Telephone Etiquette

I guess I'm on the "Whatever happened to" theme these days. It's starting to make me feel old, and I'm not sure I like that feeling! However, I wonder what happened to good manners, especially telephone manners. I get very tired of people calling and when I answer the phone it's silence. You know someone is there because there's no dial tone and after a few seconds they simply hang up. Now, I understand people dial incorrectly, I do it often myself, but I don't allow someone to answer the phone and then hang up on them. I politely apologize with "I'm sorry, I dialed incorrectly."

This morning the phone rang and caller ID said, "New York, NY. We own a business so we often receive calls from numbers I don't immediately recognize. I answer, cheerily, and dead air for fifteen seconds and then "click." In the words of Stephanie Tanner, "How rude."

Since we run the business from our home I always answer "Good Morning" and the name of the business during business hours. Sometimes it stuns people, especially if it's someone calling for me personally, or to order Avon from me...but don't simply hang up. I want to receive your call. I want to talk to you. If it's a wrong number I won't be upset, but will politely wish you a pleasant day. As Julie Andrews' character says in The Princess Diaries, "Manners matter."

When did we stop teaching our children manners for polite society. Yes ma'am and No sir? Telephone manners" Common courtesy? I think we should revive those things once again.