We don’t deal with the public. We all work in multiple office buildings connected to the same PBX network. I can see your name; I know it’s you. There are no doctors, or CEOs calling from Bob’s phone. It’s always fucking Bob.
Stop being coy!
In my experience, in small businesses, this is generally the fault of the person answering the phone. They have answered on autopilot with the name of their business so many times it has morphed into an unintelligible mess. For a first-time customer, unless you are certain you have the right number, or have called before and heard the unintelligible mess, you have no idea what they’re saying.
For example, I’ll call “Bob’s Widget Factory”, and the person will answer with “Baswidgefax, how may I help you?”. Invariably, I’ll stammer a bit, wonder if I dialed the wrong number, and go “Errr…, is this Bobs Widget Factory?”
I get a lot of old people calling…I think it’s usually the result of The Price Is Right being way to loud. For the love of god, if you’re going to ask me to repeat everything, turn the effing TV down. Normally I restrain myself, but I think once or twice over the years I’ve actually asked someone to do that. “Ma’am, why don’t you turn the TV down so you can hear me?” Honestly, I think most of them don’t even realize it’s on. It’s just background nose to them.
For me it’s
Bob’s Widget Factory
-Is this the Widget Factory
Yes it is, can I help you?
-The one the one owned by Bob.
Yup, is there something I can do for you.
-Do you sell Widgets?
[Jumps out window]
I’m not quite sure I understand. How does this objectionable phone introduction go?
You call someone at work, when he picks up the phone your say “Hi Bob”, and Bob says “Who is this?”
Most of my conversations at work, where we all have call display and it’s normally coworker calling coworker, go like this:
Me: “Hello.”
Bob: “Hi. I want to ask you about X.”
There’s an understanding that everyone knows who they’re talking to, but I don’t have to say “Hi Bob!” I mean, I could, but the thing is, I also have these conversations:
Me: “Hello.”
Bob: “Hi, this is Bob and Alice. We’d like to ask you about X.”
Or,
Me: “Hello.”
Alice: “Hi, this is Alice. I’m in Bob’s office but he’s not here – have you seen him today?”
Don’t take it so personally. Maybe they’re absorbed in their work and picked up the phone without looking at the display. It takes 5 seconds to exchange pleasantries, it’s not so hard. Use email or IM or walk over in person, if you don’t want to go through the rigamarole of introducing yourself every time.
Nah. Everyone looks at the display. And then they pretend they don’t have a clue who’s calling.
Pretty mundane and pointless complaint, I know. Imagine if I thought this was pit-worthy?
People who answer the phone “Hi Bob!” just because they can see who’s calling come across to me as trying too hard, like they’ve just finished a 6-week course on improving personal relations and the first rule was, “Call people by their name every chance you get.”
My two cents.
Actual events yesterday at my workplace.
Overhead page “Eureka, pleas call 2345”
so I walk over to the nearest phone, and dial 2345
The next thing I hear is “Crap.” Followed by "I forgot to tell you . . . "
I’d much prefer a nice generic hello.
Has anyone noticed that no one in movies or on TV ever checks their caller ID, even on cell phones?
A lot of times I don’t glance at the screen. Also, it doesn’t matter if I say you’re name, if I pick up the phone, we’re having a conversation.
How likely is the possibility that you know what someone is doing on the other end of a phone, versus the possibility that you’re projecting irrationally?
Because we get dinged if we don’t. Our supervisors can’t see who’s come up on the caller ID display and it doesn’t show up on the recording of the call.
I work in an office where some people get caller ID and some don’t (and, no, I’m not sure why that is. I guess some people just want to feel more important than others.) My coworker and I share a phone, but it comes up on caller ID with her name because she’s worked there longer and had the phone first, I guess. So, it’s a bit disconcerting to call someone and have them answer with “Hi, Sally”. Then I have to stammer and say, “No, this is actually Gertrude.” I’d rather just tell them who I am in the first place.
My son has started his own social convention. I hate it and I am trying to break him of it. He acknowledges everyone’s burps, farts, or hicoughs with a hearty “You’re welcome!” I try to explain their fart was not a “thank-you” and that it is actually rude to pretend you even heard it. He says “We say “bless you” when you sneeze we should say something when people burp or fart.”
He answers the phone with his first, middle, last and 16 other names that he has “added” on to his name. His step dad’s name, my dad’s name, my brother’s name, our late pet’s name and last of all: Frank. I tell him not to answer the phone, since my husband works from home. (We had a business line before, but that gets expensive.)
He is 8. He is also a leader among his peers, sets the trends and styles and usually the playground agenda.
If in 20 years everyone says “You’re welcome” when someone else farts, know that it was my son who started it.
What I hated working in an office is this scenario. I spend 10 minutes at the admin assistant’s desk, going over some scheduling paperwork. I walk back to my desk. (Other side of the building, maybe 2 minutes away if I dawdle.) I get back, see an email and I need to check with the admin about something… I call her and she says “Oh Mona, hello long time no talk to… I’ve missed you.” Funny but not 12 times a day!
I was reading along and wondering just how old he was. Yep, I remember second and third grade boys. That’s about the age when Robert Heinlein’s theory of raising boys starts to appeal…you just stick the boy in a barrel, feed him through the bunghole, and when he reaches 18, you can decide whether to let him out or to put a cork in the bunghole.
In my experience, only the person calling identifies themselves, except in businesses where they’ve made it mandatory. It’s up to the caller to ask for who they want to talk to. The caller is also supposed to introduce themselves before they ask, but, if they forget, there’s also the automatic line “And who may I say is calling?”
Plus, unless you also include your title, the business practice doesn’t generally help. Chances are, I don’t know the name of the person I need to talk to, just the position. Sure, giving the name of the company lets me know I called the right number, but your name only tells me something if we’ve previously talked before.
My experience is just the opposite. At my old job, just about everyone answered the phone with some variant of a greeting and their name. It wasn’t mandatory, but it just made sense. In the IT department, only the level 1 help desk had a set greeting to use (“Thank you for calling the [dept name], this is [name] (speaking), how may I help you?”).
Some weirdos 
in other IT departments would answer with an actual salutation (“Good morning,” etc.) in front of what the majority of people used, which was just, “[dept name], this is [name].”
“Net Ops, this is Dan.”
“App Admins, this is Shauna.”
“Good morning, this is Vince in Server Ops.”
I do it out of habit, though now I’ve started answering “Hey!” when it’s someone I know well enough to do that with.
Actually where I used to work had 4 digit dialing for the entire organization, across provinces, etc. So, if I forgot to dial “9” to get an outside line and started to phone home I would get a voice on the end saying “Molly! Apheresis clinic!”
We had a “Molly” at our apheresis clinic. and the first few times I would become very confused. (Since I usually remembered to dial 9 first this happened infrequently. Eventually one day when I wasn’t in a hurry I actually asked. she told me what room number and what hallway to take. I still didin’t know where the apheresis clinic was. It is in Vancouver. (Hmm, I’m there too now, maybe I should call Molly up sometime …)
All I would see for any call from outside the building was the 4 digit number. If I didn’t know that particular number I wouldn’t know who was calling at all.