# How do modern businesses deal with the fact everyone is constantly texting now? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 19, 2019, 10:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-modern-businesses-deal-with-the-fact-everyone-is-constantly-texting-now/837297 "2019-07-19T10:23:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2019, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-modern-businesses-deal-with-the-fact-everyone-is-constantly-texting-now/837297/21 "2019-07-20T13:23:28Z")
I once had a customer complain to the manager that I didn’t let her finish her text before “demanding” to ring up her items. Lady, you are on my cashier line to have your order rung up. ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2019, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-modern-businesses-deal-with-the-fact-everyone-is-constantly-texting-now/837297/22 "2019-07-20T15:15:27Z")
I’ve never seen what’s being described in this thread. Sure, the guy restocking produce might take a quick look or the girl at the coffee shop quickly slips her phone into her pocket when I walk in but no on is ignoring my vocal calls for service for three minutes. ---
**Author:** ![pullin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c57346/32.png) [@pullin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pullin)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2019, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-modern-businesses-deal-with-the-fact-everyone-is-constantly-texting-now/837297/23 "2019-07-20T16:18:42Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > I suspect if there’s an emergency and your family needs to get ahold of you, they would just call the warehouse just like one would have done for the past 100 years. If a person answered the phone like was normal in the past 100 years, this would work. No offense, but when’s the last time you called a warehouse, or doctor’s office, or theater? You’re going to get a phone menu, then a voice-mailbox most of the time. I haven’t called any business or commercial number in ages with a human answering the phone. At best, I work through a phone menu and finally to a service line where I’m told that my call is important to them – and then I usually wait a considerable time to finally hear an operator. There are many businesses where you actually cannot reach a human - period. This simply won’t do in an emergency. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2019, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-modern-businesses-deal-with-the-fact-everyone-is-constantly-texting-now/837297/24 "2019-07-20T16:37:31Z")
Out here, I dont see retail texting when it’s busy. Or at all if they are working the register. Now in those little clothing stores in the mall, where sales are not constant, yes, of course they do. At the local grocery store, I know it’s a firing offense to use your phone while working. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2019, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-modern-businesses-deal-with-the-fact-everyone-is-constantly-texting-now/837297/25 "2019-07-20T16:47:21Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Out here, I dont see retail texting when it’s busy. Or at all if they are working the register. Now in those little clothing stores in the mall, where sales are not constant, yes, of course they do. I was wondering if the OP happened to walk into the store at a slow time, when the employees didn’t have anything they were supposed to be working on. If so, the problem isn’t that they were texting on the job, but that they didn’t put down their phones when a customer walked in. And, not that this excuses it, but I’d guess that, since there were several employees there, each thought that they could just keep on texting because one of the others would attend to the customer. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2019, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-modern-businesses-deal-with-the-fact-everyone-is-constantly-texting-now/837297/26 "2019-07-20T16:54:43Z")
Just because there are no customers does not mean there’s no work to do. Items don’t get priced and put on the shelves by themselves. Returned items don’t go back to where they belong on the shelves by themselves. The floor don’t get swept, garbage emptied and shelves cleaned by themselves. The carts left outside up and down the block don’t get back to the store by themselves. The new items don’t get ordered, taken off the truck, boxes opened, and on the shelves by themselves. The bags don’t get restocked under the register by themselves. The items customers drop or spill on the floor don’t get cleaned up by themselves. ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2019, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-modern-businesses-deal-with-the-fact-everyone-is-constantly-texting-now/837297/27 "2019-07-20T18:29:22Z")
> [@pullin](#): > > If a person answered the phone like was normal in the past 100 years, this would work. > > No offense, but when’s the last time you called a warehouse, or doctor’s office, or theater? You’re going to get a phone menu, then a voice-mailbox most of the time. I haven’t called any business or commercial number in ages with a human answering the phone. At best, I work through a phone menu and finally to a service line where I’m told that my call is important to them – and then I usually wait a considerable time to finally hear an operator. There are many businesses where you actually cannot reach a human - period. This simply won’t do in an emergency. I’m pretty sure every single business has a direct line to an employee that isn’t the “public” phone number, every job I’ve worked has one. Either you call the secretary directly, or you call the dock and that gets you a person immediately. That’s the number I give when I have to give a phone number for my job on applications for example. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-modern-businesses-deal-with-the-fact-everyone-is-constantly-texting-now/837297.md?page=1)