Observation, 1977

 Public speaking does not have to be thought of in a large situation.  Anyone speaking to another provides a degree of public speech.  The situation I observed was an employee meeting at Sanger Harris.  The speaker was a supervisor, in charge of some seven departments.  The supervisor asked one person from each department to come to her office for a short meeting, but without telling us as to what the subject was to be discussed, so there was a bit of anxiety in the people going to the meeting.
 The supervisor had just come from a meeting with the personnel manager, where she had been chided for letting some employees work overtime.  Consequently, the supervisor was uptight when she shared with the employees about the overtime.  The anxiety of both groups (supervisor and employees) came to a head when someone asked a question about overtime and customer attention.  Immediately, the supervisor changed from an offensive leader to a defensive person.  She became very disturbed that a question would be asked.  The mood of the meeting became so tense that it had to be adjourned.  Once the group had dispersed, the supervisor once again became an offensive leader.