I definitely don't give out my cell phone number to random business contacts as my main number! People checking references can darn well call my office and leave voice mail.
If someone gives out their cell number to business types, or lets people they know do it, then that's what they have to expect. If he makes himself reachable to business contacts in the hospital, that's his problem.
But... that's probably one of the last things I'd expect someone to say, when calling about references. A ways above, "Sorry, I died last week," but still pretty far down the list. Weird.
I don't even see how it's a problem. Seems to me like he had a reasonable response and managed just fine. I so totally fail to understand the whole "cell phones are such a hassle" meme when they're just so ignorable! I do the "oh, I don't feel like talking to that person right now" thing probably at least once a week. If it's important they'll leave voicemail and I can call them right back and tell them sorry I couldn't find the phone in time to catch the call, it was hiding in my bag (and, hey, this afternoon that was actually true!)
He didn't seem to have a problem with it. I admit I was a bit surprised, having made the assumption that I would be talking to a guy sitting at a desk in an office building somewhere. :)
Heck, I'm surprised it even worked in the hospital. Our local hospital has cell-phone jammers in place so you can only use them in the lobby, I think. Apparently the phones can interfere with the monitoring equipment? or something?
They probably just interfere with people's sanity! :-) (They don't REALLY even interfere with airplane navigation equipment. I suspect changes on that one will be coming soon.)
I'll see if I can find some citations in trustworthy places. This seems to be common knowledge among the pilots I know, but "common knowledge" isn't quite what I want to use for mythbusting. :) Might take me a little bit to find this.
I haven't had an office phone other than my cell in 10 years. I haven't had a home phone that I took incoming calls on in about the same. It's usually just been a byproduct of dsl or a fax line or something.
My impression is that it's unusual. Most people seem to work in offices where Big Company, Inc. provides them a phone line. But that's just a guess. I could be way out of date.
He didn't seem to be at all bothered by getting a business call in the hospital. (Makes sense, if he's answering calls from phone numbers he doesn't recognize.) Me, I was a little surprised, but what the hey.
For me, I think having a business line separate from my cell phone is handy for times when I want to remain connected to my personal life but not to my business life -- say, recovering from surgery! But then I'm a wage slave. Sole proprietors, f'rex, might see things pretty differently.
I have another phone quirk that I know to be unusual. I believe that my phone is there for my convienance and not other that of other people. I find it very easy to leave a phone ring or to see who is calling and ignore it. Recovering from surgery, I'd have the phone on if I could get away with it, but I would probably only accept calls from a select few.
The answer to that business line distinction might be smarter phones. There isn't any reason our cells shouldn't have multiple numbers, and intelligence about grouping calls, etc. We're getting there, but I think we could go a lot further with little effort.
Ah. I like your phone quirk, and share it to some extent, but I find the noise of a ringing phone to be intensely irritating. I'm not above simply turning the ringer off, though. :-)
Mmmm, a phone with multiple numbers and some intelligence about them. That's excellent!
I should be able to have it ring differently at different times of day for different people. I should be able to create menus so that callers could elect to do things like go straight to voicemail. I should be able to send classes of callers there against their will. :-) I should be able to program the phone to do these things myself. grumble-grumble
How are things? I haven't been on LJ again for months on end and thus haven't been keeping up.
Things are pretty good overall. Feet still b0rked. Still have three wonderful cats and one wonderful husband. New job at tiny startup = exciting and all but overwhelming. One kitty has recently been diagnosed diabetic and is responding well to treatment.
How are things with you? How is your wife? How's the (MUST be here by now) BABY? Are you still playing poker?
:-) I hope you enjoy the startup experience. I've done that more often than not and find that I like that atmosphere more than larger companies. For the most part I've started with tiny startups and helped make them larger companies and then ended up leaving for one reason or another.
Speaking of that, I'm doing it again. :-) http://www.codefire.com/news_article.php?article=2 Poker was going well, but the opportunity to work with an online poker site was more than I could pass up. It combines a lot of things that I enjoy and is turning out to be a very interesting experience.
Alexander James is with us now! You can see him some here: http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/pandayoak/album?.dir=bd01scd&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%3a//pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/pandayoak/my_photos http://pics.livejournal.com/pandashrugged/gallery/000024qs
We're having so much fun being parents. He's a joy most of the time and gets better all the time. About a week ago, he grew up all at once in one day. I think there was some marked improvement in his vision, but now his personality is much more positive, he likes to play some, he reaches for things, etc. It's fun watching him do all of these things for the first time.
