h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Am I the only person who got that?

If it's a madly-important-semi-expected call such as (as mentioned above) one's wife going in to labour then it's fine
to answer one's phone, ignore anyone present and punch anyone present if such action is required to shut them up; apologies and flowers can be delivered later .

I don't use my mobile for work purposes (and I always have it on vibrate) so, if it vibrates, I only answer it if the situation is appropriate. And my understanding of etiquette means that I say "excuse me, I have a call" before I answer. Saying this is important because my colleagues (who haven't heard the vibrate) are not then surprised by me suddenly saying "Hello darling", "I don't want to talk to you!" or somesuch phrase that may be misconstrued in a sedate office environment.

When with friends, I take a similar tack but my phone won't be on vibrate so it's more obvious that I'm taking a call rather than speaking to them. It's bad manners to take a call in mid-conversation without at least saying "excuse me." And if I'm having a heart-to-heart or similar, I turn my phone OFF. Do people not realise that mobiles have off buttons?

(Working in the NHS, I fully understand doctors and nurses rushing out of training courses to take important calls but I'd put that in the madly-important-semi-expected category)

When you have a fifteen year old "Queen Of The Troubled Teens" daughter, every call is potentially life-or-death.

On the flip side, its a nice feeling when someone you are with doesn't answer their phone or check who it is to see if its important.

My phone is only actually charged about 42% of the time. I especially got one that's barely capable of doing texts so they won't be expected of me

Now that I'm out of a job, I hardly get any calls on it anyway. I basically just use it when travelling, because I usually do some form of car sharing/organised hitchhiking and need to coordinate where and when to meet people.

The way I see it, someone calling you is the same as someone approaching you and asking for your attention, there's some situations where you'll ask the person you're already talking to to give you a moment (or even say you'll see them later because this is important), and others where the person approaching you can wait until it's convenient. I'll often ignore calls but then warn the person I'm talking to that I'll respond to their text if they send me one, as it's probably important but not *that* important.

Mind, I probably get called about once a week at the most. Thankfully.

>> It is obviously acceptable - desirable, even - to answer a colleague's desk phone <<

That really depends on where you're working - in most cases I let it go to voicemail. Taking messages for colleagues is *so* twentieth century.

RF

I had a colleague who specialised in discretely raising his handset half an inch, dialing *6 (for pick-up)...and then hanging up again.

If a colleague has misunderstood the 'mobile' characteristic of the mobile phone then I just switch it off for them, and explain it to them when they come back. Vodkaphone's voice mail service used to ring every 2 minutes to say someone has left a message which can drive you nuts, I saw one irate colleague carefully place a mobile in a half-cup of cold coffee once after about quarter of an hour of call backs.

I tend to ignore my phone if having a conversation, figuring if important a message will be left. If waiting for a call I always ask if the person I'm with minds if I take the call, or apologise for having to.

I *hate it when someone you're talking to starts sending a text and would never do this myself