This thread about women saying 'I think' will make you re-think your work communication

"We don't need to fix women; we need to appreciate what they're doing already."
 By 
Rachel Thompson
 on 

Women have a lot to contend with in the workplace.

If they're not getting mansplained, hepeated, or harassed, they're being told they need to think, talk, and act like men.

But, this Twitter thread by a software engineer has turned on its head the notion that men's workplace communication style is the example to follow. In fact, after reading this Twitter thread, men might consider communicating a bit more like women.

April Wensel—founder of software development company Compassionate Coding—wrote that women are "often told to avoid 'weak' language like 'I think,'" but that she found that, in reality, saying "I think" is "often more accurate."

"I find it more troubling when people state their opinion as if it's an undisputed fact," wrote Wensel. "We don't need to fix women; we need to appreciate what they're doing already."

She wrote that she's heard countless male (and even female) engineers make declarative statements like "That won't work" or "That won't break," which were subsequently proved wrong.

"Honest, accurate communication is not weak; it's more effective!" she added.

She said she had "a running bit of banter" with a male engineer she worked with, who loved to say "I'm 100% sure."

"Let's just say his accuracy rate was not the same as his confidence level," she wrote.

Honesty is always the best policy.

Rachel Thompson, sits wearing a dress with yellow florals and black background.
Rachel Thompson
Features Editor

Rachel Thompson is the Features Editor at Mashable. Rachel's second non-fiction book The Love Fix: Reclaiming Intimacy in a Disconnected World is out now, published by Penguin Random House in Jan. 2025. The Love Fix explores why dating feels so hard right now, why we experience difficult emotions in the realm of love, and how we can change our dating culture for the better.

A leading sex and dating writer in the UK, Rachel has written for GQ, The Guardian, The Sunday Times Style, The Telegraph, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Stylist, ELLE, The i Paper, Refinery29, and many more.

Rachel's first book Rough: How Violence Has Found Its Way Into the Bedroom And What We Can Do About It, a non-fiction investigation into sexual violence was published by Penguin Random House in 2021.

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