Workplace communication — from efficient meetings to water-cooler small talk — can make or break an employee's experience in the office. Geography, perhaps surprisingly, plays a role here: From the slower, stress-averse culture of southern regions to the passive-aggressive stereotypes of tech hubs and large northern cities, which locales are culturally set up for communication success?
Poor workplace communication has caused one in six Americans to quit a job, according to research from online language platform Preply. And 73% of employees would rather work through lunch rather than engage in mindless office small talk, according to the company's survey, which asked full- and part-time workers across America to share insight and opinions on the way their office engages. Preply then analyzed those patterns by local community and ranked cities' troubling miscommunication on a scale of 0-100.
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Some places achieved a healthier level of office chatter than others. Kansas City, Missouri, for example, was ranked as the city with the best workplace communication, with one in three Kansas City residents saying it's "excellent," according to Preply. Dallas followed close behind, where nearly 10% of respondents said they never feel stressed at work due to communication.
Austin, Texas, on the other hand, topped Preply's list of cities with the worst workplace communication followed by Detroit and Philadelphia. Things like passive-aggressive conversations at work — often triggered by stress — can cause strain among employees and an increase in informal language at work such as less professional email greetings and signoffs can also contribute to poor communication.
See which other cities made Preply's list for the best and worst workplace communication:
