Personally, I hate talking to someone who’s got the phone in the speaker mode. The caller always sounds like he’s in a box. I can’t help but wonder who else is listening. I did a phone interview with 4 people sharing a speaker phone. Gah, it was awful!
Yet there are people in my office who use them all the time. I’ve been treated more times than I can say to both sides of conversations. Thankfully they’re not personal calls, but still, I don’t need to hear someone else’s budget woes or deadlines or technical issues. And try as I might, I can’t tune it out.
So count me in the hate column. I don’t see the purpose. Do a conference call if you need to talk to more than one at once!
Hate 'em. It’s one thing if there are more than one people on the line, but usually it’s one fucktard that thinks he is sooooo busy and high and mighty that he’s got to use a speaker phone. It’s just a rude power play, or a dork that doesn’t realize it’s rude.
I feel the only acceptable use of this device is for dialing and waiting for the other party to pick up. As soon as they answer, the user should switch back to a regular phone.
I agree with China Guy, it’s terribly rude to use it for a normal conversation.
I use a speakerphone quite often, when the caller is trying to describe a problem with his or her computer, and I am trying to replicate the problem on mine… It’s easier to type if you are not trying to balance the phone on your shoulder. If I were staffing a help desk, I’d have a headset, but I’m not, so I don’t…
Ah yes, I am reminded of a guy at my workplace whose office is quite close to my desk. He has what might be called a naturally loud voice, so it tends to be heard over major distances even when he is having an in-person conversation.
Up until recently he has had a major habit of using the speaker phone for his business-related conversations, which tended to mighty distracting. So, I do sympathize, FairyChatMom! I wrote “until recently” because lately he has not been using the speaker phone nearly as much. I’m assuming someone spoke to him and/or his manager about that. He’s also lately been closing his office door much more during his phone conversations, so change in phone-use habits is possible!
I use the speaker phone when I’m calling about any of my utilities. You have to enter so many numbers, and be put through so many “please hold for the next available operator” prompts, that it only makes sense to use the speaker phone. Also, sometimes hubby and I both have to talk to my daughter’s psychiatrist, and we’ll use the speaker phone so we can both participate in the conversation. These are the only conversations I use speaker phone for. Anything even remotely personal, I might use speaker phone until the person picks up, then I’m on to the handset.
Jeffwc, I work in a cubicle farm. There are no doors to close, alas. And, to be heard above the ambient din, speaker-phoners have to talk louder than normal.
I can’t even resort to NPR today because the beg-a-thon has begun…
Maybe I should have put this in the pit… nah - I just wanted to see if my hatred is as universal as it should be!
God, I hated it when my husband did this with his phone at work.
RING
RING
“Hello?”
strange muffled clattering noise[while he picks up the handset.]
CLUNK [This is him pressing the button to switch from the speaker to the handset.]
“Hi, dear. I was wondering if you were planning on stopping by the grocery store on the way home. . .”
ARRGGHH! I’m not a fan of talking on the phone anyway; strange pauses and noises do not make the experience any more enjoyable. I asked him many times why he didn’t just hold the freakin’ handset to his ear while it rings, and why it’s such a wonderful modern convenience to listen to it ring on speakerphone, and he couldn’t come up with a reason. My guess is just it’s a habit he picked up from other people at work. I told him to quit it, and he doesn’t do it when he calls me anymore. I hope they don’t do this regularly with their customers. What kind of message does it send that it’s not worth the effort to hold a phone to your ear when you call someone with whom you are doing business?
Also, the guy with the office next to mind uses the speakerphone to call the automated line at the bank and do his financial transactions. It’s super loud, so I can hear it even when his door is closed, and, seriously, I don’t want to know the balances on his banking accounts!
It’s usually the managerial types around here who use them (e.g. managers & directors). Whenever I have to call one of them and they put me on speaker phone, I politely ask them “Could you please take me off speakerphone?”
I don’t know if they find this offensive (a form of insubordination, perhaps), but they always apologize and pick up the phone.
I agree about the tech-support phone menu. I try to be considerate to my office-mates, however, and I lower the volume of the phone to an almost imperceptable level while I wait.
So when you call them, what you get is the sounds of my MIL shouting in the background, like she is on a ship to shore call, while the grandchildren she is raising are running around like wild savages and you can hear her summarily yelling at them and talking to you. And then my less than tactful father in law wheels in, not realizing she’s talking on the phone and starts issuing directives in his standard old world way.
When they had a dog (whom was the only sensible one in that house) he would always choose that time to bark his displeasure about something. I’m pretty sure he was trying to get a message to me to spring him from the joint.
It’s like having a pay phone inside the chimp exhibit. Only less coherent.
I always used to hate them (from either end) for the “sounds like you’re in a box” reasons given above. Then I bought my mother a new phone setup for Christmas, and I decided to experiment with speakerphone while I was setting it up. It’s absolutely imperceptible that you’re talking to someone on speaker.
