Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Telephone Etiquette 101

Here's a hint for you-know-who*

When a phone call comes through for you, instead of asking who it is, what they want, what color their eyes are, or any other questions, say "Thank you" and take the phone from the person holding it out for you to grab. If that person is inclined towards rowdiness, ask them politely to keep it down for a minute.

If you want to talk to the caller away from that location, it is fine for you to get a callback number and (for example) call them from your chair by the computer terminal.

It is generally not considered to be polite to tell no-one you are making a phone call, and then scream at them when they are as loud as they are the other 99.94% of the time. Please try not to take offense if they hold up a personality mirror to you and holler right back and tell you that you are crazy.

Please take careful note of the following images:

This is how a sane person looks while talking on the telephone:

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If you think you are around people like this:

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The proper response is much more like this:
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Than this:
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This has been a public service announcement from your buddy VFD.
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*If you don't know who, you get to use your imagination or project this onto the nearest insane-on-the-phone person you know. If you do know who, then there will be no need to explain the relationship of this post to recent events.

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