Picking up colleagues' telephones...

[Jim Gamma]

Ever had this happen?

[Colleague is away from desk, or not in yet.]

[Colleague's phone rings. Being responsible, you pick it up.]

YOU: "Hello, [colleague]'s phone, [name] speaking."
CALLER: "Oh, hello, is [colleague] there?"
YOU: [thinking] Well, if they were around, they'd have picked up the phone, wouldn't they!
YOU: [said] "Sorry, they're not around at the moment. Can I take a message?"
...etc...

When this happens I always get the urge to actually say the line I've put as "thinking"... I mean, unless the colleague happens to be a senior boss, they're not going to have people picking up their calls for them. And if they ARE a senior boss, then the person picking up the phone is likely to be screening the calls at the boss's request - so unless you tell me what it's about, I'm not going to disturb a senior boss for something potentially trivial.

*sigh*

 

[Yoda]

Why is it responsible to answer? Do you people not have voice mail?

 

[Jim Gamma]

Yes, but it's just good manners.

1) People don't always leave voice messages.
2) If it's a simple request, you can deal with it, and the caller gets a good impression of the efficiency of your company.
3) If you answer, it doesn't look like nobody's around (and in a company of 200 people, you don't want it to look like the place is empty).

 

[Deckerd]

Our boss has a Pavlovian response to telephones. It doesn't matter whose it is, if there is nobody at the desk, she runs and answers, no matter how many times we tell her not to do it (she never gets messages right). She was standing in front of my desk 15 minutes ago when my phone rang and she literally started like a racehorse when the gates open. Crazy woman.

 

[Jim Gamma]

Oh, we don't have to run for it - if it's someone in our team, we just press a button on our phone and the call gets transferred.

 

[RoJoHen]

We don't tell people the numbers to our direct lines, so if someone wants to call me, they have to go through the receptionist. If I'm not in my office, she will transfer them to my voicemail.

So...no...I do not answer other people's phones.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

People here do not answer each other's phones. Support has a call queue so they don't have to worry about that, and the rest of us only get direct calls if we're really the responsible person, so it generally wouldn't do any good for another person to answer.

 

[Dr. Chandra]

We don't tell people the numbers to our direct lines, so if someone wants to call me, they have to go through the receptionist. If I'm not in my office, she will transfer them to my voicemail.

So...no...I do not answer other people's phones.

Same here. Our receptionist answers all calls, lets us know who it is, then we have the option to take it or send it to vm.

 

[Holdfast]

I used to regularly answer random phones on wards when I worked on them. I quite enjoyed it actually; I think I must have been a receptionist in a former life...

 

[Chaos Descending]

No one would dare answer someone else's phone where I work.

That's just simply not done.

 

[StolenThunder]

I used to regularly answer random phones on wards when I worked on them. I quite enjoyed it actually; I think I must have been a receptionist in a former life...

Urk. 99/100 times I'm an ignorer.

 

[Sythena]

I don't even answer my own phone let alone a friends or colleagues.

 

[WillsBabe]

I don't even answer my own phone let alone a friends or colleagues.

Isn't that why they invented voicemail? So you can get on with your damn work without people phoning you up to make more damn work!

 

[trampledamage]

I don't even answer my own phone let alone a friends or colleagues.

Isn't that why they invented voicemail? So you can get on with your damn work without people phoning you up to make more damn work!

I don't answer my phone at home either - unless I recognise the number. Call display and voice-mail are wonderful inventions!

 

[SG-17]

I don't even pick up my own phone.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

I don't even answer my own phone let alone a friends or colleagues.

Isn't that why they invented voicemail? So you can get on with your damn work without people phoning you up to make more damn work!

I don't answer my phone at home either - unless I recognise the number. Call display and voice-mail are wonderful inventions!

There are some people in this world I just plain don't want to talk to, and I get a certain satisfaction when I ignore their calls.

 

[Captain_Nick]

YOU: [thinking] Well, if they were around, they'd have picked up the phone, wouldn't they!

You need to purge these thoughts from your system son. You are superior to no one.

 

[Jim Gamma]

Nick, in what way did I imply I thought I was superior?

All I'm saying is that if you know it's someone's phone, and someone else has picked up, it's OBVIOUS that the person you've called isn't available.

 

[JoeZhang]

An alternative question to this - is it just me here who's never had to do an 'office' job that involves a shared or open office so never has to deal with this sort of thing?

Virtually everyone here on the threads where it comes up seems to be the other way.

 

[RoJoHen]

An alternative question to this - is it just me here who's never had to do an 'office' job that involves a shared or open office so never has to deal with this sort of thing?

Virtually everyone here on the threads where it comes up seems to be the other way.

I have my own office that I do not share with anybody if that's what you mean. However, when somebody calls the building, every phone rings including the one in my office. The receptionist is supposed to answer all those calls, but if she is unable to or is on another call, I will pick up.