I have two coworkers who - I swear - I have never had a meeting with without their respective wives calling them. We don’t have meetings at the same time, so for this to happen with such regularity, I have to assume these women call many times a day. Now, luckily I am currently in an assignment that isn’t challanging me, so I can afford for them to waste my time while they chat about their household issues (clearly so, or I wouldn’t be posting her during work hours…), but if I were under pressure this would be driving me insane.
As a single man, perhaps I don’t appreciate just how often emergencies come up that need instant intervention from the SO. I’m willing to be schooled.
How often do you call your SO?
How often do they call you?
What constitutes a reason worthy of interupting you or them at work?
Am I out of line for thinking this is rude?
I can’t imagine interrupting a meeting for my husband for anything other than a real emergency.
My husband usually calls me once a day, just to say hello and see how my day is going. If he doesn’t call me, I’ll call him (again, just to check in and let him know I am thinking of him).
I don’t view one phone call as much of an interruption. If I am not available to talk, he leaves a message and I call back when or if I can. If I’m not immersed in something, his phone call is one of the bright points of my day.
Sounds to me like your bosses need to screen calls during meetings. I can’t imagine sitting in a meeting and wasting everyone’s time while I talk with my husband about our home life. Very rude.
I can’t call my husband at his work. If he isn’t working, I’ll call him once during the day to let him know what time to pick me up or that I’ll be home depending on who is driving that day. If I haven’t called him by say 12:00 or so, he’ll call me for the same reason.
If he is working, he’ll call me once. To either tell me what time he’s picking me up or to tell me he’s down the street.
We don’t phone each other during the working day but we will swap emails instead. For meetings, it is common courtesy to turn mobile phones off so that discussions aren’t interrupted when people should be concentrating on the matters at hand.
We see each other in the evening, that’s plenty of time to talk about our respective days at work and the usual round of asshattery.
I hear from my wife once a day, at 5:10 PM or thereabouts, to tell me she’s five minutes away in the car, so I can finish up and meet her at the door. If we need to have other communication during the day, we have e-mail. I’ve never called her at work. The only thing I can think of worth interrupting something really important at work would be a crisis of some sort. Otherwise, it’s rude and inconsiderate for someone to take a personal call during a meeting.
Since my wife and I both work, we’re usually too busy to be calling each other in the middle of the day. If we need to get ahold of each other we’re probably better off emailing than trying to call.
The guy in the cube next to me, however – his wife doesn’t work and I swear she must call him half a dozen times a day. Plus, they don’t have kids, and he goes home for lunch every day, so I’m not sure what’s so urgent that she needs to call constantly. Maybe she’s just bored, but if my wife didn’t work and she called me that many times a day, I’d have to tell her to knock it off. (Or just quit answering the phone.)
How often do you call your SO?
I’d say an average of once a week. Most weeks not at all. On occasion, more, if there’s something important going on.
How often do they call you?
Same.
What constitutes a reason worthy of interrupting you or them at work?
Hard to say. If I know it’s not going to busy day for him, I go ahead and call about something minor, along the lines of, “I’m stopping at the grocery store after work. Anything you need?” or “What do you want for dinner?” Usually, though, we just e-mail each other if there’s something minor we want to say/ask (most of the time it’s just because we don’t want to forget).
Am I out of line for thinking this is rude?
No. If my husband called and I was in a meeting, I wouldn’t take the call unless it was an emergency. I’d tell him I’d call back at a more convenient time. I’ve worked with people who talk to family members all day on the phone. It’s horribly annoying.
I hadn’t meant to submit it with just that. ::grumble::
I call him about once every 2 months.
Same for him.
Usually we only talk during the day if one of us is leaving work early and we want to meet somewhere. I really can’t think of other reasons we would need to interrupt each others work day.
Yes, taking multiple calls per day while at work is very rude. There’s a reason people have breaks and lunch.
We talk about once a day. I get in earlier, so he might call me on his way to work, but it’s usually around lunch time. We need to coordinate about evening activities, who’s going to pick up the kids, and so forth.
I don’t think I’ve ever called my husband’s work number. I have called him on his cell while at work. Usually once a month or so to ask if he needs anything from the store.
He calls me at work (either my work line or my cell) once or twice a month for the same reason.
We communicate pretty much everyday while at work through IMs though. He makes me laugh and smile a lot.
Prolly a couple times per week for me (if I really need to talk to him; he’s hard to reach so I don’t want to hassle with it). He calls me nearly every day when he leaves work so I can get dinner started or be ready to go somewhere or whatever.
If he calls me during the day and I’m on a conference call, I don’t pick up unless someone is dying (which has oft been the case in this family).
When I was married, I called my husband at work maybe five times a year. We both preferred to communicate by email. I definitely didn’t email him every day, either. Maybe twice a week.
People at work whose phones ring all day long drive me nuts. We don’t deal with the public, so if the phone rings, it’s a personal call. Unfortunately, the phones ring really loudly and for some reason the people who get ten calls a day still will let the phone ring several times without answering it.
Currently, my husband works nights, so I never call him at work unless it is an emergency (in other words, I have called him at work once in the 2 years he has been at this particular job). When he is on active duty at the armory, I may call him once/day – if there is something I need to tell him.
He is usually asleep while I am at work, but when he is awake, we usually chat most of the workday via googletalk. I sit at a computer all day on the phones, so it’s not a big deal to chat online. He only calls if he needs something important, and then he knows what time I take my break, so will call around that time if it can wait.
For me to call him and actually interrupt work, it would have to be an emergency – someone is needing a trip to the ER. For him to call me (and me not get pissy), it would need to be something like that or similar. Just to chat about home stuff? I would go off – and I would never make a call like that. But then again, I work for a living and have worked in management, I am not a stay-at-home-while-my-husband-makes-caboodles-of-money-and-I-am-bored wife.
I agree that it is rude, and the guys need to either 1) not take the call or 2) tell their wife to stop freaking calling except during their lunch break.
Usually once a day to check in and discuss if we have any (soccer games, tennis matches, car pools, social engagements, school functions) that evening. Then he’ll call in after 5 to let me know when he’s coming home so I can time dinner. (We like to eat together as a family whenever possible.)
Years ago, I worked as a secretary for a middle level manager. His girlfriend (later wife), Susan, called DOZENS of times a day. Whenever I had to intercept, she always greeted me in the chirpiest voice imaginable and proceeded to discuss the most intimate details of their lives.
I’ve since learned that they divorced. I’m sure it’s because one day he realized that if he heard her chirpy voice one more time, he’d snap her neck in two. I know I wanted to and I only had to deal with her a few times a day.
I’m the receptionist for an architectural firm. The wife of one of our associates calls at least 7 or 8 times every day. I don’t understand at all. She drives me crazy.
We hardly ever call each other during the work day, but we do a fair amount of instant messaging, just because both of us are sitting in front of a computer all day.
