TEN digits? A 10-digit extension? Are you goddamn kidding me?? An entire phone number is 10 digits. A 10-digit extension is like having *two phone numbers *(with different area codes)for one person. Never in my LIFE have I seen an extension longer than 6 digits. This is fucking insane. Even if every single person in the world worked for this company (including babies and disabled people who can’t use a phone) , we wouldn’t need more than 7-digit extensions!
Background: my office is changing to a new phone system. We currently all have 5 digit extensions. The customer servicey reps (like me) will be getting 7-digit extensions (which is still far too long). The management team will have a 10-digit extension on top of their 10-digit office phone number. <vomit smiley>
The best part is, my claim intake system can only handle extensions up to 4 digits. :smack:
I’ve seen 5 digit extensions in government centers, and they probably are needed if a single phone system covers many large offices. But my guess is your new system is using the extension to code for more than just the destination phone, just like mail-in offers say address it to “DEPT NWK 0112,” which isn’t actually a department, but a code that tells them the offer came from a Newsweek magazine dated Jan 12.
So all extensions that begin with 54321xxxxx might ring on the same phone, but some electronic gadget is using the “xxxxx” part as a code into a database for a tally.
I work for a ridiculously large company and we’d be fine with a single 800 number, a 5-digit extension for each employee, and a 5-digit for each team. But nobody ever asked me how to set it up.
10-digits sounds like somebody’s brother-in-law works for Lucent…
This reminds me of the time when we go new phones in the office. We had to get training on how to use them.
“No longer will you have to press hold to put someone on hold. And you’ll no longer will you have to press the flashing button to get them back. That system is just too confusing! No, with your new fuckfone, to put someone on hold all you have to do is press star seven nine one pound pound F1 star six pound flash. And to get them back all you have to do is press pound pound sixty-nine four smily face, then your great aunt Thelma’s wedding date followed by the six digit line number that you want to reach, pound star flash hiccup weird Egyptian guy doing that weird hand thing, star, square root of two, pound. That will get you to an operator.”
We’re in the middle of setting up a new dial plan for our offices and while you lose a surprising percentage of numbers to system commands and other restricted number sets, 10 digits is a little crazy. We’re going to either 5 or 7 depending on how much expansion we want to plan for. Apparently 6 digit extensions are more difficult for people to remember based on how we have evolved to remember phone numbers so they recommend going straight to 7.