But telephones have been around for a while. Just because you can take these new-fangled ones with you doesn’t change the basic rules of phone etiquette.* I doubt this woman would walk into a coworker’s office with a question and just jump right into the question without giving her coworker a chance to get off the phone or put the person on hold.
The problem was that this woman started right into her question without giving him a chance to hang up or tell his friend to hang on a minute. That’s the rude part. Plus, if he had shook his head no and walked away, I could totally see her causing a scene in the middle of the street. Well, maybe not causing a scene, but she would have definitely thought him rude.
Really? If I don’t have a phone and need to use a public phone booth with no door, I have to be available to anyone who comes by? Unless it were life or death, she can wait until I’m done. Directions aren’t life or death.
Did you read her whole post? I don’t think she meant you have to be available all the time. it was this part that got me:
I think she means it more for your protection. I don’t think she meant you should be available all the time, just to be careful with what you say in public.
I think it’s rude. Then again, I notice more and more people interrupting any and all calls, not just cell phone calls.
What’s wrong with waiting 2-3 minutes until someone gets off the phone? This happens in my office all the time.
I’m suggesting that there is a certain type of person who conducts their personal business in such a way that it interferes with the ability of people around them to remain at peace, and those people are rude.
Some of these people adjust their undergarments in full view of others.
Some of these people clean their nasal passages in full view of others.
Some of these people sneeze and/or cough without covering their noses and/or mouths.
Some of these people converse with other people about topics and/or at volumes which should not be inflicted upon anyone, especially total strangers. Some of those conversations are held in person, some are held over walkie-talkie, some are held over landline phones, and some are held over cell phones.
In my experience, a great many* people talking on cell phones in public, for some reason, wind up stumbling over the line into rude. Usually the problem is that they can’t modulate their volume, but I’ve heard people standing in public discussing their blood test results with someone on the other end of the phone.
I didn’t say it was you, and I didn’t say it was you in my original reply, either. I made a joke, as evidenced by the fact that I told you in a clearly non-face-to-face medium what I would have done in a situation which was clearly a fictionalized version of you asking me the question you posed in your OP at a party or other IRL-type situation. If you are one who needs a smiley face before you recognize humor, here 'tis, with apologies it arrived late:
I wouldn’t consider it rude at all. Somebody’s lost, needs quick help. I feel that my conversation can wait the extra second or two until I help the person out. I wouldn’t feel at all put off by a lost stranger in need of help interrupting my conversation for a moment. Why should I? And cry me a river on wasted minutes on your cellphone plan. That’s at most an extra minute and won’t trigger overages for the vast majority of people, unless they’re used to always paying overages.
