I have had this really weird thing happen lately on my phone.
My phone rings, it is a number I do not recognize or that isn't stored in my mobile's little memory chip. I answer the phone, "hello?"
"yes May I speak to D please?"
...."May I ask who's calling, please?" (I get loads of telemarketers and survey people calling me, even though it is illegal to do this to someone's mobile phone.)
In response to my query, however, I get silence, surliness, or just plain confounded asshole behaviour.
Such as:
"well, who's this? *chortle*"
"who am I speaking to?"
"um, *excuse* me...?"
"I'm sorry, what? Who is this?"
Woah. Woah. Woah.
Okay.
For starters, dear reader, this is not how one calls another person. At all. I am certain you know this, though, being the lovely bunch you all are. Har.
Unless you are intimately acquainted with the person you are calling, the appropriate response after they pick up their phone and say "Hello" is
"Hello/Hi/Hola/Bonjour/etc, this is/it's _______(state your name)". If you are calling on behalf of a company you follow your name with the company you are calling for. Is so easy, as Vlad would say.
Very simple. I do it all the time. I like to eliminate awkwardness like that, crazy me. Also I am wary of phone solicitors, and assume everyone else is, so I I say who I am right away because I do not want to get cussed at and hung up on.
You would think people like HR leads and secretaries and other such professionals would know this shit, but no. And they are extremely rude 9 times out of 10. Even when they are calling to give me a job interview (which I am politely declining, being home is fine, thanks, especially if the company hired someone so crappy at their job. I am not working for someone like my ex employer again thx).
For fuck's sake, did no one else's mommy give them etiquette lessons or teach them any damn manners? And why would I want to work for someone's company who let their HR people talk to *anyone* like that? Ugh.
6 comments:
This is one of my top pet peeves. Somebody called a coworker the other day from another business and when I advised the person that she was away from her desk at the moment, she proclaimed, "I just spoke to her!" I didn't want to get into the physics of how far away the person could be after five minutes but let's just say I did not suffer her kindly.
Now onto a post you had about the daintiness of crafty blogs or people or something - came across this and thought of you: Subversive Cross Stitch.
you're right, bad phone manners are a big 'No-no.' It may sound trivial, but one of the reasons I bank with the bank I bank with is that their people are ALWAYS INCREDIBLY polite on the phone, every damn one of them. They have the best employee training I've ever experienced, and I've been with them for 15 years. Not one rude person, not ONE. The only catch is that you have to have an immediate family member in the armed forces to bank with them.
g - It amazes me how rude people think they get to be on the phone, like "What's the worst they can do, hang up?" Ohhhhho. Worse than that, fo sho.
cb - you know what's funny, that is one of the reasons I am with MY bank (that and the sweet interest rates). It's a small WA bank, only up here in the NW pocket, but Man-o-Man do they have great customer service and beautiful business manners.
IV - dick-a-tude is right up there with assholery. and fuckery. It's like word of the day!
you know what else is funny? here in the UK the emergency number you call for an ambulance is 999. There's a popular kids joke that goes "What happens when you dial 666 on the phone?" A: The police arrive up-side down!
I actually think it's kind of a cute joke.
It is a cute joke!
But don't they get lots of kids playing on phones calling them? For example, when Squidge was Very Tiny, I used to let him play with my mobile and he'd call *989999999 or something like that. I wonder if more accidental emergency calls happen to 999 than to 911..?
Amen!
I don't know when it became ok to be rude or impolite or simply demanding, but I don't like it, never have, and can't forsee me ever putting up with it.
I was JUST having a similar conversation with a co-worker, so perhaps you and your wise readers/commenters can shed some light: Is it rude NOT to say thank you (or similar) when someone says 'bless you' or gesundheit? (we'll assume that a sneeze has occured) Not the every so often non-thanks, or perhaps not having heard...full on, every time, never thanks.
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