Yes. OK. Yes. Very interesting. Uh huh. Yep. And you need to call me at work to tell me this? You couldn’t have waited till I got home? 'Cause it’s really easy to talk here in the middle of my cubicle farm about why our son is grounded and who needs to take whom to soccer practice tonight, and what we’re having for supper, and how hot it is out there, and …
Stop calling me! I’ll see you in 3 hours! What time will I be home? Oh, let’s see THE SAME TIME I COME HOME EVERY NIGHT!!!
I have the people who call me at work trained to start with yes or no questions. If I just answer one or the other (Annie? You coming to the City on Sunday? Want to see a show?), then I’m saying I can’t talk. They hang up. If I’m free, I’ll start the conversation.
I had a GF who pinged in on me over icq all day, every day. After I broke it off with her, she wanted to keep this up and was very angry when I blocked her.
Yes. And yes. With a 7 year old and an 8 year old to deal with. But that’s no excuse to keep bugging me. I’ve tried, Lord knows I’ve tried getting her to stop. It lasts for 2 or 3 days and then it starts all over again.
You can hear a pin drop in here and I hate having to answer personal questions that everyone within 30 feet can hear.
“Well, put him in his room and I’ll deal with him when I get home.”
“I don’t really feel like pork chops, but if that’s what you want, sure.”
“No, I can BBQ them when I get there.”
“Caesar salad.”
“Beans.”
“About $1.08, but with what’s happening in Lebanon and Iran it will probably go higher.”
“Where is it? OK, I’ll take her and you can take him.”
“Chocolate milk and french fries, OK.”
“5:30, the same time as usual.”
Tell her your boss has taken notice of how many times a day you’re taking personal calls and has put you on warning that if it continues, you’ll lose your job. She sure won’t be bored and lonely with you under foot all day. Of course she and the children will be hungry and shoeless, but hopefully she’ll give a crap enough about that that she’ll knock it off.
When she does call, tell her you simply cannot chat, sorry, and HANG UP.
My kids call me all the time for really silly reasons and it really bugs me.
I pretty much have them trained to ask if it’s a good time to talk first before launching into the conversation.
I carry a pager, and what REALLY, REALLY bugs me is when office secretaries and other administrative staff types page me in order to ask me some silly thing that could have waited or been asked in an email. Now when I race to a phone only to have it be a secretary asking me if I’m free for a meeting next week I ask her if she thinks that that is truely a “page-worthy” question.
