Pet Hates re office etiquette

V

Vanilla

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May as well make use of the letting off steam section! My pet hate is when someone gets their assistant or secretary to ring me, and they then put me on hold while they try to get the person on the other end. Does anyone have any polite way of rebuffing this type of call? I.e. its not the secretarys or assistants fault, so I don't want to be rude to them, but I dont really see why, if they are ringing me, I should be the one put on hold. Actually even thinking about it annoys me! Its a position of power thing really- as in the person ringing by proxy must believe their time is more valuable than mine...
One of my colleagues does this to me all the time- so can anyone think of something polite to say to his secretary when she rings and says :' Hi this is Mr.X's office, can you hold to speak to him please?'
 
Vanilla said:
so can anyone think of something polite to say to his secretary when she rings and says :' Hi this is Mr.X's office, can you hold to speak to him please?'
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How about "I'm sorry but I can't hold right now? Perhaps he can call me back when he's available?".
 
We actually have a worse crowd that ring us from Limerick. The Secretary actually rings our office and no matter who answers is told "can you hold for a call please" . Whoever is unfortunate enough to answer gets stuck with their didley eidle music for ages while whoever requested the call comes on the line.

Our receptionist just bangs them on hold for ages and I think they have now got the message.!
 
Vanilla said:
May as well make use of the letting off steam section! My pet hate is when someone gets their assistant or secretary to ring me, and they then put me on hold while they try to get the person on the other end.
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You won't believe this but my Dad actually does this to me sometimes! He gets his secretary to ring me and say "Can you take a call from your Father".................I've decided he must just do it to wind me up
 
I used to get this all the time (believe it or not but from my solicitor Vanilla!) I normally didn't have enough time to come back with CM's rebuff. They just shove me on hold without waiting for my reply.

It was somehow worth it though, my solicitor was somewhat eccentric!! Hilarious guy

Why not call them back and ask them 'What do you want?'.
 
Believe it or not Clubman, I have said something similar which has resulted in the same secretary ringing me back later in the day again- you see, he IS actually available when he rings in this way...most of the time, although on one memorable occasion, I accepted the call only to be put on hold for a fairly long time, and then his secretary came back on and said he had left the office!!!!! I'm talking about one colleague in particular now, but a number of them do this, including an old boss of mine a few years back.

Noor- I just think that is so funny- at least you can tell him off though.
 
It must be something solicitors do frequently Stobear- I know a number of my colleagues do it- but one guy in particular- could be the same guy!
 
That's nothing... a car dearlership in the midlands used to ring you on hold! Yes that's right - you'd answer the ringing phone and all there would be was Greensleeves. Imagine the cheek of it! The girls in the office used to hang on like eejits until the receptionist asked you to further "hold for a call for so-and-so" but I made them start a new policy of hanging up.

Rebecca
 
There is a garage in Deansgrange that sends you a *text* to let you know if your car is ready instead of having the courtesy to ring you!
 
isbn
I think that is a good idea, they should perhaps ask customers if that is an acceptable way of communicating but I think many would think that is ok.
 
Is it just me or does anybody's manager email them something and then ring them/call by to see if they got the mail about 2 seconds after the mail is in your inbox?
 
Vanilla said:
One of my colleagues does this to me all the time- so can anyone think of something polite to say to his secretary when she rings and says :' Hi this is Mr.X's office, can you hold to speak to him please?'
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Wait for the secretary to put him through, put on your poshest accent and say "Ms Vanilla will be with you shortly - please hold", then wait for 5 minutes....
 
Other pet hates
Saying hi to the same people everytime you meet them in the office. I think this is particularly an Irish thing.

People coming up to you at your desk to discuss something when you are having lunch at your desk. Particularly annoying if you have something hot, e.g. soup, takeaway, etc. Your food rapidly getting cooler while they bladder on about some inane point.

Smoker's getting smoking breaks and non smokers not.

Being asked to contribute to someone's going away present even though you never knew the person.

People being late for meetings !!

