Bad Phone Etiquette
Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in 1876, so you'd think users would have gotten telephone etiquette down by now. But bad phone etiquette seems to pop up everywhere and with the advent of the cell phone, that now includes times when you aren't even on the receiving end of a call.
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Home Phone
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Bad phone etiquette begins at home with a person who answers the phone with a cranky hello, doesn't speak clearly, hangs up the phone without saying good-bye or eats while talking on the phone. A person who calls others at times that are inconvenient--early morning, dinnertime, late at night--is also exhibiting bad phone etiquette.
Business Phone
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Bad phone etiquette is on display at businesses everywhere. The businessman who lets his business phone ring and ring instead of picking it up promptly needs to work on his phone etiquette. So does the businesswoman who doesn't have a pen and paper handy to take notes on her call.
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Answering Machine
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Bad phone etiquette can extend to the answering machine or voice mail. Cutesy messages are hard to make out and business callers usually won't appreciate the joke. Long, extended messages cause the caller to wait and wait to leave his own message.
Other Callers
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Other callers may be on the receiving end of bad phone etiquette. A wrong number gets an irate response, instead of a polite one. Perhaps one of the worst offenses, the person calling is put on interminable hold by the answerer of the call.
Cell Phones
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Bad phone etiquette has really come into play since cell phones have become popular. Talking too loudly on a cell phone is disturbing to other people, as are loud and annoying ring tones. It's also all too common to have someone's cell phone ring while at the movies or at a live performance, which disrupts the mood.
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References
- Photo Credit Flickr Creative Commons