Ooo, awesome! That seems like it truly is perfect for you. I'm glad you're enjoying it. I love hearing about situations that turn out perfectly like that -- two seemingly disparate chunks of experience and interests meshing perfectly for the next thing you do.
We're having so much fun being parents.
That's wonderful. The pictures are great! Who's the other little one who keeps showing up in there -- a cousin? I bet this is one of the most amazing times for parents, as new babies learn so MUCH. Just operating a body is a lot of skills to learn.
I also share that phone quirk. But I live with someone who emphatically does *not*. It drives her *nuts* to ignore the phone on purpose, and it's even worse if the person doesn't leave a message.
But I don't like it when people have only cell phones, because they just don't have as good sound quality as land-line phones do. I've got a cell phone, but I'll call people back from a land-line if they reach me on it at home or work. (And yes, I did buy a decently expensive phone.)
I occasionally make such callbacks from desk or wall phones for the same reason. Sound quality is unfortunate. I don't have phones at the office and at home that I can use that way... I just never answer them or give the numbers out. Heck... I don't even know the number on either currently.
Have you ever worked somewhere that didn't give you a desk phone?
Um, only places that didn't give me a desk. Like the copyshop. -g-
I've never done the start-up thing. The closest is where I'm contracting now, which was a start-up a couple of years ago, and is now a few hundred people. I'm a techwriter working in the Unix sysadmin group, and I get to hear lots of comments about how it's not like the good ol' days...
(Otoh, I worked for Big-Ass Bank for 10 years, and this is nothing like!)
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I definitely don't give out my cell phone number to random business contacts as my main number! People checking references can darn well call my office and leave voice mail.
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But... that's probably one of the last things I'd expect someone to say, when calling about references. A ways above, "Sorry, I died last week," but still pretty far down the list. Weird.
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ENH??? You have *got* to tell us all more about that.
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Is this really that unusual?
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He didn't seem to be at all bothered by getting a business call in the hospital. (Makes sense, if he's answering calls from phone numbers he doesn't recognize.) Me, I was a little surprised, but what the hey.
For me, I think having a business line separate from my cell phone is handy for times when I want to remain connected to my personal life but not to my business life -- say, recovering from surgery! But then I'm a wage slave. Sole proprietors, f'rex, might see things pretty differently.
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The answer to that business line distinction might be smarter phones. There isn't any reason our cells shouldn't have multiple numbers, and intelligence about grouping calls, etc. We're getting there, but I think we could go a lot further with little effort.
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Mmmm, a phone with multiple numbers and some intelligence about them. That's excellent!
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How are things? I haven't been on LJ again for months on end and thus haven't been keeping up.
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How are things with you? How is your wife? How's the (MUST be here by now) BABY? Are you still playing poker?
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Speaking of that, I'm doing it again. :-) http://www.codefire.com/news_article.php?article=2 Poker was going well, but the opportunity to work with an online poker site was more than I could pass up. It combines a lot of things that I enjoy and is turning out to be a very interesting experience.
Alexander James is with us now! You can see him some here:
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/pandayoak/album?.dir=bd01scd&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%3a//pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/pandayoak/my_photos
http://pics.livejournal.com/pandashrugged/gallery/000024qs
We're having so much fun being parents. He's a joy most of the time and gets better all the time. About a week ago, he grew up all at once in one day. I think there was some marked improvement in his vision, but now his personality is much more positive, he likes to play some, he reaches for things, etc. It's fun watching him do all of these things for the first time.
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Ooo, awesome! That seems like it truly is perfect for you. I'm glad you're enjoying it. I love hearing about situations that turn out perfectly like that -- two seemingly disparate chunks of experience and interests meshing perfectly for the next thing you do.
We're having so much fun being parents.
That's wonderful. The pictures are great! Who's the other little one who keeps showing up in there -- a cousin? I bet this is one of the most amazing times for parents, as new babies learn so MUCH. Just operating a body is a lot of skills to learn.
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But I don't like it when people have only cell phones, because they just don't have as good sound quality as land-line phones do. I've got a cell phone, but I'll call people back from a land-line if they reach me on it at home or work. (And yes, I did buy a decently expensive phone.)
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Have you ever worked somewhere that didn't give you a desk phone?
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I've never done the start-up thing. The closest is where I'm contracting now, which was a start-up a couple of years ago, and is now a few hundred people. I'm a techwriter working in the Unix sysadmin group, and I get to hear lots of comments about how it's not like the good ol' days...
(Otoh, I worked for Big-Ass Bank for 10 years, and this is nothing like!)