October 1, 2012

The New Cell Phone Etiquette, or

How You Can Find Your Status Level With Someone Using a Cell Phone

What happened to the days when you were speaking to someone, person to person, when you were interrupted by a telephone call to the person you were speaking with, which they politely asked the caller to, “please hold”, so they could continue the conversation they were having with you? This is very unlikely to happen at a place of business where you are held a captive customer, such as an auto parts store, where the likely scenario is you are made to wait while they continue talking to their caller. Taken a notch further up the communication ladder, what if this person receives a call on their cell phone? Are you made to wait, or do they ask their caller to wait? If you're made to wait, you can figure you status level with that person is at a very low level, and if they ask their caller to wait, your have a high status level. Most people do not like to be made to wait when interrupted by something that arises from the outside world, no matter what the importance of the interruption might be.

I, personally, do not own a cell phone, so I'm never interrupted by a call while I'm speaking with someone. However, what about you cell phone owners who may read this, how do you handle calls that interrupt face to face conversations? Who do you ask to wait, or who do you ask to hold?