I went out and bought the same setup for myself, and I love it. I keep the handset on my desk, and you would never know I was in speaker mode. I made sure to try it out by calling my wife while I was out and having her put it on speaker, and it sounds perfect. I don’t know if it’s this particular model (a V-Tech), or if speakerphone technology has just gotten better, but I rarely hold on to the handset anymore.
Actually, pretty much everyone in my family has bought them now. It was pretty damn cool to be able to watch the Super Bowl while my brothers across the country and I all had our phones tied together, all using speaker.
Wow…a re-read sure makes it sound like I own their stock or something. Hey V-Tech! How 'bout a kickback over here!
I also get peeved at the jerks on large conference calls who a) are using the freakin’ speaker phone or b) put the phone on hold for some reason so the rest of us get to list to the crappy hold music.
A little background: As most of y’all know, I work for the State of Alabama. In a beautiful new building designed by an engineer, not an architect. Cheaply built (state government, feh) - said engineer designed doorways at 9’4". Doors would have to be specially built at $900 per door. Needless to say, there are about 12 doors out of 500 offices in the building.
My office (no door) is directly across from the public affairs officer (no door). He is addicted to speaker phone. The phone is in the corner on his right - the doorway is on his left. Because he can’t be troubled to turn toward the phone, much less pick it up, he “projects his voice”. Down south we’d call that yellin’ but seein’ as he’s from town, we’ll just hold to his high-falutin’ ways. Damn, he’s loud. I understand if your hands are busy or you’re doing something that you just can’t interrupt but every single freakin’ call? Please.
I’ve had to rearrange my office because the furniture was just funneling the sound directly to me. I’m now nearer him; but I’m also nearer to the wall and my radio (Thank God for NPR.). So I’ve baffled his shout. I have people ask me all the time how I can stand it. Mostly I tune him out now. But he’s still loud.
Business or personal - all over the speaker phone. :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:
Funny note: when his wife was about 6 months pregnant, it got ugly.
RING *Uh Self-important Jackass, How may I help you? * “I know I’m not on speakerphone” But hunny it’s easier for me… * "**If you don’t take me off the fcking speaker you’d better sleep in iron underwear because I swear I will cut your balls off in your sleep." ** handset picks upLuv you hunny, blah blah blah.
Now? RING* Uh Self-important Jackass, How may I help you?* <pause> *Uh Hello? * <pause> Hunny?handset picks upHow are you doing, Hunny?
Now if she can just whip him out of using the speaker at all…
To those who must the speakerphone to dial out: if you aren’t ready to dial within, say, a milli-second of pushing the line button, don’t effing push the line button!
I have a cow-orker who will push a line button and wait upwards of 20 seconds before dialing a number. Meanwhile, we all get treated to a 5000-decibel dial tone.
Uggg. I don’t like speaker phones, for many of the reasons already mentioned.
I think I can count the number of times I’ve used the speaker on one hand… all of which were situations where someone in the household left something at home, and they wanted me to check and see if it was there. In those cases, the object was somewhere in that room (supposedly), but the phone cord wasn’t long enough for me to wander around the room with it. So, onto the speaker phone they went… “I’m standing over by the window, and I see a (foo), is that it? No? There’s also a… rummage, rummage (bar) here, is that it? It was near (bar)? Okay…” And so on and so forth.
I hate it when the person I’m talking to has me on speaker phone: most of the time those microphones SUCK and trying to hear them is difficult.
<< Been there, done that, burned the negatives. >>
You can hear my husband’s voice from a mile away, but mine is unbelievably soft, unless I’m yelling. Nobody I talk to likes the idea of being on our speaker phone.
I finally solved the problem of carrying a cordless all over by getting one with a clip-on unit for my belt, and the headset helps make my voice clearer to others.
And I can do housework as I talk.
I don’t particularly mind it, and it comes in useful for us, as I and two co-workers work three miles from our manager. The phones seem to be well-built, and there’s not much of the “box” effect, and we don’t have to raise our voices at all (and we keep the door closed).
What I hate is people who dial my number on speaker phone, wait until I answer, and then snatch the handset from the base, which, to me, sounds like a plane crashing into my right ear.
Unfortunately, conference call participants who don’t have speaker phones usually don’t know how to mute their doggone phone. Fifteen assorted people in a conference room get to stare at the speakerphone in the middle of the table as it broadcasts someone’s wheezing breaths and annoying loud keyclicks. On rare occasions we get a telecommuting call and we get to hear children at play. Actually, that’s better than the heavy breathing.
They’re OK for conference calls when you have multiple people around 1 phone. But if you have a bunch of lines with one person on each, then I think it’s rude. 1 on 1 conversations done on speaker without a good reason like, “I have to use both of my hands in order to help you and I don’t have a headset,” I find unacceptable. Usualy if I place a call and am put on speaker and the reason is not given immediately (and often it is–the client may have someone else with him who is in on the call) I will fake like I can’t hear until the phone is picked up. I’m usually giving money away so people are pretty keen to talk to me.