C
 
Capaill said:
Other pet hates
Saying hi to the same people everytime you meet them in the office. I think this is particularly an Irish thing.
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I'd prefer that to people ignoring each other.

Vincent Browne had a few foreigners living in Ireland (some long term residents) on last night talking about the observations about Ireland and the Irish and one Canadian woman was going on about things like people saying "you couldn't do that for me could you" or "you wouldn't want to be doing that" (she claimed this betrayed a "culture of negativity") and people jokingly saying "you're very bold" in response to smart/cutting comments (she claimed that this upset her a lot even though she knew that it was said in jest and in a friendly way). Some people have little to worry about...
 
Biggest gripe about office manners is people trying to get into the lift as you are getting out of it!! Have taken a keith wood attitude and just pretend they are not there.
Plus, lazy eejits who use the lift to go up one floor..
 
ClubMan said:
"you're very bold" in response to smart/cutting comments (she claimed that this upset her a lot even though she knew that it was said in jest and in a friendly way). Some people have little to worry about...
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A little bit off topic:
I once got myself into a bit a trouble when I jokingly said to an Italian (male) colleauge, he was commenting on not being good at yoga or something silly like that, "ah you're useless". Now even in print it looks offensive but I meant it in jest, its something we would have said at home sarcastically when someone claimed to be no good at something trivial or especially if they were actually good at it (and were just fishing for compliments). He took it as a slur on his manhood or something and was sulking at me for months in the office until he confided in another irish female what Id said and she explained it to him....shesh.

Back on topic.
My pet hate is people copying the world on emails and even more so the people that reply (with non relevant content) to these emails copying you again. Nearly as bad as spam
 
I hate when the receptionist transfers phone calls to me without telling me who they are first, when I pick up its usually a customer who expects me to know who they are. Its doubly annoying when these customers put me on hold while waiting for me to pick up.

Also I hate talking to people on the phone who will pick up another call/talk to someone in the office but don't put you on hold and you have to listen to every word they're saying
 
casiopea said:
My pet hate is people copying the world on emails and even more so the people that reply (with non relevant content) to these emails copying you again. Nearly as bad as spam
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Oooooooh, this drives me mad too. They only do it to cover their asses and make sure everyone is "in the loop", which brings me to a familiar AAM topic and a pet hate; management speak. The Office was really good at taking the mickey on this stuff, like "there's no I in team" or "blue sky projects" or "rolling out" or "FYI" (and any other TLA). And that brings me to yet another pet hate; people who send you an email with just "FYI" on it and you have to read all the rubbish below. I think it's just plain rude not to open and close even the briefest email, it seems to be a bit of a multinational/American company thing. Maybe I'm just pedantic on that though.

On the Canadian's take on our negative mindset; it's not just Ireland. My boyfriend betrays his Eastern European roots every time he asks a question. Instead of saying, for example, "Would you like a glass of wine?", he'll say "You don't want a glass of wine?". In some circumstances (which I can't think of now) it sounds negative or a bit subservient. Don't worry though, I'll knock it out of him

Rebecca
 
I hate the following conversation:

Brendan: May I speak to Miss Ribena please
Receptionist: May I ask who is calling?
Brendan: Brendan Burgess
Receptionist: I am sorry, she is out of the office today.

Our office policy is to say "Certainly, may I ask who is calling?" or "I am afraid he is out of the office today, can I put you through his voicemail?".

On a separate issue

I got a message to ring a Veronica. I didn't know any Veronicas.
I rang the number:
Me: May I speak to Veronica please?
REceptionist: Do you have a surname?
I did think this was a bit odd, but
Brendan: Yes. It's Burgess
Receptionist: Sorry we don't have a Veronica Burgess working here.
Brendan: No. That's my surname

She got very snotty thinking I was being smart.


Brendan
 

Language can be funny like that. An English friend/colleague of mine years ago was in fits of laughter when he was asked if he wanted "a hot drop" [of tea in his cup]. Some Yanks that I worked with thought it quaint when I used phrases like "half past" and "a quarter to" when specifying times.

I like Brendan's one above. Were you being smart?
 
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