There are only a few moments in my day when I'm 100% available to the next person or thing that grabs my attention. For the most part, I'm either in the middle of working, pondering something I've been working on, absorbed in whatever music I'm listening to, or distracted by a personal issue. It is rare to get all of me at any given moment. I would argue that the same is true of many of us, and yet we still have a mindset that we should be available even when we're not.
Case in point: today while I was in the ladies room, I heard the phone of the person in the stall next to me ring. It rang about two times before she picked it up and said "Hello? Who is this? Oh hi! You could not have caught me at a worse time. I'm in the bathroom. Let me call you right back!" Why on earth did she answer her phone in the first place? We've developed these really advanced technologies called "voicemail" and "caller ID" that allow us to not only see who called us while we were busy, but figure out if we want to talk to them in the first place! It's brilliant!
The worst offenders are the people I call (I work in telesales) who pick up, ask who is calling, and say "You've caught me at a really bad time. I'm in a meeting right now!" First of all, either you're lying to me or you're extremely rude. I have a hard time believing that you would bother answering a call while you're in the middle of an important meeting, never mind that you would do so in front of your colleagues, or run out of the room to answer a call from an unknown number.
Do we think others will judge us if we don't make an attempt to be receptive at all times? I wonder. What are your thoughts, readers?
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