Comments on: Things I wish you didn’t need to be told:

By: styro

styro — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 02:44:55 +0000

Yeah, I’d say, “Oh, it sounds like maybe you are busy with lunch, why don’t I give you a call back in 10 minutes and we can talk about it then?” Or the first advice works too, just keep interrupting until they give up and either put the apple down or…

I had a boss who used to call me from the toilet, and I finally told him it was 100% INAPPROPRIATE and he should not ANSWER nor MAKE calls while he was in the shitter. After that, if I heard the tell-tale echo of tile, I would just HANG UP on him. If he mentioned it later, I’d say, “Before we discuss this, would you like to invite the director of HR into this meeting? I think it would be appropriate to have her here.” And he would STFU.

God people are rude.

By: kismet

kismet — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 01:14:53 +0000

Also on the list: DO NOT call me from the bathroom stall, thankyouverymuch. Unless someone is dead, you don’t need to talk to me that bad.

By: Doug Franklin

Doug Franklin — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 07:04:52 +0000

Agree W/Maggie 100%, but I don’t think that I would be so subtle.

What I would do/have done is say, “I think we have a bad connection, I’m going to hang up, I’ll call you back/you call me back.”

Then, if they’re still eating, I would ask them if they’re eating something or if the connection is still bad. If they continue after that, they need a 2X4 to get a clue.

By: Maggi

Maggi — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 16:36:00 +0000

My tendency is to just say, “I’m sorry, I’m having trouble hearing you,” or “I’m sorry, could you repeat that?” every time they try to say something while chewing / eating. I’ve also said, “I’m sorry, I’m having trouble hearing over all the background noise there,” and after a couple repetitions of things along those lines, they usually clue in and put the food down.