My Journey

I have made all the calculations; fate will do the rest -(Napoleon)

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

The ringing phones


It is now more than a month in India. As a principle I never write about my work in my blog but today I will mention few generic things related to office environment without being too specific. I have spent three-fourth of my professional life working outside India and now when I have worked for a month continuously, I can see the difference.

First things first, the most annoying thing ever in office here is the constant ringing telephones. Every cube has a desk phone and one or the other phone will keep ringing. Even the cubes which are empty will keep getting calls. This is not only irritating but does not allow you to concentrate on your work. There is no question of waiting out for the call to end; cause immediately after some other phone will start ringing. It seems like I am working out from a telephone exchange. It is due to this reason that many offices abroad don’t allow any desk phone and everyone is supposed to be connected through cell phone. Will that help here?

Almost every cell phone today supports the feature of those funky ring tones, mp3 and what not? It is okay to have a Bollywood song as your ring tone but it is not okay to keep your phone ringing just because you are enjoying it. Everyone might not like those latest ring tones. I don’t understand why people can’t follow the simple courtesy to keep your cell phones in silent mode or may be with soft volume? I don’t think this is a problem in most of the offices, but it certainly it is in this office where I am working. No, this is actually not my office but I have to work from here none the less.

The other thing to notice is how rudely people answer those tele-marketing calls. I agree they are unnecessary, unsolicited phone calls, trying to sell something, which one might not need. Also those calls might come at the most inopportune time, may be when you are in some serious discussion or in a meeting. Still, it does not merit such rude response. There is a person on the other end, who is just doing a job. It could be anyone doing that job. It is not required to buy whatever the other person is selling but a polite reply won’t hurt?

There are many other instances but may be I should end this rant.

16 Comments:

  • At 5:09 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    First of all we love rants.Secondly I am so happy to see another post.

    I realise Indians do lack a little in common courtesies.I think it is only a matter of time and exposure when things will improve.

     
  • At 8:21 PM, Blogger Sami said…

    Hah, if it only were Indians doing this! But no, open office is one noisy place no matter what the country.

    I can understand you're annoyed. I myself would've loved to dunk my co-workers cellphones in a glass of water more than once..

     
  • At 3:23 PM, Blogger greensatya said…

    EU - I am also feeling happy to be back. Yeah, it will take time *sigh*

    Sim - Sometimes I feel it would be better to have separate rooms, but no, not for now. The good thing about Finland is that there were not many landline phones on the desk.

     
  • At 6:58 PM, Blogger Mowgli said…

    rant rant rant rant rant rant rant rant rant rant.

    I know the office phones sucks ...

     
  • At 11:23 PM, Blogger Just Jane said…

    hi satya, good to see a new post up :-) thanks for dropping by my old space, i have shut down the Rio blog and am transferring those posts to my very first hangout in blogland :-)

    will keep ya updated on where i go next!

    abt the post, wish you had ranted some more! this is a common grouse that most of us experience often. it truly is annoying. the work culture shock must be pretty hard to get used to. do share more such peculiarities as compared to working outside india.

     
  • At 9:23 AM, Blogger Neihal said…

    You posted!!!!

    I was guilty of being rude to a tele-marketing person, just once, and I felt so bad afterwards whole day, now I dont let them disturb me, but I tell them i am busy and that works.

    :)

     
  • At 4:14 PM, Blogger greensatya said…

    Mowgli - Yeah someone please close down this office !!!!

    Janefield - Yeah, I was trying to reach your Rio blog and then saw your comment on other blogs and reached there.

    There are many other differences but it won't be politically correct to list them :)

    Neihal - Yeah I posted after a long time. Telling them that you are busy does work. Good work

     
  • At 7:03 PM, Blogger Expression ! said…

    I can imagine how irritating this phone ring tones would be in a quite place place like office ,clinics.But then some things can not be changed unless tight steps are taken form the high end.

    Glad to see your new post.

     
  • At 10:25 PM, Blogger Y said…

    I agree with every word, u say.

    Atleast I am not into spreading nusance. I have successfully not owned a mobile since January this year.

     
  • At 7:50 AM, Blogger P said…

    There you are..!!
    Also, totally with you on the phone calls and ringtones!Annoying.

     
  • At 12:14 PM, Blogger pradman said…

    Quite agree with you. Cellphone etiquette is yet to catch up here.
    Some ringtones sure are a real nuisance. I wanna make sure that mine does to piss people off. That's the reason my ringtone is a plain old phone tring-tring.

     
  • At 7:47 AM, Blogger Raj said…

    Ringtones can be really annoying!! Fortunately, I've found the quietest and the least disturbing ringtone ever!! And nobody gets disturbed. But I still keep my phone silent in the office.

    Also, desk phones aren't too mush of a problem in my office. Everybody generally keeps the volume low enough to be heard only when one's at the desk and we have an option of automatic forwarding to the answering machine after 3 rings. We pretty much force people to activate it :)

    But I agree, there still are lots of people everywhere with horrible tones around. Sad!!

     
  • At 10:16 PM, Blogger Abhinav said…

    ohh ringtones are sooo annoying and nuicance

     
  • At 1:47 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Satya!

    I was boogling on Finland and landed here. I do understand how annoying it could be when you have a number of phones ringing around you.

    To a certain extent it all boils down to awareness and human sensitivity. It not easy to bring about a change or a shift in mindset; however, I believe an attempt to change would do no harm. If I were you, I would try to do:
    i. Post a humorous office video (not your office)
    ii. OR post a comic strip
    iii. OR some sketch in the office canteen / notice board
    iv. OR write-up to the office newsletter (if you have one)

    with the theme being annoying ringing phones on the intranet / group mailing list.

    Some might just poke fun at it - but the few who take it seriously, might just take your initiative a little further. And to bring about any sort of change every little helps.

    Keep blogging and enjoy the ride.

    cheers,
    raghu

     
  • At 8:28 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    If only you spent one millionth of the time you spend on chatting with random people on your gtalk over this awesome blog, you might have it up and running. :D

     
  • At 8:18 AM, Blogger greensatya said…

    SM - Having ring tones is okay, but it courteous to have low volume.

    RR - Still having no cell phone ?

    Perspective - Hey good to see you on my blog.

    Scipio - Hehe, can't believe you have the 'tring-tring' cell phone ring ? that is tit for tat.

    Raj - Even the landline phones in this office ring in highest volume ever. No one cares, I don't know why ?

    Abhinav - You bet they are !!!

    Raghu - Hey nice to see you the blog. You are welcome. I wanted to write a group mail for the phones but then it occured to me that if other'd don't care they I would be labelled as extra-sensitive. So I dropped the idea, planning to change the office soon. Not only due to phones though !

    EU - haha, no, I don't chat. It is just that I don't have internet at home now.

     

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