Parenting my student workers...It's a good thing they gave me a raise

Mom,

Whatever happened to phone etiquette?

I manage a flock Gaggle herd group of student workers and much of the work they do for our department is on the phone (interviews, data collection) etc. We don't operate a call center per se, but the nature of our work can be urgent at times because we have to get calendar events and PR type information posted online rather quickly. I require that my students remain professional in their phone etiquette at all times.

I do not suffer rudenss gladly on the phone, especially at work.

Just trust me on that.

So, when I received a number of complaints about a particular student who knew her job very well, I had to observed what was going on when she was working.

It turned out that much of the problem was that she did not close her phone conversations, and it was perceived as rude.

"Perceived",  heck with that, it was rude, but she had no idea why people took issue with it.

I think for some reason she thought it made her seem authoritative, or "oh so busy".

She would simply hang up the phone when her part of the conversation was over.

That flies. All. Over. Me.

I finally had to explain to her that in my department a phone call has an opening ("Hello") and a closing ("Goodbye") if she wanted to continue to work in my office.

Do people not learn basic phone etiquette any more?

Yet another way I feel like I"m becoming obsolete and feel that social media has done our society a disservice. Kids these days don't interact with people in a "REAL" way anymore. I feel like many parents are not ensuring that their kids are taught manners and how to get along in the world.


I'm turning into one of those "OLD" people who think that "Kids these days" stop to think, but then forget to start again.

Have a good week mom!

Holley