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

what do you say when you answer the phone at work?

me: tonys pizza this is bob how can i help you

s**t rong form i hate this site its confuseing!

never mind. I usually say "MAD room" - because that's the office I'm in (Modelling and Atmospheric Dynamics)

Well, the only time I ever get to answer the phone work-related is during my party-time job as a legal clerk (very part-time- university holidays ), if I happen to be in the office rather than out at court (which is very rare. i do ocasionally answer the phone though, and do so as:

"Hello 's office, how may i help you?

Good , and then either 's office or Granny speaking

Hello, speaking.

Many years ago when I worked at a University film unit, we would occasionally answer the phone with, "F U".

'Hello, L A I F, this is Amy, how can I help you?'

When I was at home we all used to pick the phone up and say any number of variations on "Hello, Bedlam - Napoleon here" or "Battersea Dogs Home".

At work I have always had to say "Good . speaking. How can I help you"

At home its just "hello" as we are Ex-directory.

Malus

Ah well, at home it's a completely different story

I would be evry surprised if my home phone rang, as the line's not connected.

I do however, answer my mobile with one of the following, depending on who's name is showing:

"Hello"
"What?"
"Bugger off"

Hello?*


*I'm on an extension. The outside world doesn't call direct, except my wife.

Good speaking, how can I help?

Takes a long time. Occasionally also said the same on home phones, cos it just becomes a reflex like pavlovs dogs. Or if it was the danish line calling I would say the same, only in Danish instead. Good thing I don't work there anymore. Especially as the whole english department is going to be outsourced to India. Poor customers.

Hello .

Or if it's an internal call or a number I recognise, Hi .

"Hello" - saves time working out the time of day
"Company name" - for obvious reasons
"How can we help you"

No-one phones me at home, because I everyone has my mobile. When I answer the mobile I check who is calling in the wee screen. I then either launch right into a conversation "I'm glad you phoned, I wanted to ask you..." or "How are you?" which is disconcerting to the folks who phone.

I worked with a guy who answered his mobile with one word: "Speak!"

At one point we had the introduction to Civil War by Gunz n Roses on the answerphone: "W-what we hev here is failya to communicate. S-some men you jest cain't reach, so we have here what we had last week, which is the way he wants it. Well he gets it. And I don't like it any more than you do".

Ben

Coooooool! I wonder if that would fit on my mobile answerphone!

Me: Good speaking how may I help you.

When I worked in a shop I just used to answer it "Backstage", which is of course a lot shorter and a lot easier to accidently answer the phone at home in the same way, which would send my friends off into fits of giggles every time!

Queegle

Of course now in my head is... "MA HANDS ARE TIEEEEEED.."! etc.

Q

I say: "Prosim?", which means something, but not exactly like "please?" in Slovenian.

We actually taped the 'Civil War' thing onto the answering machine - this was in the days when answering machines had tapes, of course!

B