Silence that tastes like "chicken"

Wonderful post of silence by Victoria Ward. The memories it triggers in me are related to silence as a weapon, silence as power.

The minion stands in front of the manager explaining/cajoling/selling and the manager sits in silence. The minion waits to be interrupted with praise or comment. Nothing does so. So the minion continues - overpromising, overplaying their hand until they trip up over their own eager words and the manager swoops in to take control. I have been that minion and suffered the consequences of the loquacious.

Once I didn't play that game. I was in the middle of a difficult phone conversation with a manager. I can't remember the exact exchange before the silence started but I think I had asked a question. There was a pause. The pause lengthened. I sat with the pause. It formed in my mind that we were playing "chicken". This might have been purely my interpretation (driven by biases and fears) but I felt the silence tempting me to break it, to dissolve the awkwardness and put me in the weaker position. It stretched out. I was outside on my mobile phone and can remember walking around looking at the trees and buildings. The pause must have lasted for a minute, maybe 90 seconds. A very long time. For once I resisted that temptation. Eventually he answered the question, somewhat unsatisfactorily. It was the best I was going to get.

In the end, I hadn't achieved anything really. But I hadn't been forced to speak against my will. A small (possibly pyrrhic) victory.