I’m annoyed by a trend caused, it seems, by the widespread use of cell phones. And that is, after looking at the screen and seeing who’s calling them, people answer the phone with “Hey there, how’s it going?” sometimes, “Hey Ellen,” and even a startling bark of “Ellen!” Or perhaps the most annoying, “Yes??” The last case is mainly my former husband–so I’m not sure if I’m being objective or not.
I’m not sure if this has been addressed before; forgive me if it has.
I think people should just answer with “hello” whether or not they know who it is. I suppose it eliminates the need to identify myself. But it throws me off: the opening courtesies I am used to have been dispensed with and I’m thurst directly into the conversation. I answer any phone I pick up with either “Hello?” or, at work, with my name.
I’ve noticed some people doing this with their home phone, and occasionally at my office, where secretaries mostly have phones which display the name and extension number of the person calling them.
Does this bug anyone else, or am I all alone in my irritation?
It was startling for me at first as well, but now I’m used to it, more or less. Actually, I now expect the other person to know who I am when they pick up. But I still answer with the standard “Hello?” unless it’s someone I know really well. It just seems more polite, I suppose.
I’ve got the opposite problem - I, like everyone I know, have call ID. Everyone knows or assumes I have call ID. And I still answer the phone with “Hello?”, even if it’s my mum or something. Then I’m subjected to “What, you don’t recongize my number/last name?” or “Call ID not working?” and so on.
To answer your question, no, it doesn’t bother me too much when people answer the phone with my name when they see I’m calling.
Actually, I find it odd to pretend as though I don’t know who is on the other line when I pick up the phone. I don’t answer calls to my cell phone from numbers I don’t recognize, so there’s no ambiguity about who might be on the other end of the line. It doesn’t bother me when I am greeted this way, either. In fact, unless I’m calling a business or someone I haven’t called before, I think the whole ritual of having to identify myself and ask for a caller feels a bit silly.
Most of the people I call have a cell phone for personal use, and they’re likely the only person who will be answering it. It’s not like it used to be, where you had one household phone and could not reasonably expect the person you wished to speak with to answer the phone. I think the old phone etiquette rules are a bit silly when applying them to cell phones or caller id.
What drives me CRAZY, however, is people who assume you recognize their voice, so they don’t feel compelled to identify themselves. Some folks’ hearing is bad, sometimes there’s background noise, sometimes one or both parties are ill…you expose the person you’re calling to embarassment or worse by not identifying yourself by name.
Oooh, I HATE this too! For whatever reason, I just don’t have an ear for voices. I couldn’t tell you my mom’s voice if I heard it, without knowing beforehand who it was. I get this at work all the time, especially from colleagues I rarely work with. I’ll pick up the phone, and they’ll just launch into their spiel or start asking questions. The worst part is they have the gall to sound offended when I ask who it is I’m speaking with!
When that happens to me (not able to recognize a voice) I just pretend I know who it is.
Me: Hello?
Them: Hey man…blah blah blah
Me: Blah Blah Blah
(about a minute later)
Me: Yeah, who’s this or Ohhh. Hi! I just realized I was talking to you.
It doesn’t really bother me when people know it’s me calling. Saves the awkward formalities at the beginning of the call.
As far as my caller ID, the LCD display on my phone messed up a few years ago, so I cancelled my caller ID service with the phone company. Saved me over $8 per month, so I’m happy.
Hm. That doesn’t really bother me very much. Sometimes I’ll do it if I’m expecting a call, but most of the time the “Hello” is automatic.
What bothers me is the whole “waiting to see who’s on the Caller ID before answering it” thing. My sister and my mom both do this. They’ll hold the phone for a few rings, waiting for the caller ID to come through, even when they know who it’s probably going to be. It’s almost as though they’re deciding whether to answer it.
This isn’t just when they’re waiting for an important call, or when they’re busy. It’s all the freakin’ time. Meanwhile, I’m sitting there as the phone rings a couple more times, thinking, God, just answer the freakin’ phone already.
