Wednesday, May 27, 2009

CALLING GUARD

The world in which I operate is one of conference calls. Everyone converging to meet, yet not needing to leave the comfort of their personal office (or if we're talking one of those delightful 6AM ones, the comfort of their pajamas).

So long as the person conducting the call has a pretty strict agenda and sticks to it, the calls are generally bearable even productive. But if the HNIC doesn't have a good grip on the orders of business, things can get out of control.

And then the Oblivious step in.

To be honest, I don't mind a conference call; I generally hang up having received the prize of New Information and move on with my day with ease. However, when the Oblivious think that a conference call of 30 people is the time to ask their manager questions regarding them personally or regarding their specific territory concerns, I want to shake 'em to awareness.

Dude.

When you're on a call of many people who have a day to do and aren't affiliated with your territory or vacation days, hold your questions until you can get the boss offline, when you're through with the public forum.

It's that just the polite thing to do?

3 comments:

it'sliketheweather said...

Amen!

Maria said...

I am a stay-at-home-mom, (have been for 6 years now) and I can tell you this post brought back some memories. Memories of some very annoying people I had the pleasure of working with. People who enjoyed talking about things in meetings that had nothing to do with the reason for why the meeting was called in the first place. They would talk and talk and talk, all the while totally oblivious to the people around them rolling their eyes in annoyance. So very annoying.... I really do not miss those days.

Jaime Stephens said...

Ditto to that.. I have many conference calls for my work and well yes ditto.. It's polite and I think the normal thing to do..