way way OT: wireless on planes (aside)

[GCC Consulting]

> > Planes are my escape from my clients and give me quiet time to work 
> > without interruption.  I don't want them to be able to 
> reach me when I'm traveling.
> > Yes, I can shut it off.  But If calls are allowed, they 
> complain that 
> > I am unresponsive to their calls if I can talk but turn it off.
> > 
> > Richard Kreiss
> > GCC Consulting
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > _______________________________________________
> > Filepro-list mailing list
> > Filepro-list at lists.celestial.com
> > http://mailman.celestial.com/mailman/listinfo/filepro-list
> > 
> > 
> Climbing on my soap box so watch out.
> 
> 
> So do you respond to the phone when you are in the toilet or 
> in some other inappropriate situation.  It should be 
> reasonable to anyone that there are times you will be 
> unavailable and they will have to leave a message.
> 
> I firmly believe that we are becoming more and more impolite 
> in the way we use our cell phones.  I refuse to answer 
> call-waiting, the person who called me first has my 
> attention.  The person who called me second can leave a 
> message and be next on my list (or however far down they fall 
> in the scheme.)  I feel that many people use this technology 
> to "jump the line" asserting that they think they are the 
> most important person and my current customer can wait on them.
> 
> I refuse to drop everything to answer an email.  Just because 
> they can send something quickly does not require that I 
> answer quickly.  You take your chances.  Email's convenience 
> is that the person at the other end does not have to answer 
> at the moment you send a message.  If you want that pick up the phone.
> 
> Of course I do not suggest that Richard or any person that 
> was involved in this posting falls in this rude category, but 
> just was annoyed by Richard being worried that his customers 
> would insist on his answering the phone at 36,000 ft (or 
> however high planes fly).  His customers struck me a rude.
> 
> Let us rebel against this intrusion into our lives.  Work is 
> not supposed to be 7x24x365 - that is unreasonable.
> 
Nancy,

Just a response.  

Most clients understand that there is a proper time for calls.

However, some are very self centered and only care about themselves.   I think
we all have one or 2 such clients.

If and when I use the call waiting feature is usually to tell the calling party
I'll get back to them.

But this is based on the type of conversation I'm having.

Nancy, two of my best clients care mostly about their businesses.  Last year
when I was in the hospital and just came out of surgery, my wife answered my
cell phone.  It was one of these clients.  When told that I just came out of
surgery, his only response was to ask my wife how soon could I get to his place
to work.  Not how is he; is he ok.  

The other client yelled at me one day because he was having an minor problem
with his system.  When I told him I would be at his place as soon as I got
another clients system up, he said I should come to him he didn't give a "rats
s...t" about my other clients problem.  He wanted his problem taken care of.
Now this is someone I have known a long time and have family history with.  His
father & my uncle were partners and my father worked for them for a while.

By the way, both of these clients pay their bills almost without question and on
time.

I have clients who call at 7:30AM or 11PM.  Some of them have offices that work
around the clock.  Some just work late.  The calls go with the territory.  It's
been this way for the 25 years I've been doing consulting.

For the most part, I don't mind.  It pays the bills.

I don't respond to emails very quickly as you can see by the time of this post.
I don't understand those who live with a Blackberry.

As far as being worried about calls at 36,000 feet.  I know it would happen.  I
was recently at JFK about board a flight to California when my phone rang.  It
was one of those clients.  They had received an EDI order from one of their
customer which the were having problems converting.  One of the partners almost
caused me to miss my flight by arguing with me over what the possible causes of
the problem were.  I told him I would dial in to them when I got to the coast.
If I could have received calls or connected to him from the plane, that's what
he would have insisted I do.  

I want my quite time when I fly.  I do work, I program without phone or family
interruptions.  Coast to coast 4 1/2 hour of billable time.  Longer if there are
flight delays while in the air and I'm an American Airlines flight with power at
the seat.  My laptops battery will give me about 4.5 to 4.75 hours of time.

I've had beepers and phones for over 30 years.  My daughter bought me my first
beeper.  She wanted to be able to reach me.  My customers/clients loved it.  For
a while, after I got my first cell phone, I had both.  Got beeped, had the
option to call back.  Now it's strictly cell phone - my office away from my
office (cell phone & laptop).

Richard Kreiss
GCC Consulting