the conference call
The latest thing ruffling my royal feathers (because it's still good to be the King) is the conference call.
About a year ago we all got these deluxe phones in the office. I went from a basic phone to this thing with several lines and speaker phone and my all time fave, putting people on hold. I'm sure if I took the time to learn, I could make it wash, dry, fold, bend, staple and mutilate. It also performs the bane of my life, the conference call. This has to be the biggest time waster ever...well, next to surfin' the net.
For the longest time we didn't use any of the neat new features, or I didn't anyway. If I transferred someone to another line, that was as fancy as it was getting for me. Other than that, I was happy just knowing which side of the plastic thing to talk into and which to put next to my ear.
To be honest, I still haven't figured out how to do the conference call thing, but there are lots of people who have, and they think it's the coolest thing. If we're stuck, or we just want another opinion on something, it's, "Hey, lets call John. I'm sure he'll know" or in corporate-speak, "Let's get John's feedback." So they call, and you've been sucked into conference call hell. You get in the middle of a conversation that is relevant for 2 minutes and then drifts off into nothing interesting. So while you're bored, you start surfing the net. OK, maybe you don't, but I do. All of a sudden you hear "right John?" It's the conference call version of getting caught daydreaming in a meeting, only they can't see you, so it's easier to fake your way out. It's still stressful though because somebody's actually looking for enlightenment from you. Either that or they're waiting for you to take a position they can hang you from later. Getting through it isn't all that hard, but in the end, you find yourself looking for a polite way to extricate yourself from the huge time pit you've found yourself sucked into. You've been helpful for 2 minutes and it's an hour later and the phone is still glued to your ear, mostly because another ear glued to his ear is your boss, and you can't have him thinking whatever he is babbling about is of no importance to you. King or not, sometimes you gotta be humble and keep your mouth shut.
First there was e-mail (where your boss is always copied on things people send you so they can later send another chastising you for not answering the first one because they think they are your only priority), and now there's this. Some days it wouldn't surprise me to look in the mirror and see Dilbert staring back.
About a year ago we all got these deluxe phones in the office. I went from a basic phone to this thing with several lines and speaker phone and my all time fave, putting people on hold. I'm sure if I took the time to learn, I could make it wash, dry, fold, bend, staple and mutilate. It also performs the bane of my life, the conference call. This has to be the biggest time waster ever...well, next to surfin' the net.
For the longest time we didn't use any of the neat new features, or I didn't anyway. If I transferred someone to another line, that was as fancy as it was getting for me. Other than that, I was happy just knowing which side of the plastic thing to talk into and which to put next to my ear.
To be honest, I still haven't figured out how to do the conference call thing, but there are lots of people who have, and they think it's the coolest thing. If we're stuck, or we just want another opinion on something, it's, "Hey, lets call John. I'm sure he'll know" or in corporate-speak, "Let's get John's feedback." So they call, and you've been sucked into conference call hell. You get in the middle of a conversation that is relevant for 2 minutes and then drifts off into nothing interesting. So while you're bored, you start surfing the net. OK, maybe you don't, but I do. All of a sudden you hear "right John?" It's the conference call version of getting caught daydreaming in a meeting, only they can't see you, so it's easier to fake your way out. It's still stressful though because somebody's actually looking for enlightenment from you. Either that or they're waiting for you to take a position they can hang you from later. Getting through it isn't all that hard, but in the end, you find yourself looking for a polite way to extricate yourself from the huge time pit you've found yourself sucked into. You've been helpful for 2 minutes and it's an hour later and the phone is still glued to your ear, mostly because another ear glued to his ear is your boss, and you can't have him thinking whatever he is babbling about is of no importance to you. King or not, sometimes you gotta be humble and keep your mouth shut.
First there was e-mail (where your boss is always copied on things people send you so they can later send another chastising you for not answering the first one because they think they are your only priority), and now there's this. Some days it wouldn't surprise me to look in the mirror and see Dilbert staring back.
John put this out here at 1:02 PM
2 Comments:
Now there's a very scarey thought... from King john to Dilbert... all with one glance in the mirror !!!
You're King John...they have to have your wise imput, Oh Great one.
(Curtsying and keeping head lower than thou)
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