# Annoying calls from clients

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annoying-calls-from-clients/273723>\
**Category:** The BBQ Pit\
**Created:** [November 8, 2004, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annoying-calls-from-clients/273723 "2004-11-08T21:32:35Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 6

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![blowero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/41988e/32.png) [@blowero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blowero)\
**Post date:** [November 12, 2004, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annoying-calls-from-clients/273723/101 "2004-11-12T18:33:22Z")

</div>

Thanks again for those suggestions. I’m still a little bugged that some of you are making it sound like a client called us and asked for the boss, and I just said, “I dunno…” Read the OP again; I didn’t just say “I dunno…” I gave the client _all_ the information I had, _and_ gave him the option of leaving a message. It’s not really that important, but c’mon.

It’s interesting though that several people have mentioned a visceral reaction to the phrase “I don’t know”. It occurs to me that this is a sort of vicious circle -

1. Employees honestly relate that they don’t know the answer to the question;

2. Clients become incensed at the phrase “I don’t know”, and pummel the employees with questions and demands for concrete answers;

3. Consequently, employees learn to bullshit the clients in order to make them _feel_ like they got a concrete answer when none exists.

4. Clients soon discover that they are being bullshitted all the time, become _more_ incensed, and stop believing employees _even when they tell the truth_.

Result: complete breakdown of communication.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ParentalAdvisory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/53a042/32.png) [@ParentalAdvisory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParentalAdvisory)\
**Post date:** [November 12, 2004, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annoying-calls-from-clients/273723/102 "2004-11-12T19:07:55Z")

</div>

> [@Steve MB](#):
>
> 😕 Sounds like a perfectly polite apology for a mistake. It sure beats a clueless doofus who can’t seem to comprehend the concept that repeating the request will not cause you to suddenly remember that, oh, yeah, **I’m** “John”. :rolleyes:

Sorry, I was mocking the thread. Carry on…

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![blowero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/41988e/32.png) [@blowero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blowero)\
**Post date:** [November 12, 2004, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annoying-calls-from-clients/273723/103 "2004-11-12T19:56:18Z")

</div>

> [@ParentalAdvisory](#):
>
> Sorry, I was mocking the thread. Carry on…

Wow, is _that_ what you were trying to do? If so, you failed.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Podkayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Podkayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Podkayne)\
**Post date:** [November 12, 2004, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annoying-calls-from-clients/273723/104 "2004-11-12T21:02:27Z")

</div>

> [@blowero](#):
>
> “Can I speak to [your boss]?”
> 
> “He’s not in the office right now, can I take a message?”
> 
> “Do you know what time he’ll be in?”
> 
> “I’m sorry, I don’t - he’s out running errands and I don’t know how long it will take.”
> 
> “But he _will_ be in later today?”

This seems like a perfectly reasonable response on the caller’s part. Is your boss in the habit of returning to the office after he runs errands? Are the errands of a business nature or a personal nature? This is all information that you _might_ have. As others have said, there are different degrees of uncertainty that could be implied in “I don’t know.”

Maybe there was something in the person’s tone of voice that made them sound like they were making unreasonable demands on you, but as you’ve written it here, it doesn’t seem bad at all.

> [@](#):
>
> “Is [your boss] in?”
> 
> “He’s in court right now, can I take a message?”
> 
> “What time will he be in?”
> 
> “I don’t know, that would depend on how long the court session lasts.”
> 
> “Uh, 2:00, 3:00?”
> 
> “I don’t know.”
> 
> “Will he be in this afternoon?”
> 
> “I believe so, but I don’t know what time.”
> 
> “You have no idea?”
> 
> “I don’t know.”

Hey, wait a minute! This time “I don’t know” doesn’t mean the same thing as last time! Last time it meant, “I don’t know when he’ll be here, and he might not come back this afternoon at all.” This time it means, “I don’t know when he’ll get here, but I believe he _will_ be back this afternoon.”

The source of conflict seems to be coming from these two factors:

1. Receptionists do not always share _all_ the information they have, and/or safe assumptions they might make, about their boss’s likely whereabouts and ETA within the first ten seconds of the conversation.

2. When talking over the phone, people do not always carefully parse the statements they hear in a precise, literal, Vulcan-like manner and accept them as Absolute Truth, and sometimes ask for clarification, or, sometimes when the meaning is fairly obvious, they might ask for confirmation to be sure that they’ve understood.

Neither of these seem like a problem to me, just typical human communication. Now, if callers are getting snotty and combative about it, I could understand your frustration. However, with tone of voice and other such cues removed, I see nothing wrong (on either side, incidentally) of the conversations you’ve transcribed.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![blowero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/41988e/32.png) [@blowero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blowero)\
**Post date:** [November 12, 2004, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annoying-calls-from-clients/273723/105 "2004-11-12T21:17:16Z")

</div>

whatever…

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annoying-calls-from-clients/273723.md?page=5)