All the time. My new boss is a sort of force of nature. In the first place, he is a very large man – around 6 feet tall or so, and well over 350 #. Big guy. He’s also a smart guy, but he seems a bit insecure about that sometimes, so he has a mildly bullying attitude when he speaks sometimes. He doesn’t always speak with the confidence that he should have due to his experience, intelligence and position. He’ll make a statement, followed immediately by an automatic “KnowwhatImean?” He doesn’t wait for an answer to that question. So if you really don’t know what he means, or doubt the validity of the statement, you don’t have a chance to say so, because he’s onto the next didactic, sometimes challenging statement – and if if looks like you’re going to voice a question, a doubt or a disagreement, then he starts talking louder, faster and more forcefully, and with shorter pauses after the “Y’knowwhatImean?” And so on. A “conversation” with him can be exhausting.
I’ve learned to go blankface on him when he carries on like that and I do have doubts or questions, let him blow out whatever he wants to get out, and then go back to the first question on the first statement – which forces the conversation back to where I wanted it to pause in the first place. (And he might be learning to enable proper conversational pauses, natural expressions of doubt and disagreement where appropriate, and a better give-and-take, or he’s wasting a lot of time saying things multiple times – and getting no better results. Of course, the question had better be a good one, or the response can be withering! But it’s all good.)
It’s highly entertaining sometimes to watch him speak to someone else who’s just as forceful, just as sure of himself, and just as determined to be heard first. (I watched one of those this morning, actually, so this is fresh in my mind.) Just as pigheaded? I didn’t say that! It’s like watching two bull moose butting heads, but with word flows, not horns. They each start to speak faster and more loudly, and neither of them hears the other’s excellent points. It would be a good place to walk away, but it’s like watching a train wreck. Who walks away from a good train wreck – at least when you’re not standing next to the track?