Office Situation - Page 3

151949 · ‎03-09-2010

@Lipstickdiva wrote:
@151949 wrote:
Ok - I don't understand why anyone would NEED to make phone calls from the office that are so personal and private! If I had personal business that was that personal that no one must overhear it, I would wait til my lunch break and go make that call outside. After all, you are there to work , not to be doing personal business.Personal phone calls werre absolutely forbidden anywhere I have ever worked.
Sometimes one might have a medical issue that needs to be addressed.

My doctor's office is closed for lunch at the same time I take my lunch hour so I have to make doctor's appointments during work hours. I am lucky I am in my own private office. But not everyone is in a situation where they can just walk away and make a personal call.

And i wonder how often that is necessary past just calling for an appointment which should not NEED to be very private.As far as i am aware employees in offices get a coffee break in the mornings and a lunch break - or does your doctor's office staff all take their coffee break at the exact same time as you do as well. On the rare occasions I ever needed to make a genuine private phone call when I was at work I would ask my manager if I could use her office for a few min. Now a days with everyone having a cell phone it would be simple and very private to just text to your husband or your kids when you need to communicate with them.

Lipstickdiva · ‎03-10-2010

@151949 wrote:
@Lipstickdiva wrote:
@151949 wrote:
Ok - I don't understand why anyone would NEED to make phone calls from the office that are so personal and private! If I had personal business that was that personal that no one must overhear it, I would wait til my lunch break and go make that call outside. After all, you are there to work , not to be doing personal business.Personal phone calls werre absolutely forbidden anywhere I have ever worked.
Sometimes one might have a medical issue that needs to be addressed.

My doctor's office is closed for lunch at the same time I take my lunch hour so I have to make doctor's appointments during work hours. I am lucky I am in my own private office. But not everyone is in a situation where they can just walk away and make a personal call.

And i wonder how often that is necessary past just calling for an appointment which should not NEED to be very private.As far as i am aware employees in offices get a coffee break in the mornings and a lunch break - or does your doctor's office staff all take their coffee break at the exact same time as you do as well. On the rare occasions I ever needed to make a genuine private phone call when I was at work I would ask my manager if I could use her office for a few min. Now a days with everyone having a cell phone it would be simple and very private to just text to your husband or your kids when you need to communicate with them.

It's not an issue for me ever, I'm just answering a question you posed. When I call my doctor, especially an ob/gyn, the matter could be very private. Everyone doesn't need to know what is wrong and why someone needs an appointment.

We do not get any breaks at my office outside of our lunch. I've never worked in an office where we've gotten breaks besides our lunch. I don't know anyone who works in an office setting who actually gets their breaks. I'm not complaining, just stating a fact.

RainyDayGal · ‎03-09-2010

@151949 wrote:

And i wonder how often that is necessary past just calling for an appointment which should not NEED to be very private.As far as i am aware employees in offices get a coffee break in the mornings and a lunch break - or does your doctor's office staff all take their coffee break at the exact same time as you do as well. On the rare occasions I ever needed to make a genuine private phone call when I was at work I would ask my manager if I could use her office for a few min. Now a days with everyone having a cell phone it would be simple and very private to just text to your husband or your kids when you need to communicate with them.

When I call the doctor's office to make an appointment they ask me WHY. I have to give them information, and ya I don't need people hearing why I'm going. I'd really prefer that the man sitting next to me not know about my GYN issues or anything else personal. I also don't know any offices out there that take breaks except for lunch. Union people get designated breaks, office workers do not.

151949 · ‎03-09-2010

OK - granted - there are occasions when a person does have to make a truely personal phone call -- how often does that happen? How many times a year? As I said before - if I needed to make a truely personal and private phone call I could just ask my manager to let me use her office a few min. If you are not abusing that she would not object. Of course that is NOT for the purpose of calling some guy you just met yesterday and can't wait to sleep with.I know that some of the posters on here spend work time on this website during their workday and so I can only assume they are also on their phones as well. There is little work ethic anymore.

ChynnaBlue · ‎05-22-2012

I'm guessing this is less about privacy and more about personal space and productivity. I have my own cubicle, but the cubicle walls have been set up in such a way that the right side of my row makes up a hallway or a corral that feeds out to the hallway people use to get to the cafeteria and meeting rooms. They've also placed a TV (always on mute) and some tables and chairs out there for a casual meeting place. People forget that my team and I are here and hold impromptu meetings and loud "HEY BOB, HOW ARE YOU!" conversations right next to me. Directly behind me is a new conference room that has very thin walls. If anyone in there is on a conference call and have the phone volume up or raise their voices at all, everything can be heard at my desk.

I use headphones. Sometimes I play music, sometimes I just put them in as earplugs. It really helps. I would go crazy and get nothing done without them.

My team uses Microsoft Outlook and it has a shared calendars feature. If I'm working on a project with someone, I sometimes pop that person's calendar onto my own so that it's easy to schedule meetings with the person and I don't have to look up the times with each meeting request. If you have shared calendars, you might consider putting his calendar on yours so that you can see when he has meetings scheduled and then try to schedule your meetings at different times. That way when he's in a meeting, you can have the cube to yourself and vice versa.

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