Being wrong when explaining

[Miss Mae]

Working online, I had to explain to my boss why I could only do two articles during weekdays for him. “I have to take a nap every afternoon, Sir. But if necessary, you can assign 3-4 articles to me every Wednesdays and Thursdays. Only that I would ask that what I would do for Wednesdays are for Thursdays and that what I would do for Thursdays are for Fridays.”

“Huh? Can you make it simple? I will assign articles for you on a Wednesday but you can write them Thursday, the following day?” my boss replied.

I repeated what I had said in our country’s standard native language. What I asked was that if I could start working on Wednesdays what I had to submit on Thursdays, and on Thursdays what I had to submit on Fridays. Why did he think that I just want to know a day earlier what I would do a day after? What have I said wrongly?

[Joe Carillo]

I agree with your boss that you need to make your request simpler. I must admit that I myself couldn't figure out what you meant by saying "Only that I would ask that what I would do for Wednesdays are for Thursdays and that what I would do for Thursdays are for Fridays.” It just seems to me that although you didn't say anything wrong, you didn't make yourself clear enough to your boss. In short, what we have here is a failure to communicate.

[Miss Mae]

Uh, okay. Thank you.