Cell Phone Manners

[talon]

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE62L0XO20100322?type=lifestyleMolt

"Also, don't carry on mobile phone calls while transacting other business - in banks, shops, on buses and so on. It is insulting not to give people who are serving you your full attention."

It's not just rude. Sometimes the person serving you needs to ask you questions or give you vital information and if you're so busy telling your BFF all about your hot date last night, you might discover the bank teller thinks that you're robbing the bank or your waitress thinks you want to order a hot sausage with whipped cream or the cashier at the register gets confused and overcharges you or gives you the wrong change. If you're on the phone when a receptionist gives you directions to the office you need, don't be surprised if you end up in the proctologist's office instead of your broker's office. And if these and many other things go wrong because you're too inconsiderate to - you know - listen to someone giving you information or helping you in the flesh, don't you dare get mad at them. You're the rude person and you owe them an apology.

If your call is sooooo important you just have to keep on it, then step outside, step away from their desk, leave the table, leave the line and accept that you'll have to return at the end of the line, or otherwise get yourself obviously out of the way. Only after you have ended the call, turned the phone off (or to vibrate), and put it away should you approach someone you expect to help you. You'll get the food you intended to order, the transaction you meant to make, the office you meant to visit, the right change, and so many other good things.

Here's another hint: if you don't want your co-workers to know about your hot date, your colonoscopy, your chunk-by-chunk account of your upset stomach, your financial woes, your legal troubles, or other personal and private details of your life, don't take the calls in your roofless, doorless, cubicle. They can hear you and they don't appreciate it. And should you run off at the phone complaining about said co-workers and your boss and your company, your boss might just be hearing about it. It's not a private conversation if everyone in the office can hear it.

I'm not even going to get into all the other situations where having a phone conversation is beyond rude.

Freedom of speech doesn't mean disturbing the peace.