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I know that it's customary when you leave a message for someone to say "Please call me back at your earliest convenience." This is in a professional setting. The "earliest convenience" thing is an attempt to be polite, and not demand an immediate call back for something that is not urgent.
But lately I've noticed that some people, on their own outgoing voice mail message/greeting say "Please leave a message and I'll call you back at my earliest convenience." To me, that sounds self-important and haughty.
In my greeting, I say "Please leave a message, and I'll get back to you as soon as I'm able" or "as soon as possible." To me, that conveys that I'm going to make an effort to call them back as soon as is humanly possible. To say I'll call them back at my "earliest convenience" sounds like "when I feel like it" or "when it's convenient for me."
So I guess what I'm saying is that referring to "your earliest convenience" is a polite thing to say, while referring to "my earliest convenience" comes off as very impolite.
Do you agree or disagree? Again, this is in a professional setting, not with family & friends.
So I guess what I'm saying is that referring to "your earliest convenience" is a polite thing to say, while referring to "my earliest convenience" comes off as very impolite.
Do you agree or disagree? Again, this is in a professional setting, not with family & friends.
It is a bit nitpicky but I agree. "Please call me back at your earliest convenience" is polite, like "don't go to any trouble." "My earliest convenience" does seem to imply "I'm not going to any trouble for you" which isn't usually the impression you want to give a business contact.
Oh Eve,
Perhaps. But hearing it made me bristle slightly, so I was really analyzing my reaction that I felt, and determined that it was because it came off as rude.
It doesn't bother me enough to get angry or say anything to a person who does this. It was just a little nagging thing, like a little pebble in my shoe.
I think you're over-thinking things, and looking for things to bother yourself about.
No, like I said. I wasn't looking for it, and I'm not that type of person who is in search of being offended like so many seem to be.
It just made me "bristle" like I said earlier. So I self-examined, and realized that my perception was that it was rude. Not overtly, over-the-top rude. But just slightly, almost subliminally rude.
Oh Eve,
Perhaps. But hearing it made me bristle slightly, so I was really analyzing my reaction that I felt, and determined that it was because it came off as rude.
It doesn't bother me enough to get angry or say anything to a person who does this. It was just a little nagging thing, like a little pebble in my shoe.
Well, I have gone to the other extreme, I fear, lol.
I no longer have the warm greeting as most of the calls I get are either from solicitors or people I really don't relish talking to on the phone, anyway.
Everyone I am close to either texts me or leaves me a message on FB chat.
I think I did probably have a message prior to this last year -- that either said "at our earliest convenience" or "as soon as possible."
I then decided - nope. Not going to promise that I will call back the minute I walk in the door and catch my breath. So now, my message is something like (no greeting such as - Hi< you have reached Anifani). . . my message states my phone # . . . You have reached xxx xxxx. If you wish, leave a message after the BEEP.
That's it. I don't say I will call them back as soon as possible or at my earliest convenience, either. I make no promises at all, lol.
Again, this is not on a person's home phone or personal cell phone that I'm talking about. But office phones in professional settings. In those cases, neither of my greeting messages is "warm" at all, but basically "leave a message."
Again, this is not on a person's home phone or personal cell phone that I'm talking about. But office phones in professional settings. In those cases, neither of my greeting messages is "warm" at all, but basically "leave a message."
Yes. Well, it is all the same for me. I use my cell and home phone both for business, and get personal and business calls on each of them.
I believe that my outgoing message on my business VM back when I was COO of an organization did state that I would "return your call at my earliest convenience" and also added, "if you need more immediate assistance, press X for a transfer to my assistant, Mandy."
I never considered that this would sound haughty or condescending.
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but I agree. "Please call me back at your earliest convenience" is polite, like "don't go to any trouble." "My earliest convenience" does seem to imply "I'm not going to any trouble for you" which isn't usually the impression you want to give a business contact.
