Saturday, April 03, 2010

Sounds Like a Personal Problem to Me

Over the past several years, I've had the distinct displeasure of working with two different women for two different employers who abused the liberal personal call policy.

The first, whose sole job was to answer phone calls at a call center, was notorious for not only taking personal phone calls on her work phone but also for having her cell phone glued to her ear the minute she stepped away from her desk. Additionally, she installed Yahoo messenger, a employer-banned app, and continually re-installed it every time our desktop support specialist removed it, so that she could chat online when she wasn't chatting on the phone.

The second, who had a mountain of work to do that did not include talking on the phone most of the time, was constantly talking to all her friends, her husband, her daughter. Because we shared an office at the time, I found out a lot about her life and the life of her friends. Non-consensually. I found it distracting and irritating.

I have a philosophy about work and personal phone calls.

Work time is for work. Personal time is for personal. Rarely shall the two meet.

I adhere to this pretty strictly. Very few people have my work number and the ones who do have it have the understanding that it is not to be abused. Often, if my cell phone rings during the day, I do not answer it. I will answer texts if I have time. I will answer e-mails if I have time. There is only one person outside family whose attempts to reach me are never ignored. She doesn't abuse this ever. But then, she wouldn't contact me to say nothing at all.

My bosses have appreciated this about me.

Those two women I described above?

Both fired.

I think I'm doing it right.

1 comment:

Diva said...

Here's to having respect for each other in the workplace. *clink* (That's the sound of coffee mugs, not wine glasses. *laugh*)