Meeting interuptions 2

[PeaveyPhones]

So I'm sitting there talking to my boss and someone comes to the door. As soon as I take a breath this guy butts in with "hey you know that PC I was working on. blah, blah, blah..." this goes on for about 10 minutes. I'm stuck there twittling my thumbs because my boss entertains the question. The young man that interupted does not know any better, but my boss does. We talked about it. He sez it's the corporate culture (at this paticular company) and he does not want to be seen as going contrary to that culture. I say too bad. Sit everyone in our department down and very nicely lay doen the ground rules. Like if you come to an office to see someone and they are busy, and aren't we all, in a meeting or just doing some other work, get persission to interupt. The person being interuppted should have right(?) to say "yeh come on in" or "Can I get back with you in 10 minutes".

What do ya'll think?

Richard

 

[ecobb]

Well, I think out of common courtesy no one should be interrupted while they're busy. It's just plain rude to walk in and stand there while someone is on the phone or they have someone else in their office (unless it's an emergency). But, just like you, I see it every day. I can't tell you how many times I've heard "I know you're busy, but..."

My boss will not let anything go unanswered...phone, email, knock on the door. We've been in closed door meetings that should take 30 minutes but last over 2 hours because every time his phone rings, he has to answer it. Every time his little palm thingy "dings" with a new email, he has to read and respond to it. His reasoning is, "What if it's important?". My answer is always, "Then they'll call back."

Hope This Helps!

Ecobb

"Alright Brain, you don't like me, and I don't like you. But lets just do this, and I can get back to killing you with beer." - Homer Simpson

 

[sha76]

Personally I think it's incredibly rude, another manager frequently interupts when I'm in meetings with my boss, as in walking straight in with no 'excuse me' or even a knock on the door. Although I'm never one to keep my mouth shut usually, in this situation if anything's to be said it needs to come from my boss to have any effect & that's not happening (although it annoys him too!). Sorry, not too constructive, just thought I'd join in on your rant!

 

[PeaveyPhones]

On one hand I'm glad I'm not alone. But on the other hand it's sad that I'm not alone on this issue.
I agree with you SHA76, whoever is in charge of the meeting, however informal, should take the initiative and stop the interrupting party.

Richard

 

[sha76]

Just come out of brief (ie 1/2 hour) meeting with boss. One interruption from aforementioned manager, one mobile call! Incidentally meeting was an hour later than scheduled due to boss having 3 impromptu meetings first, and the topic of our meeting? Time management!

 

[bi]

Yeah. I think we've all experienced this and it is most annoying when it's your boss. I once had a boss who would sit with one eye on his email. If something came from his boss (no matter if it needed immediate answering or not -- even if it was a joke the boss was passing on), he'd immediately answer it. He even started doing it during my review. So I asked that we move to a conference room where there was no computer for him to look at and I told him why. He took the constructive criticism well and definitely improved after that (with me and everyone else.)

In your case, though, if the attitude that rude behavior (interrupting unless it's an emergency) is part of the coporate culture, you are going to have an uphill battle getting anyone to change. And you aren't going to be too popular while you're trying.

 

[lionelhill]

bi, you are so right. My current boss unplugs his telephone before review meetings, a very good policy. I think his attitude is similar to mine about reviews: they are the one time in the year when you get to talk to your boss properly (and vice versa), and if he can't be bothered to take it seriously, how on earth can he expect you to take him or your job seriously?

Actually very much the same goes for other meetings.

 

[SQLSister]

I find cell phones are the worst meeting interruptors. And waht makes me angriest is that the calls are almost always personal calls. Why should six people have to sit and wait while their boss (or other senior person) talks to his wife or girlfriend? Cell phones at work should not be allowed. I feel very strongly about this as I grew up in a work culture where personal phone calls at work were NOT allowed. The fact that they come in on cell phones makes them twice as disruptive. I wouldn't mind so much if they did little one minute calls, but they always seem to last for ten minutes or more; some employees spend more time on personal conversations than they do working.

 

[sha76]

People do seem to think common courtesy doesn't apply to mobile calls. I've only ever taken my mobile into meetings when I was having big problems with the house I was buying. Even then it was always switched to silent and in big meetings I'd sit by the door, or in smaller meetings apologise at the start, give an explanation & check nobody minded. If my mobile goes when someone's speaking to me at my desk I'll first ask the person I'm speaking to if they mind me telling the caller I'll ring back and then do just that, with no further conversation (and yes, if the person at my desk said they did mind I would just disconnect the call & turn off my phone, having my mobile at work is a privilege, not a right).

 

[pmonett]

My personal workplace policy when going to see someone for any reason is to first check that they are available or not.
If not, I try to find out if their business is more important than mine. If that is the case, I either wait quietly until someone takes notice of me and then expose my problem, or I come back later.

