I’ve noticed this behavior quite a bit, and it happened again at a recent meeting at my one job.
We had a meeting that lasted about 2 hours, and one coworker’s phone rang constantly throughout the meeting. Every time it rang, she’d furtively answer it, saying, “Hey, I can’t talk, I’ll have to call you back. Okay. Yeah, bye.” Ten minutes later, her phone would ring again, and she’d do the same thing. “Hey, I can’t talk, I’ll have to call you back. Yeah, bye.” Lather, rinse, repeat.
It happened just last night, while I was at my other job. There was a woman down the hall who did the exact same thing. Her phone rings, she answers with, “Hey, I can’t talk, I’ll have to call you back. Yeah, bye.” Her phone must have rung a dozen times while I was near her, and it was the same every time. “Hey, I can’t talk, I’ll have to call you back. Bye.”
Based on the nature of my work, I’m often unable to answer my cell phone if it rings. I have no problem letting calls go to voice mail, and then checking later to see who called.
Why do people do this? I’m nearly certain every cell phone plan comes with voice mail. Why answer at all if you’re not able to talk? Is it that important that you make human contact, rather than just letting it go to voice mail? Are people afraid that whoever is calling will assume the callee has been in a horrible accident and is unable to reach their phone? Are they afraid of the caller feeling snubbed if the call goes to voice mail?
I hate voicemail, and refuse to activate it. My phone has an ignore function, which I use most often. If I answer it to say I can’t talk, I give the caller a good guess on when Ican call them back, and then do it.
If I don’t want to be disturbed at all, that’s what the power button is for.
My cell phone is for MY convenience, not other people’s. If I can’t talk or it would be rude to answer it, I silence the ring and let it go to voice mail.
I don’t understand people who feel like they owe it to their phone to grab it every time it squeals. I have mine mostly because I have kids, and because I have a loved one who works in war zones. I am never more than three feet from it just in case, but I don’t always answer it.
If I am talking with a person and they answer their ringing cell phone, I walk away. When they call me on it, I say “Oh. You took a phone call. I thought we were finished.”
The inability of people to ignore a ringing cell phone when they are talking with a real live human being is ridiculous.
Ugh. I can understand if it’s a call from your child or if someone close to you is in the hospital (which those don’t sound like), but I can’t really imagine too many situations in which that would be an understandable thing to do.
I have had people look at me, and say, “Aren’t you going to answer that?” Um, no - I’m talking to you, and it would be obnoxious for me to stop to answer it. And honestly, the only reason I’ve got it on anyway is probably because I’m expecting a specific call/for emergencies so I won’t answer it unless I know it’s on of those people.
But then again, I almost never turn it on. They asked me at work the other day for my cell #. With reluctance, I gave it, and then added, “It’s almost never on anyway.” My coworker then proceeded to whine, “Then why do you HAVE it?” It’s for ME. I bought it only to use for long distance - I no longer maintain a long distance carrier at home. What’s it to you if I only turn it on when I need it?
I really don’t like them. As its been said, it lets assholes be bigger assholes.
I keep mine handy but if it’s not one of my kids or my hubby I don’t answer it. In the rare case that one of them calls, I silence it. If they call repeatedly and I think it might be an emergency, I excuse myself from the meeting and take the call out in the hallway. That’s having consideration for others, a must (I would think) in the business world.
I think some people cannot ignore a ringing phone - I remember one time when my sister came over to my place. My land-line rang, and I was going to let it roll to voicemail. She and her husband both jumped up to answer it !!
I also was on a conference call last fall wherein at least one person answered their cell phone with “Can’t talk right now !”. If you know you’re going to be on an hour-long call, turn your other phone off!!
I observed that same sister, the other day, attempt to call someone who did not answer. She hung up her phone and said testily, “Why give me a number if you’re not going to answer the phone ?!”. I glared at her and said , “Geez, don’t you ever go to the bathroom or anything?”
I sometimes do answer somebody like that because I need to keep the ringer on for something more important but I don’t want them to keep calling. Which is the point of telling somebody you can’t talk now - stop calling! Of course I don’t take calls when I’m speaking to somebody else unless it’s important.
I have voice mail. If I am expecting a call, or it is either work related to the meeting I am actively in, or my moms/brothers number it will generally get answered. If it is a number I do not recognize it goes to voice mail. If I am not busy, I will generally answer a call of a number I recognize, but if I dont recognize it, it is a crapshoot if I answer it or it goes to VM.
meh, I drove an ex roomie nuts once the entire 8 months she lived with us. I I dont want to answer the phone, I will sit there next to it while it rings off the hook and explodes. I was a machinist, I am good at ignoring annoying sounds=)
The only time I’ve ever done that is when my sister (who is a teacher and finishes work at 3:15) called me 4 times between 3:30 & 4:30. I reminded her that most jobs last until 5PM. Unless someone was dying, she needed to quit calling.
It’s terribly rude. The only way I would ever do that in a work meeting is if there was an emergency going on, and I would put it on vibrate and warn people that I may have to step out. And then I would actually talk to the person.
Picking it up just to say I can’t talk? Boggles the mind.
Same here. A ringing phone is hard for me to tune out, so if someone is with me, I’d rather they just answer it and tell the person they’re busy than pretend they don’t hear the noise.
That’s why I put my phone on vibrate when in meetings. I can feel it, but it doesn’t disturb anyone. 99% of the time, I’ll feel it vibrate, look to see who’s calling and push the button to send it to voicemail. I’ll see what they wanted when the meeting is over.
It always drives me insane when I call someone and they answer just to tell me they can’t talk. Fabulous! I’d still like to tell you what I needed to tell you, only now I don’t have access to that handy dandy voicemail thing you’ve got for free on that phone of yours.
What boggles me even more is that the person running the meeting didn’t stop and instruct the person to turn off his or her phone after the first incident.
I hate voice mail. There are too many hoops to jump through to get your messages. I want voice mail that works like my answering machine- press one button, get your messages. My voice mail even makes me go through messages that are about to be deleted before it will let me have my new messages. I hate this with the fire of 6.02 * 10[sup]23[/sup] galaxies. I want my new messages NOW, dammit, not after I have to go through saved messages.
Most of the calls I get on my cell are Mr. Neville saying something like “I’ll be home in about 45 minutes”. Answering the phone and having him say that is quicker than dealing with voice mail.
That said, I do turn off my phone in meetings, unless I forget to. If I forget, I don’t answer it if it rings, though. This applies even if there is no explicit “no cell phones in meetings” rule. I consider “no cell phones in meetings, movies, theatrical or musical performances, talks, or religious services” to be a basic rule that is always in force.
If you don’t mind having your password stored on your phone, you can reprogram your voicemail number as *86PPpassword, where *86 is the voicemail number, PP is two short pauses, and password is your password. Then you can check your messages with just one button. If you have to hit 11 or something, just program that in, too.