Mobile Phone Etiquette Questions Reach The Office

Culture

from the to-answer-or-not-to-answer? dept

It was only a matter of time. We’ve seen stories about mobile phone etiquette in general (turning off your phone in public places, not talking loudly around others) and ringtone etiquette in the office (not having some silly obnoxious ringtone play in front of your boss), but the next question to come up is about general mobile phone etiquette in the office. With more and more people using mobile phones to replace their desk phone, it adds a bit of complexity to the situation. Since people take their phones with them, meetings often get interrupted as people feel the need to answer their mobile phones — even when in the middle of something else. One interesting side note is the dichotomy between people who believe mobile phones are only to be called “in an emergency” and those who believe that mobile phones can be called at any time. Apparently, clashes between the two camps can get messy — as those who are in the “emergency only” camp get annoyed when people call them about regular business on their mobile phone, and those in the “any time” camp get annoyed that people don’t call them on their mobile phone. Of course, my preferred solution is just to have one phone number that rings my office phone and which I can forward to my mobile phone when appropriate — while also recognizing that I don’t always have to answer my mobile phone. That allows me to make the rules, rather than having others decide which number to call or making me a slave to a ringing phone.