Me, I just answer the phone if I want to answer it. If I don’t want to answer it, I don’t. If it’s a telemarketer, I say, “I’m not interested, thank you,” and hang up (though I shouldn’t be getting these anymore, since our new number’s been on the DNC list for over 30 days now). Of course, my husband and I don’t want to pay for caller ID, so we don’t have it on our land line. I mean, really, I was just fine without it for fifteen years; why should I pay for it now?
You are not alone. It bugs me too. I don’t carry a cell phone and My home land line does not have caller ID so I have not had a chance to become acclimated to this new trend.
My work phone will show the extension/name of the person calling if it is someone in the building. Some outside calls show a number but some do not. I do adjust my answering greeting a bit if I see the name show up. Typically I answer with a simple pleasant “John Doe.” If I see and recognize the name, I’ll change it to “This is John.” Regardless, I answer the phone in a professional manner. Not a chummy “Hi Bill” or whatever.
When people do it to me I get weirded out for a second. It seems vaugely Big Brother-ish that someone knows who I am before I have even had a chance to identify myself.
I don’t have Caller ID, which is actually surprising considering how much I hate using the telephone at all. The effect of all this is that I always answer the phone as if I’m really pissed off that anyone would be calling me, and then I get to be surprised if it’s someone I really want to talk with
However, in answer to your question, yes, it does piss me off when they answer the phone using my name because they do have Caller ID.
I guess my family does this–sort of. The phone number for the house is that same one that my parents use for farm business, and we have called ID so we know whether we should answer the phone, “Hello, McKnittington residence,” or “Hello, McKnittington Farms. Purl speaking; how can I help you?” There are certain phone numbers and/or names that we know are farm business and ones that we know are always going to be family business. For example, if my friend Firecrotch ever calls wanting to buy a load of hay, I’ll be very surprised. Likewise, if the guy at the county extension office calls wanting to know what I’m doing this weekend, it would be a little weird.
Sorry. I always answer in a way that indicates I know who is calling. Why not? If I see someone I know walk up to my front door and knock, clearly visible through the window, I do not call out “Who is it?” I tell them to come in (or to drop dead–it depends).
The only time it has ever been an issue was when I got a call from the woman who worked in marketing and I picked it up with “Yes, Ma’am!” only to discover that the gentleman who was assistant to the controller was in her office and had used her phone to ask me a question. On the other hand, he was sharp enough to recognize why I had answered the way I did, so it was no big deal. (I suppose that if I answered “Hello, sweetheart!” there might have been a bigger problem, but I only answer my wife’s number that way.)
Well, here’s the corollary. I won’t pick up the phone unless I know who’s calling. I have caller ID and still screen all my calls…I p/u my weekly phone call from my aunts, but if they call at a different time I’ll wait and see what they want before I pick it up. I rarely use my cell phone to recieve, but same goes there.
At work, after many years of droneship, I finally rose to the dizzying heights of being able to dictate the phone answering policy for our office. I am trying not to let this awesome power go to my head.
Too many people around here were answering the phone “Yo, dawg” or something along those lines when the caller ID display showed it was their buddy Mike in accounting. The call might be coming from Mike’s phone, but you really don’t know if it is Mike calling. It’s part of our staff training now that phones are answered “Name of Office, may I help you?” no matter who is calling.
This happened to me once. I affectionately call our receptionist “Kittycat”. If I’d see “OPR” on my display I’d pick up and say “hey Kittycat”. That is until some muckymuck from THE BIG OFFICE was calling for my boss and she put him right through without announcing him first. Luckily he seemed to have a sense of humor. I have sales reps calling me all day from their cell phones. They know we have caller id, yet they always start the conversation by identifying themselves. Sometimes I’ll even answer with “Cosmo’s house of pain” or something silly like that ,and they act as if I’d answer that way to the general public.
I never ever ever assume that the person that I’m calling has caller ID or will recognize my voice, especially on business calls. How hard is it to say “Hi Fred, it’s ToC with ABC Company.” If I get into the habit of trying to guess if the person at the other end knows me, sure as shootin’, I’m going to get bit in the butt by it. It also give the person I’m calling time to get oriented on who I am, and what I might be calling about.
