Tuesday, August 26, 2008

The Proper Way to Use Technology - 4

Is there a polite way to use call waiting?

According to Pier Forni, author of The Civility Solution: What to Do When People Are Rude, "There is. If you're on a social call and there is a chance you'll be interrupted by a client or a coworker, and especially your boss, tell your friend at the beginning of the conversation that if you get another call, you'll need to take it."

Sue Fox, founder and president of EtiquetteSurvival.com adds, "Make your decision based on whom you're speaking with. Conversely, if you're the first caller and you're left hanging for too long, hang up. Your time is important too."

Honestly, I am not a big fan of call waiting. We have it on our phone, but I try to ignore the beeps when they happen. I like Jessica's thought of using it to see who is calling and then returning their call once I finish up my initial conversation.

It is very distracting to me when I am in the middle of a phone call and I hear that beep/pause indicating someone else is calling. Like I said earlier, I am not great at multi-tasking so the fewer distractions the better if I am going to focus on a conversation!

I should just get it removed from our phone, but it is not a high enough priority to me at this juncture to spend time calling the phone company and remove it (past experiences have proven this to be a very long process).

Moving on to the next question:


If someone calls you, can you e-mail the person back or send a text message if you're not in the mood to talk? What if you text or e-mail someone and the person calls you back?


(question and responses taken from September 2008 issue of Real Simple magazine. Article was titled "Manners 2.0 and written by Katie McElveen)

7 comments:

Jami said...

I don't think there is anything wrong with emailing back. But I am curious to hear what the experts say.

It's much easier when you don't have much time and just need to share some specific things.

Taylor said...

Personally, I find that email and texting just works better with screaming children all the time! But I usually preface with that is why they are hearing from me in this form of communication.

I REALLY like your new top of your blog!!! How did you do that? I find that I just do not have time to keep up with this sort of stuff (with work and such), but am lovin' it irregardless!

hubergal said...

i like your new picture!!

to answer this newest question, i think it's probably most polite to respond in how they contacted you. but i must admit that i'd MUCH rather email back if i'm in a hurry, or not in the mood to chat. and i'm sure i've done just that before.
~shar

Renata said...

Like the new blog look! I'm interested in the answer to this one. I've never even thought of emailing or messaging - I always ring them back.

Marla said...

Love the picture, Megan...now where did that come from? You didn't run it by me first.:)

Mom

Marla said...

just so you know, I would recognize those cute feet anywhere!!!

Ryan and Becky Weiss said...

Normally I would say that I would prefer a call back if I had called someone but I now live in a country where nobody has a home phone and cell phone prices are sky high. It's much cheaper to text back or e-mail...not sure if that's good etiquette or not! In fact it's rare that my friends pick up when I call - they text back with, "What's up?" !!