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Ban mobile phones

matty if that was me I'd just up and leave without another word, and not answer his phone calls.

You don't want that sort of client. If he behaves like that in a meeting, he will also be late paying you (if he does at all), make you late for other appointments, run you around in circles and all for nothing. Piss him off now. Unfortunately people like that rarely change, so there's no point telling him off.
 
I have an employee who is phone-mad. Changes his phone at least every 6 months to the latest and greatest with every app under the sun, loves to show it off, and is rarely apart from it. Things have go to the point where he's taking calls and texts or whatever at work a bit too often. He's a good employee so we're willing to put up with a bit of nonsense on our time - but there's a limit. Thankfully the "pointed look with raised eyebrow" seems to be doing the trick lately and phone is rapidly replaced in pocket. I'd never have dreamed of making phone call's on the boss's time when I was his age - just another thing for us grumpy over-40's to complain about I guess.
 
One of my Site Supervisors ripped the phone from an employees ear as he was chatting away in the middle of a concrete pour.
Phone is set in concrete for some future generation to marvel at.

The guy is Godzilla you just dont argue with him.
No you wont get another phone.
No we dont have phone issues on site.

Simple make and recieve phone calls/texts in YOUR time not mine.
 
I've never actually owned a mobile phone (true). To be perfectly honest, the last thing I want when I'm at the supermarket

I don't know, it can be mighty handy for the mrs to call and tell me she forgot to put pasta sause on the list rather than wait for me to get back home and send me back.
 

Yeah I aggree that some people take it a bit to far, It seems that just because they have a phone in their pocket the minute somthing comes to there mind the pick out the phone and call or text some one, and it's always things that just could wait to later, The stuff would not be the kind of thing they would pick up a land line for, mobiles are just to accessable.

I think any boss would be within his rights to Ban phones at work, all emergency contacts can be put through the oridinary business lines.
 
Agree the behaviour was unacceptable but it's not always as simple as you suggest, GB.
Sure, if Matty is running his own business he can tell a client to go to hell, but if he's a rep for a firm, required to lodge X amount of business, and this ill mannered person is considered an important client, he's probably pretty limited in what he can do.
 
No worries (as ole Joe used to say), mine only goes off when someone wants something;

and no one wants to know the world is falling in;

so its all cool and peacefull.
 
Hit. Nail. On. Head.

+1...there is a time and a place for everything, common sense and common courtesy is all that is needed. i use my phone alot, but only when suitable.

is it childish of me to point out nioka is an anagram of nokia. :
 

yup you are right, I am trying to write new business with this guy, so will put up with the bull**** to get it. It does go with the territory, but what I don't understand is how people can just be so plain rude. The funny thing is they aren't doing it deliberately, they just don't notice!
 
I'm not sure that's right, matty. I've managed sales forces and worked with a lot of reps and have repeatedly noticed that the people who are rude to reps are doing it as a means of boosting their sense of self-importance. They may well be under pressure themselves from a boss, so it allows them to feel better if they take out their frustration on acting like "the big guy" toward someone whom they know is not in a position to walk out on them.

That said, I have no answers except perhaps to say when he gets off the first phone call: "it seems I've come at a bad time: could we reschedule this appointment for a time when you would feel able to have an uninterrupted discussion?"

That might surprise him sufficiently to make him realise you do not deserve to be treated so rudely.

Also, have you discussed tactics with your boss? Always good to have the support of your manager. Good luck. It's bloody tough out there sometimes.
 
... what I don't understand is how people can just be so plain rude. The funny thing is they aren't doing it deliberately, they just don't notice!
Reckon you hit the nail on the head, matty.
I remember a saying from my younger years - "Doof geboren, nix dazu gelernt" - which roughly translates as "Born full of ignorance, still got it all."
When the first mobile brick appeared on our streets, it quickly became a status symbol among the "In crowd". Heard the joke, where the self-obsessed show-off conducts a one-sided mobile debate in a full restaurant? And then his mobile starts to ring...

Although every T D & H has one today, the "I am important and need to be in constant contact with all who depend on me"-syndrome persists. Just about everybody got their mobile while still in a state "full of ignorance." And as nobody taught them any manners, they've still got all those rude, ignorant habits.
(And don't bet on schools teaching manners or respect for others. Chances are, they'll spell "mnrs" and "rspc" and treat them as new four-letter-words. )
 
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