Cell phone Etiquette – A Personal Rant

Okay, it’s time for me to go off on a personal rant.  That means you have to put up with it, at least until you decide to leave.  I promise I won’t do this often but every so often I get to thinking about how unthinking some people are and two choices emerge.  Either my head explodes or I get to write down what’s bothering me and then we are all good to go.  So to take the cleaning folks off the hook, I get to write down these thoughts.

I’m a guy, (full disclosure), so I like gadgets and technology as much as the next guy.  And even though I probably don’t use 80% of my mobile phone’s features I still like to be able to put my phone on the table to be part of the comparison contest.  (Yeah, that too is a guy thing).  So, I’m all about communication and sharing.  That’s what a cell phone is for; communicating and sharing information.  But, like anything else; there is a time and place for using a cell phone, and a meeting is not one of them. 

How many of you have been in a business meeting when someone’s cell phone goes off?   And, instead of apologizing profusely, they go ahead and take the call? As a vague concession to the people around them they may wander to the back of the room or through the door to outside the room but by that time the damage is done.  Whatever flow to the meeting has been interrupted and everyone has to try and get back on track.  And don’t you love it when the person comes back in and smiles self consciously and says, “ I had to take it, it was “fill in the blank”.  You think, “gee, I didn’t even know you were friends with the President of the United States.”. 
C’mon folks.  It is rude and obnoxious to take a phone call or look at a text message during a meeting.  And guess what, letting your hands fall into your lap and sneaking peeks isn’t fooling anyone.  It’s still rude and impolite and needs to stop.  Are you that important that you can’t be away from your communication equipment for at least an hour? 

If you think you are that important, I have two things for you, 1, you’re not that important and 2, if your office is relying on you that much then you aren’t a very good leader and worse, you’re not much of a delegator.  Back to Management 101.

So do us all a favor and turn off your cell phone when you walk through the door.  Everyone will be happier, the meetings will be better, faster and you get more accomplished and you’ll find out that the earth really didn’t stop revolving after all.

Okay, I feel better now…..