It’s Monday morning. The team is in a meeting, discussing the tasks for the week, and everything seems to be going pretty smoothly.
“Could you take care of the presentation this week?”
“Sure, no problem.”
Perfect. Task assigned, responsibilities clarified, on to the next item. At least, that’s what the manager thinks.
On Thursday, the manager follows up: “How’s the presentation coming along? We need it by tomorrow morning.”
A brief silence.
“Oh, I thought I was just supposed to gather the content this week.”
And there it is. That one sentence that probably gets said in workplaces more often than anyone would like to admit:
“I thought that was clear.”
Except, clearly, it wasn’t.
Most of us are probably familiar with misunderstandings at work like these. The manager wonders why the presentation isn’t finished yet, while the employee doesn’t understand why there’s suddenly so much time pressure. Both are fairly certain they’ve done everything right. And from their respective perspectives, they probably have. The interesting thing is that neither person intended to do anything wrong. Yet somehow, they end up with two completely different expectations. And sometimes, it doesn’t even take an entire meeting for that to happen. A quick chat message is all it takes
Misunderstandings at Work: When “Soon” Means Something Different to Everyone
There are certain phrases we use so naturally at work that we barely stop to think about them. “Could you get this done soon?”, “We should touch base on this again” or “Keep me updated” are definitely among them.
They all sound perfectly reasonable. But what exactly does “soon” mean? This afternoon, tomorrow or sometime before the next monthly meeting?
And when exactly has a manager been kept sufficiently up to date? Is a quick message once the task is completed enough, or are regular progress updates expected?
Another classic is: “Could you make this look a bit more professional?” What exactly needs to be more professional? The wording, the design, the content or perhaps just the font size?
Of course, nobody wants to prepare a detailed briefing for every little task. Especially in smaller companies, quick communication and straightforward agreements are a real advantage. But sometimes, a sentence that seems perfectly clear leaves much more room for interpretation than we realise. And that’s exactly how misunderstandings at work arise, even when everyone believes the expectations were clear.
And digital collaboration hasn’t necessarily made things any easier.
Someone sends a message on Microsoft Teams: “Could you take a look at this today?” The reply is a thumbs-up emoji. To one person, that means the task will be completed today. The other person may simply have wanted to acknowledge receiving the message.
The next morning, both are left wondering how one seemingly straightforward message could have led to two completely different expectations.
And that’s exactly where the problem lies: We usually have a pretty clear idea of what we want to happen and automatically assume the other person has the same idea.
Unfortunately, mind-reading still isn’t a standard workplace skill in 2026.
Why We’d Rather Nod Than Ask Another Question
In theory, many misunderstandings at work could be avoided with one quick question. “When exactly do you need this?” or “Do you mean an initial draft or the finished version?” would usually be enough.
And yet, we ask surprisingly few questions, even though these brief clarifications could prevent so many misunderstandings at work. Perhaps because the meeting is already running longer than planned, because we think we know the answer or because we don’t want to give the impression that we haven’t understood something.
New employees will probably be particularly familiar with this. Someone explains a task, you nod politely and tell yourself you’ll somehow figure out the remaining details later. After all, you don’t want to ask about every little thing, and ideally, you’d like to show in your very first week that you can work independently.
Meanwhile, the manager is thinking: “If anything’s unclear, she’ll ask.”
And just like that, we have two people who both feel that everything has been clarified.
Incidentally, the same thing happens in teams that have been working together for years. Perhaps even more frequently in teams where people know each other well and many things have become second nature.
You know the routines, preferences and little quirks. You know who needs a coffee before doing anything in the morning and who’s already completed three tasks before nine o’clock.
On the one hand, that’s wonderful because not everything needs to be explained from scratch every time. On the other hand, it also creates assumptions that may no longer be accurate.
Phrases like “But that’s how we always do it” or “She knows what I mean” become completely normal. And most of the time, it works perfectly well. At least until tasks, responsibilities or the team itself start to change.
When Five Colleagues Suddenly Become 30
This is particularly noticeable in growing start-ups and small and medium-sized businesses. What worked perfectly well in a small team can suddenly lead to misunderstandings at work as the company grows.
When five people were working on a project together, practically everyone knew what the others were doing. Information was shared informally, decisions were made quickly and outstanding questions were cleared up in the next conversation.
A few years later, there might be 30 employees working across different teams, some remotely, each with their own tasks and responsibilities.
Suddenly, it’s no longer enough for “someone to know what’s going on”. Especially as teams grow and responsibilities are redistributed, misunderstandings at work can arise that were barely an issue before.
A good example is onboarding new employees.
“We should make sure our new colleague feels comfortable and knows her way around during her first few days.”
Of course, everyone agrees. But who’s actually responsible for making that happen? The manager, the buddy, HR or ideally everyone together?
In the worst-case scenario, everyone feels a little responsible, but nobody really takes ownership. And while everyone internally assumes that everything has been organised, the new colleague spends her second day wondering who to contact about her missing system access.
Something similar happens when managers delegate tasks and say: “Feel free to make that decision yourself.” It sounds like trust and autonomy, until the decision turns out differently than expected.
Suddenly, it’s: “Oh, I thought you’d check with me first.”
Meanwhile, the other person was simply trying to demonstrate exactly the independence they’d been encouraged to show.
Misunderstandings at work like these aren’t automatically a sign of poor collaboration. Often, the requirements have simply changed while the usual ways of communicating and agreeing on things have stayed the same.
Sometimes, the biggest misunderstanding at work is assuming there isn’t one.
Not Every Misunderstanding Calls for a Workshop
When situations like these happen more frequently, people are quick to call it a communication problem. And suddenly, someone suggests organising a workshop to fundamentally improve how everyone works together.
That can certainly make sense. But not every unclear agreement requires half a day of flipcharts and workshop cards.
We don’t think these situations need to be made unnecessarily complicated, either. At allaboutHRLaw, we like pragmatic solutions. And for us, that also means not turning every little uncertainty into a major communication issue.
Not every agreement has to be perfect, and even in well-organised teams, things don’t always run smoothly. Misunderstandings at work are sometimes simply part of everyday working life.
What we find much more interesting is how people deal with them. Do they spend ages discussing who misunderstood what? Or do they look at how things could work better next time?
We’d definitely choose the second option. It saves time, frustration and, usually, another meeting.
After all, especially in smaller companies, direct communication, quick decisions and minimal bureaucracy are real advantages. And they’re worth preserving as the business grows.