Thursday, April 5, 2018

#atozchallenge : E is for Eavesdropper


I have two E topics listed:  The Ex and Eavesdropper.
The Ex was decided against because none of them deserve anymore of my time then it took to write this sentence.
I do have an eavesdropping story though.  Eavesdroppers: persons who listen in on conversations they weren’t invited to.  My tale takes place six years ago.  For one of my leagues in roller derby, everyone gets tested each year to see if they still have minimum skills to play and newbies to be eligible to play.  Six years ago was the only time I participated in testing.  I was never allowed to afterwards and I could not figure out why.
This past year, I learned why.  My teammate and I were testing people together.  Apparently, we were having a discussion about scores.  A newbie heard.  She was mad that she had not received a passing score.  She went and told the head of training that we were talking about purposely giving people low scores because we just didn’t like them.
My response was “huh?”
That’s why I was never allowed to be a tester.  Because someone was eavesdropping while we were trying to figure out scores and assumed her low score was because we didn’t like her.  This was never brought up to the governing body of the league at that time. (Which I would have found out right away, because our coach and captain were both owners of the league at that time and they would have had a talking to with us)  Our names were placed on a list that we were “never allowed to do testing” and nobody was to tell us why.
I don’t know who it was, but I can tell you the conversation that we gave a low score to someone because we didn’t like them never happened.  We gave them a low score because they couldn’t do the skill at that moment in time.  Someone receiving a passing/not passing score has no impact on us/me whatsoever.
So, this eavesdropper, instead of asking us what we were discussing, decided to conjure up what they thought the discussion was and run with it.  Cool bro, thanks for getting my name put on a list.  It has influenced my decision to not be a trainer for this next year because this information was withheld from me for so long and myself or the other person involved were never asked about it.  We were given a judgement with no way to refute the claim.  My integrity in life is important to me and I don’t need someone stomping on that.
Have you had a problem with someone eavesdropping on a conversation you’ve had?  Have you eavesdropped on someone else’s conversation and then you had to keep that knowledge a secret because you didn’t want to them to know that you heard?
Does technology play a part in modern day eavesdropping?  What ways would you be able to do so?
https://cartoonsbysheila.wordpress.com/category/animals/rats-mice/
I know, totally not my post exciting post or story, but Es are hard!  Join me tomorrow for F and how not to start fires. :)


P.S.  I am going to be catching up on D and E posts today!
I was studying and scrimmaging yesterday and didn't get to make it to many blogs. 

5 comments:

  1. I've overheard a lot of conversations that I probably shouldn't have, but I'd never jump to conclusions without first getting the full picture. I'm sorry that this happened to you!

    End of the World by McFly

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  2. Technology definitely plays a big part in eavesdropping today! Unintentional eavesdropping. How many times are we privy to a cell phone conversation we shouldn't be hearing? Then, when the person notices we can hear they act like it's our fault! Like we have no business"listening in" when they are sitting right next to us in a waiting room! I don't want to know about her pregnancy and who the father is!

    I did overhear a funny (or not, depending on why she said it) comment made by a woman to her companion once as they walked by me. She said,"but my fingerprints would have been on the gun." Oh, how I wanted to know more about that!

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  3. Yes, sometimes it is impossible not to overhear conversations. I will admit that when I am riding on public transit I've heard other people talking. Nothing too earth shattering though. The worst was when people were on the phone and would come up to the counter to check out at Michaels. I've had a few that never got off the phone during the entire transaction. That's just rude!

    Janet
    Janet’s Smiles

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