Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums GT Research The inconvenience of being verbally gifted

To me, fully vetting an idea is common sense and time saving in the long run, but I've come to realize that there are a distressing number of people out there who can't separate idea from ego. When those people are your supervisors, those reactions are every bit as devestating as they are from a classroom teacher who runs down a gifted child for speaking up in class. I was chastised (and retaliated against) by one supervisor for asking follow-up questions rather than accepting whatever incomplete responses I was offered in response to my questions (and this in the context of a "staff development" aimed at "constructing" a "shared understanding"). I was told by another supervisor that I "intimidate" others--not because of my interaction style, tone or word choice (all of which are acknowledged to be polite and respectful)--but because I "think too deeply" and (supposedly) my colleagues can't keep up (which even at the time I considered to be a gross lack of respect for my colleagues).

I used to take these criticisms painfully to heart. Fortunately, most of my colleagues are not the insecure people that my supervisors make them out to be, and it eventually became clear (long stories...)that it was my supervisors who were threatened. So for me? Being verbally gifted in the workplace means waging a constant internal battle between speaking up and risking a personal attack from my supervisor, or staying silent out of pure self-preservation and feeling like part of the problem.

Sometimes I think it's like watching a horror movie. You've watched these movies, you know the pattern, you can't believe that the characters are going to split up and look for their friend, but apparently they haven't noticed the pattern because they are going to DO IT ANYWAY! And at some point (even if all of the gore/violence/etc didn't turn you away), you just can't keep watching these movies because you can't stand to watch the same stupid pattern repeat itself over and over and over again.