations were incomplete sentences and {Speaker Unclear} that it was not much of an improvement. It was also unsuccessful using the phone one on one with one of the Indians. It is hopeless.

I just hope being able to do my job is enough, despite the fact that I am part of a team I can hardly communicate with. I am trying to get them using the instant messenger instead of the phone. They use it but are slow to adapt and I hope with time that will change.