Something interesting happened today. I came into office as usual, at around 9 am. Other colleagues trickled in and by about 9.30, work was on in full swing. That’s how it usually happens. The only difference today was that the boss — managing director and creative director of the ad agency I work with — was out on a shooting. When he is not in office he calls at regular intervals to find out if all is going well. Sometimes we also have to clarify things.
Being Christmas-New Year season, there was plenty of work and we were all trying our best to keep deadlines even as we tried to keep up the quality of work.
Aishwarya, the office admin girl was being bombarded with calls on the office mobile. Clients calling asking for something or the other. The land line in office kept ringing off and on too. To help Aishwarya, I picked up a few calls, while she was busy on the cellphone. There was not much I could do to help them and all I did was to tell them that Aishwarya is busy.
At around 11 am a call came. Aishwarya was on the mobile so I picked up this call. I said hello and the person on the other end said something. It was not a ‘hello’. It was something else. I didn’t get what he said. So I said, “Pardon me, I didn’t get you. Come again, please.”
There was silence on the other end.
“Hello,” I said again.
Silence.
“Hello”
Silence.
“Hello”
Click, the phone goes dead from the other side and I am left listening to a beep beep.
This is something that irritates me no end. Imagine, My work needs concentration. And in the middle of something if the phone rings and I pick it up to hear silence and a click to disconnect, I am entitled to get irritated. Most often I abuse the joker who did that.
There are times when there is trouble with the line. But at 40+ plus I've attended enough calls to know whether it's a faulty line, or if it some stupid dumbass f***er who doesn't have the balls to speak up.
Anyway, in this case, I don’t think it was because there was some problem with the line. I could clearly hear sounds from the other end (vehicles honking etc). The guy at the other end had hung up, I was sure.
A few minutes later the phone rang again. I picked up and said hello.
“Hello,” said a female voice. “Is it MCC?” ( Media Creative Consultants, the advertising firm where I work as copywriter)
“Yes,” I said.
“Can I speak to Aishwarya?”
By then Aishwarya was done with the other call and she took this. Before handing her the receiver, I told her to ask the lady why she hung up earlier without speaking.
Aishwarya finished the call and then she told me that it was the lady’s husband who had called the first time. He was expecting Aishwarya’s voice and when he heard mine (they say I have a baritone voice) he didn’t know what to do. So he hung up!
What??? I couldn't believe it.
The man is an advocate, a corporate trainer, counselor etc etc. And he was confused when he heard a different voice on the phone? And didn’t know what to do, but just hang up?
Good lord! God save the guys who come to his training sessions!
Now, I am thinking...Why on earth do we expect a particular voice when we dial a number, especially an office phone? And why hang up if you didn’t get that voice? Ridiculous, isn't it?
Why don’t we learn telephone manners? Ask for the person we want to talk to. Identify ourselves. Ask the person whether it is a good time to talk. Apologise when you’ve got a wrong number etc. And for god sake not hang up without a word. When are we going to learn all this?
Being Christmas-New Year season, there was plenty of work and we were all trying our best to keep deadlines even as we tried to keep up the quality of work.
Aishwarya, the office admin girl was being bombarded with calls on the office mobile. Clients calling asking for something or the other. The land line in office kept ringing off and on too. To help Aishwarya, I picked up a few calls, while she was busy on the cellphone. There was not much I could do to help them and all I did was to tell them that Aishwarya is busy.
At around 11 am a call came. Aishwarya was on the mobile so I picked up this call. I said hello and the person on the other end said something. It was not a ‘hello’. It was something else. I didn’t get what he said. So I said, “Pardon me, I didn’t get you. Come again, please.”
There was silence on the other end.
“Hello,” I said again.
Silence.
“Hello”
Silence.
“Hello”
Click, the phone goes dead from the other side and I am left listening to a beep beep.
This is something that irritates me no end. Imagine, My work needs concentration. And in the middle of something if the phone rings and I pick it up to hear silence and a click to disconnect, I am entitled to get irritated. Most often I abuse the joker who did that.
There are times when there is trouble with the line. But at 40+ plus I've attended enough calls to know whether it's a faulty line, or if it some stupid dumbass f***er who doesn't have the balls to speak up.
Anyway, in this case, I don’t think it was because there was some problem with the line. I could clearly hear sounds from the other end (vehicles honking etc). The guy at the other end had hung up, I was sure.
A few minutes later the phone rang again. I picked up and said hello.
“Hello,” said a female voice. “Is it MCC?” ( Media Creative Consultants, the advertising firm where I work as copywriter)
“Yes,” I said.
“Can I speak to Aishwarya?”
By then Aishwarya was done with the other call and she took this. Before handing her the receiver, I told her to ask the lady why she hung up earlier without speaking.
Aishwarya finished the call and then she told me that it was the lady’s husband who had called the first time. He was expecting Aishwarya’s voice and when he heard mine (they say I have a baritone voice) he didn’t know what to do. So he hung up!
What??? I couldn't believe it.
The man is an advocate, a corporate trainer, counselor etc etc. And he was confused when he heard a different voice on the phone? And didn’t know what to do, but just hang up?
Good lord! God save the guys who come to his training sessions!
Now, I am thinking...Why on earth do we expect a particular voice when we dial a number, especially an office phone? And why hang up if you didn’t get that voice? Ridiculous, isn't it?
Why don’t we learn telephone manners? Ask for the person we want to talk to. Identify ourselves. Ask the person whether it is a good time to talk. Apologise when you’ve got a wrong number etc. And for god sake not hang up without a word. When are we going to learn all this?
No comments:
Post a Comment