Yo, Philly in the News
Phillyist Framed Returns!
Whole Hog Is All Heart
Playlist Rewind: AFI at the Factory
Hey Man, Can't We All Just Get Along?
Nothing irks Phillyist more than rude people. Which would be the purpose of this column. But what irks us especially is when rude people can't even be rude to our faces. We're not talking about e-mail (it's plenty easy to be rude by accident via e-mail). We're talking about the telephone. Remember the telephone? It's that thing you used to communicate with people before e-mail came around. We know, we know. You still use your cell phone. All. The. Time. But as a rule, the people you speak with on your cell are people with whom you're already at least on decent terms. We're talking about landlines here. Especially the ones that ring at your place of employment.
Here's the deal: most of the time, if you are answering the phone at your place of employment, the person calling you is a potential (or existing) customer or client. That means it's bad for business if you're not nice. You can be answering phones at a restaurant, a hair salon, or a law firm. Doesn't matter, really. You still need to be polite. If you don't know the answers, get your supervisor instead of getting testy. If you do know the answers because the questions the person on the other end is asking are really damn stupid, you should try to answer them without sounding too condescending. (It's hard, we know. Dumb people suck. But they're still part of your job.)
You also need to be nice to the people calling you. (Except for those annoying telemarketers.) I recently visited a friend at work. That friend is working in research and had to call a few people to administer a follow-up survey. If they completed the survey, they would receive remuneration. And yet, some of the people who answered her calls couldn't have been ruder. She called one house four times and had to mention money the last time she phoned before the son of the woman my friend was calling would let her talk to his mother. (While we're on that subject -- parents, please teach your children some phone manners. We're not talking 1950s "Cleaver residence, this is Beaver speaking" type of etiquitte, but a simple "May I ask who's calling?" never hurt anybody.) Phillyist has had many jobs that required calling strangers, and there's always at least one exceptionally rude one in the bunch. Which sucks especially because we were always returning calls they'd already placed to us.
Talking on the phone can be an uncomfortable experience if you haven't ever met the person you're speaking with, but there's no reason to take your discomfort and transform it into rudeness. Listen to yourself while you're talking, and if you think you might even sound a little rude, apologize to the person on the other end and adjust your tone or language. You'd be amazed at how far that can get you!
Next week, we'll teach you how to handle things when push comes to shove.
Image credit: PCbyPaul
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
Does that mean you're going to do a column about moshpit etiquette?
Yeah... no.
The last time I approached a moshpit I kept bumping into people and saying "excuse me," "pardon me," etc. etc. Then I realized I was approaching a moshpit... still, etiquette is extremely important in the moshpit, I discovered. When you're standing in the center of the 'pit and a large lug charges at you, stepping out of the way and/or executing a judo-throw is bound to get you thrown out. Likewise, a number of maneuvers are unacceptable. And it's exceptionally rude of gigantic people to dominate the center and scare everyone else away. Or to injure the ladies and the little people.
Still, I hope you'll at least comment briefly on the appropriate etiquette for when a kitty headbutts you, and you start sneezing hysterically....