When you sit in a cube in an office, your office mates become witness to many things that you do -- for better or worse. You have a great client call? You sound awesome! You close a deal? You look great! You stammer trying to explain a mistake? You feel and sound like an ass. If you are like me and have no problem having a public fight with your husband – they hear all that personal drama too. There is no getting around it. For the most part, anyone who works in these close quarters knows “cube etiquette” and they don’t talk too loud, or listen to music too loud or use speaker phone, pretty much at all. In my office, if any of those things had to take place, those in my immediate area would simply ask around to see if there was any opposition to anything that some might find annoying. But even with permission, no one conceded to this...
One morning I needed to be on a conference call but I was trying to multi-task and wrap a client package that needed to go out with the AM Fedex pick-up. I asked my colleagues seated around me if they had any issue with my dialing in for a call using speaker phone while I got my mailer ready. No one did. I dialed the number and began working the tape gun while I waited for the standard greeting and the direction to enter my usual password. It was quiet when a sultry female voice crooned “Thank you for calling clits and tits. We can’t wait to….” and went on for another few seconds humming and moaning all other things. I couldn’t hit the button fast enough to take the call off speaker. My fingers were all caught up in the packing tape and the woman was just going on and on and on…..God she was making a lot of promises. Everyone in the surrounding cubes stood up to look over the wall, wheeled their chair over to my area or poked their head out of their “doorway” - and then started laughing. I hit the "end" button and to be certain the call was really disconnected, I picked up and hung up the receiver several times. I turned to apologize and tried to explain that I must have inverted a number or two when dialing. It took a lot to convince everyone that I didn't have that number on speed dial. I mean really -- just because the dresses I wear to the office are so short they might be mistaken as shirts and yes, I have worn a pair of clear heel stilettos, it does not mean I call sex hotlines. However, between you and me, I did pull up the redial list to jot down the number. I think I'll go ahead and take my next few calls in the conference room...
One morning I needed to be on a conference call but I was trying to multi-task and wrap a client package that needed to go out with the AM Fedex pick-up. I asked my colleagues seated around me if they had any issue with my dialing in for a call using speaker phone while I got my mailer ready. No one did. I dialed the number and began working the tape gun while I waited for the standard greeting and the direction to enter my usual password. It was quiet when a sultry female voice crooned “Thank you for calling clits and tits. We can’t wait to….” and went on for another few seconds humming and moaning all other things. I couldn’t hit the button fast enough to take the call off speaker. My fingers were all caught up in the packing tape and the woman was just going on and on and on…..God she was making a lot of promises. Everyone in the surrounding cubes stood up to look over the wall, wheeled their chair over to my area or poked their head out of their “doorway” - and then started laughing. I hit the "end" button and to be certain the call was really disconnected, I picked up and hung up the receiver several times. I turned to apologize and tried to explain that I must have inverted a number or two when dialing. It took a lot to convince everyone that I didn't have that number on speed dial. I mean really -- just because the dresses I wear to the office are so short they might be mistaken as shirts and yes, I have worn a pair of clear heel stilettos, it does not mean I call sex hotlines. However, between you and me, I did pull up the redial list to jot down the number. I think I'll go ahead and take my next few calls in the conference room...
