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I personally don't feel cell phones have 'raised the bar' in how quickly you're *required* to respond, just in how quickly you are *able* to respond, which is not the same thing in my mind.
Your comments exactly ! When I was in college and for a few years after, I didn't understand why dropping in would be a problem. Once I got a few more years under my belt, and life really started.....than I understood very well :-)
Call first and make everybody happy !
For a few years after I left college my life was kind of like dorm life. Very social, very relaxed, very little realization that I was a grown up with grown up responsibilities. At some point, though, I started thinking as an adult. And things changed for the better.
A lot of people, too, don't ever listen to voicemail messages. My mom always leaves lengthy messages and I generally just see her as a missed call and call her back without ever listening to her message. If I call someone and they don't pick up, I'll most likely just text them a short version of what I wanted to say rather than leave a voicemail.
I currently have 16 voicemail messages on my phone that I have yet to listen to. I hate the phone so much.
Yes, but my point was that if you have something going on and call seeking help or guidance, you really appreciate it when such happens reasonably quickly, no matter who it is you're calling.
Someone mentioned work. I do respect those whom I call, here I'm speaking more for how someone may contact me. To me, a reasonable employer realizes it's not the 1980s and everyone has cell phones, and thus unless someone is on theirs so much that their work significantly suffers, big deal. Do they really expect people to ignore calls all day from theirchild's school, babysitter, doctor etc? Those need to be dealt with quickly, such is what I was alluding to earlier when I said you give up the right to treat calls as intrusions once you're married with children. (And believe me, I DO NOT want to be swamped by numerous calls a day from the school, but if something is going down I am their parent.)
Wow, you really assume a lot.
On my job we are prohibited from even carrying our cell phones, let alone answering them! We are allowed to have them & use them during our lunch break.
When my husband was in the hospital, I had to ask special permission from my boss to carry my cell phone with me in case of an emergency. And, I do know that some of the parents of young children "illegally" carry their cell phones in case of emergencies (they check them when/if they take a bathroom break).
There have been other threads about cell phones at work, and shyguy, you would be surprised at how many other jobs have rules similar to my job. No personal cell phones at your work station or on the job.
Last edited by germaine2626; 04-08-2016 at 12:19 PM..
Me having my phone on me has never once, ever, made me feel like I was wearing a leash, ever, anymore than having my wallet on me has ever made me feel like a financial adviser or having my car keys on me means I have to be in the car all the time. It's just THERE.
I think about it this way--how would I feel if I were trying to get a hold of someone and it took all day or longer? Again "in this age of cell phones" it shouldn't take an entire day. (Again, I'm not saying one should expect an immediate response either.) Well, if I expect things to be convenient for ME, what about when it's the reverse? I know I'd hate it if my car broke down (yes we have AAA but sometimes they quote a 2-3 hour response time) and it took me all day long to get a hold of someone--heck, if you can't help because you're at work or such then OK, but at least hearing it helps me not be frustrated in terms of "where IS everybody?" Well if I want things convenient for me when I'm the caller, it's only fair to give it back in return when I'm the one being called, if I can help it (and assuming the caller isn't someone who's prone to "needing help" constantly, I do agree that someone like that needs a bit of a talking to, seriously).
I answer the phone within a reasonable time, right away often-times, because I don't have this desire to act like a douche and leave people in the lurch. Wanting a somewhat timely response isn't being "needy" (please), it's normal.
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That's your problem. You think it's normal to be accessible 24/7. It's not. It's not even something that has existed in theory for more than a few years.
You think everything has to be dealt with immediately, because that's the world you've either grown up in (instant gratification that has been rampant bc of technology for the last decade) or the world you've embraced and gotten used to.
Dunno what kind of dbags wouldn't give you or your wife a jump (I've used my jumpers on more other people's cars than ever on my own), but that has nothing to do with not answering your phone or opening the door at everyone's beck and call.
You're welcome to have your phone on your body 24/7, but that doesn't mean everyone enjoys it or is obligated to. You might as well say, "I can't believe you don't just walk around with a socket set. What if someone needed something socket wrenched. I just have mine all the time bc I don't want to inconvenience someone who might need a socket wrench."
Yeah, a friend of mine doesn't have it, which surprised me--I'm usually the last one to be up on new technologies and stuff (ironically, I work in telecom), so I tend to presume if *I* have it, everybody else had it a long time ago!
LOL^ My husband worked in IT and retired recently. Because he worked in IT, people we knew just assumed that we had all the latest items. They were shocked to hear that we were still using a flip phone and only upgraded a few months ago. So, yes, we, too, think that when we get up-to-date, everybody else had it a long time ago.
On my job we are prohibited from even carrying our cell phones, let alone answering them! We are allowed to have them & use them during our lunch break.
When my husband was in the hospital, I had to ask special permission from my boss to carry my cell phone with me in case of an emergency. And, I do know that some of the parents of young children "illegally" carry their cell phones in case of emergencies (they check them when/if they take a bathroom break).
