Cell phones in the work place

I have my cell phone for emergency purposes - especially for my children when they are at school - I know if that phone rings, it could be an emergency. And my daughter did once have an accident on the playground that required me to bring her to the doctors.

I thought good phone etiquette was to have your cell phone on you at all times so that if it did ring (while you are at work) that you can either pick-up or switch it off right away. I think it is rude and annoying for a person to leave their cell-phone in their bag, coat, on their desk and not be around when the thing rings and rings. A lot of these phones have the stupidest (and loudest) ring-tones. I think that is just so unprofessional in a work environment.

The office phone is for office work and the cell-phone is for private stuff. When at work, either shut off your cell-phone (if you get A LOT of calls all day long) or switch it to vibrate and put it in your pocket.

At a client meeting the other day a colleague had a cell-phone which he did not switch off and it kept ringing. The client eventually asked him to leave the meeting and switch the phone off before coming back but I honestly couldn't understand why he (the colleague) didn't nip it in the bud immediately. This is the lack of courtesy and consideration that annoys me about people these days. I thought maybe I was being a fuss-pot since everyone here seems to do this. I switch my phone to vibrate when I am at work. When I am in a meeting I turn it off completely. And it's not just cell-phones. I watched a top-level manager (in another meeting with another client) engrossed in his blackberry while the client was speaking directly to him about an issue. After a few minutes of conversation the client got angry and slammed his hand on the table to get some attention. The fact that we are all becoming technologically focused all-the-time does affect our behavior and manners.

Is it annoying when someone's phone rings and they're not there to answer it because of the ring tone, or because the phone is presumed to be for personal use?

I don't mind the calls people receive in the office, I do mind most of the
ringtones at a high decible. What's wrong with a simple default ringtone?

If I am in a meeting and someone's cellphone starts "ringing" with a
melody or some other peculiar sound, I think it's highly unprofessional.
We actually had a collegue whose ringtone was the Mission Impossible
themesong

Just this morning I met with a commercial realtor to look at some office
space and when his cell phone started ringing, I didn't mind at all, it
was a regular ringtone and he immediately said to the caller, he would
call back, he's in an important meeting. Afterwards he apologized for
the interruption to me. Perfectly acceptable.

It depends....does this persons phone ring 45 times a day? Or once? I personally can't stand it when someone around me is getting 50 phone calls and keeps either answering it or stopping what we are doing to turn it off. Do the people calling have nothing better to do than call????