As for mobile phones, I understand that some people really do need to have one, but why oh why does everyone HAVE to choose the noisiest, most annoying ring tones for their upstart gadget ?

I have a mobile phone too, and it has been set for silent buzzing since day 1 (that was the first setting I modified). That has not prevented it from being useful.

Pascal.

 

[CajunCenturion]

Cell phones are the worst, if not properly handled. They go off in church, in concerts, during plays, and during meetings.

My general policy is that if I am running the meeting, and a cell phone or beeper goes off, then I excuse that person from the meeting, usually with some sort of acidic remark along the lines "since this meeting does not have your undivided attention, we won't waste any more of your time", and I don't let them back in the meeting. First time I did that, jaws dropped, but three other phones were turned off, or turned silent before the jaws hit the floor. There are not many external interruptions. I say it's a general policy because you can't always do it.

I've also walked out of meetings when beeper/cell phone interruptions really slowed things down. My boss come in after the meeting, pissed, and demanded an explanation. I told him that he was not paying me to sit in a conference room listenting to other people talk on the phone, and that I had ways to make that time billable. You judge and evaluate me on billable time and ratios, and I wasn't going to hurt my own evaluation in a non-billable meeting because others were talking on the phone. Next time we had such a meeting, the first thing my boss did was to tell everyone to turn off their phones.

That all sounds good, but in reality you can't do it in many situations. It is a pet peeve of mine for those interruptions and even when you have to sit there and deal with it, it does affect my opinion of their professionalism.

Good Luck
--------------
As a circle of light increases so does the circumference of darkness around it. - Albert Einstein

 

[rosieb]

My personal view is that cell phones are innappropriate in meetings. I only take mine if I have a potential disaster in the offing, and I always declare it (I went through a period when my father was very ill and I did need to be available, on the few occasions it rang, I was out of the meeting at once, with apologies).

My objection to a phone interruption is that it says that those physically present are less important than the caller - sheer bad manners, and a waste of other people's valuable time.

Even worse, I feel, is the feeling that someone can turn up 15 minutes late to a meeting of, say, 10 others (as happened to me last week) and be surprised we hadn't waited. That would have wasted over 2 hours combined time.

 

[flapeyre]

Most cellphones have a silent mode. Mine is set to vibrate when a call comes in in this mode, and the call will go to voicemail. I use silent mode instead of turning the phone off because otherwise I might not remember to turn the phone back on after the meeting is over.


"When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the Earth with your eyes turned skyward, for here you have been, and there you will always long to return."

--Leonardo da Vinci

 

[BruceReed]

You get the same treatment from a sales clerk at stores. You're standing there ready to buy lots of stuff, and the phone on the desk rings they immediately pick it up. Once I asked why the person answered "in case it's important". I answered I thought sales were important, but I guess I was wrong & left the store empty handed.

What I expect is the person to answer the phone right away with a "Can I get right back to you" to the guy on the phone, ring up my purchases & then continue.

I guess that I'm dreaming to think that this would ever occur.

 

[mattKnight]

BruceReed,

Chances are though, the sales clerk was being rung by a manager! Sadly far more important than a mere customer

Take Care

Matt
If at first you don't succeed, skydiving is not for you.

 

[PeaveyPhones]

I think what I'm gonna do is the next time someone walks in and interrupts a meeting is walk out, wait 10 seconds, then re-enter. This would, of course, put me back to the front of the line. Right?

 

[VBAjedi]

The sad truth is that it doesn't even OCCUR to many people that their issue may not be the biggest crisis going.

If your boss is at all approachable on the issue, you could suggest that they respond to interruptions with something like, "I'm in a meeting with Richard at the moment - is this more important than our meeting?".

Most people will immediately defer at that point (everybody feels that they are the most important, but nobody wants to SAY it!). And it still allows room for true emergencies and quick questions to be handled.

VBAjedi

 

[Tarwn]

But I am the most important person

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The never-completed website:

http://www.tiernok.com/

 

[PeaveyPhones]

VBAjedi,
I have a very good relationship with my boss and I have talked to him about this a couple times. His take on it is that the company culture here has developed this way and is not likely to change. And as "outsiders" (both of us are from Texas) he is concerned about offending the natives. Mississippians are very nice folk but it has gone to the extreme. You get to a 4 way stop and nobody wants to go. The person with the right-of-way will just smile real big and wave until you go. I must be living in Hooterville. The other end of the spectrum of course would be my limited experience in New Jersey where my braking mechanism was somehow attached to the horns of all cars behind me. Back to the interuptions. I argued that he should set the example and change the backwards culture. Alas, he does not want to rock the boat.

 

[Kjonnnn]

I've had that happen a few times, and I simply say "Am I invisible?" OR, "Hey, you're next, I'm NOW." They get the point and move on. But I'm kinda known as a shoot-from-the-hip kinda guy, so I get away with it.