There have been other threads about cell phones at work, and shyguy, you would be surprised at how many other jobs have rules similar to my job. No personal cell phones at your work station or on the job.
That's another topic, kind of, but I wouldn't work at such a job. In fact, I would be totally in agreement with the National Labor Relations Board getting involved and having legislation passed that forbade such rules except for exceptional jobs such as air traffic controller. The people who "sneak" phones, they do because that rule, especially enforced that strictly, is ridiculous. My wife once was in the hospital due to postpartum which was so extreme it required intervention, and I kept my phone on me. I didn't ask if it was OK, I just did it, because 1-2 times they had to call me and have me speak for a few minutes to give them information which would help them treat her better. Don't like it? Get over it. I'm not going to compromise my wife's treatment because a 5 minute phone call 1-2 times an entire week is the end of the world to you. I was otherwise fully available and very productive.
Near the end of her stay one day they called and said "she's being released today, if you can get here before 5 she can go home today instead of Monday" (it was a Friday and they didn't do any releases over the weekend) and I high-tailed it on over there, and my job was decent about it and totally understood, as much such jobs SHOULD. Had I kept my phone in a locker, I'd never known, and she'd spent that entire weekend in the hospital unnecessarily when she was DYING to come home.
Yes, that was an exceptional case, but then you have the quick phone calls I get where the nurse called needing my OK to give my son Tylenol for his headache. That call lasted maybe 20 seconds, total, answer to end. There was a phone call today where the eyeglass store called saying my son's glasses were ready, that call was probably 15-20 seconds. Heck, that's probably all the calls I received at work all week long.
Yes, to me, having your phone on you at all times is the NORMAL thing to do. Not "in your world," not "maybe it's normal to you," just normal period. It doesn't mean that you're constantly fielding calls every other second (in fact I wouldn't want that either), it just means it's THERE so if you need it or someone needs you, it doesn't take until someone has carved their initials into the stone tablets from Mount Sinai for that to happen. Waiting all day in this day-age is ridiculous and unnecessary and does no one any good at all. Need proof that most people have it with them most times? Look at the explosion in smartphone picture-taking. Now me, being into photography as a hobby and wanting better quality, I only use real stand-alone cameras, but many people use their smartphone cameras and their usage is so high that sales of entry-level point & shoot cameras are way down dramatically. Know why? Because most people have their phone on them most times..
That's another topic, kind of, but I wouldn't work at such a job. In fact, I would be totally in agreement with the National Labor Relations Board getting involved and having legislation passed that forbade such rules except for exceptional jobs such as air traffic controller. The people who "sneak" phones, they do because that rule, especially enforced that strictly, is ridiculous. My wife once was in the hospital due to postpartum which was so extreme it required intervention, and I kept my phone on me. I didn't ask if it was OK, I just did it, because 1-2 times they had to call me and have me speak for a few minutes to give them information which would help them treat her better. Don't like it? Get over it. I'm not going to compromise my wife's treatment because a 5 minute phone call 1-2 times an entire week is the end of the world to you. I was otherwise fully available and very productive.
Near the end of her stay one day they called and said "she's being released today, if you can get here before 5 she can go home today instead of Monday" (it was a Friday and they didn't do any releases over the weekend) and I high-tailed it on over there, and my job was decent about it and totally understood, as much such jobs SHOULD. Had I kept my phone in a locker, I'd never known, and she'd spent that entire weekend in the hospital unnecessarily when she was DYING to come home.
Yes, that was an exceptional case, but then you have the quick phone calls I get where the nurse called needing my OK to give my son Tylenol for his headache. That call lasted maybe 20 seconds, total, answer to end. There was a phone call today where the eyeglass store called saying my son's glasses were ready, that call was probably 15-20 seconds. Heck, that's probably all the calls I received at work all week long.
.[/u].
There you have it.
All your wife hospital calls could have been easily handled by landlines.
Same with son.
Your subversive cell phone behavior didn't save the day or anything.
And btw, that hospital your wife was at probably had a no cell phone rule for the nurses working there.
I think its a family thing my family and I do it too each other all the time. We never have to call. I do it to my best friend as well not my other friends. Not everyone likes it. I also realized i was a hypocrite because I was kinda upset when my mother in law dropped by. Then I realized my parents do it all the time and I never get upset.
All your wife hospital calls could have been easily handled by landlines.
Same with son.
Your subversive cell phone behavior didn't save the day or anything.
And btw, that hospital your wife was at probably had a no cell phone rule for the nurses working there.
Yeah, can you imagine a nurse stopping to check a potentially important text while inserting a PICC line? Shoot, my job isn't anywhere near as critical as that, but there is a solid 2 hours of each day where we are required to turn off all phones and distractions until the files are processed and uploaded, because a mere $0.01 error or transposed digit can take hours to find and correct.
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