Communications decoding problem

Hello folks, I work with someone who the entire office

has had problems communicating with. She is a 52 year old

female who is not able to discern emotional content in

speech unless she sees body language also.

We've been working with her for five years and everyone

in the office has at one point or another had

serious communications difficulties with her.

She is a native English speaker, and has no hearing

deficits.

She has a habit of phoning or emailing her husband when

something distressing at work happens, but we're usually

left quite puzzled as to what seems to distress her.

To give illustrative examples...

If one of us says "I could kill whoever didn't replace

the toner cartiridge in the copier," and she does not see

their expression, she believes that (if it was her) she

is being threatened. The rest of us just hear

exasperation and hot air - no action intended.

If one of us says "I'm thrilled to be here at work" from

behind our monitor, she might ask "Why? Work's boring!"

If she sees the person say it, she'll see their smirk and

get that it's made in jest.

Any ideas? I work with her and in five years I don't think she's being
deliberately obtuse. I seriously think she has a problem.

FWIW, she is almost totally devoid of showing emotion herself. We joke that
if the building were burning, she'd calmly state "Fire." then slowly walk
out. She does get excited occasionally when talking about her hobbies, but
other than that... nothing.

I thought maybe amusia or tone deafness might be involved, but I cannot
find anything on the Internet about this as it related to communication.

Please post replies here.

-----
search engine string follows
iniiti porsorific