Eric F. Savage

Speakerphones seem to be increasing in popularity in the workplace, and in case it’s not obvious, this is a bad thing. For the sake of sanity, let’s review the narrow set of conditions under which speakerphones are allowed. Note that both conditions must be met.

• You are in a fully-enclosed office or conference room.
• Two or more people need to speak on your end.

There are some rogue conditions floating around that are invalid. These include.

• I’m typing. - Stop and listen, or hang up.
• I’m very busy and/or important. - No, you’re not.

Simple huh? There is a small set of exceptions. (This list is exhaustive)

• You are juggling and on the verge of breaking a personal/world record.
• You are performing surgery.
• Your handset is broken and you are ordering a new one.
• Your ears are under some sort of medical duress and you are calling the doctor.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 11th, 2007 at 1:40 pm and is filed under advice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.