Tag Archives: telephone

BE CAREFUL USING THE WORD ‘TOMORROW’ IN EMAILS.

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A lot of people have still not figured out that making an appointment by email is very different from making an appointment by telephone. When you call someone on the phone, you are in direct communication with the other person. In a phone call, ‘today’ means today, and ‘tomorrow’ means tomorrow. However, when you send an email, you can’t be sure when the recipient will get it. He may get it immediately, but if his server or yours is down or screwed up, he may not get your message for hours. Haven’t you ever received an email the day after it was sent? You should get in the habit of being specific about dates in email messages. State the day of the week you are talking about. At some point, you may get yourself into trouble, like missing an important appointment, by using words like ‘tomorrow’ in an email.

When is ‘next Tuesday’? ‘Next’ is another word that gets people into trouble in emails. Suppose you get an email on Sunday, October 10 inviting you to a meeting ‘next Tuesday’. Is the sender referring to October 12 or October 19? The dictionary defines ‘next’ as ‘immediately after’, but after what? Avoid confusion. State the date.

Business etiquette.  In business schools in Europe, students are taught business etiquette and how to write business letters. That is a basic part of a business education in Europe and Japan. Here in the U.S., business schools don’t normally teach that at all. I majored in business, and the subject of business etiquette never came up. I do recall a lecture on how to write a resume, but not how to write a business letter.

The Handshake. Shaking hands has been part of business etiquette for centuries and refusing to shake somebody’s hand has always been considered an insult. Covid has changed that. If someone offers to shake my hand, I politely tell them that I don’t shake hands anymore because of Covid. No one has yet taken offense by that. Dr. Anthony Fauci said last year: “I don’t think we should ever shake hands again, to be honest with you.” Forget about bumping elbows as an alternative to a handshake or having everybody wipe their hands with hand sanitizer before or after shaking hands. If I was running an office, I would put up signs around the office stating: ‘We do not shake hands in this office due to Covid.’

CALLING ME ON THE TELEPHONE.Before I answer my phone, I always check my Caller I.D. screen first. If my Caller I.D. does not identify the caller or says that the call is from a ‘Private Caller’, ‘Unknown Name’, ‘Blocked Number’, ‘Toll Free Number’, or just the name of a city; I will not answer the call. If you are calling me from a telephone that does not identify you, just leave a voicemail message. Do not hang up and call me back later. That won’t do any good. I check my messages frequently, and I will reply to legitimate voicemail messages. I am sorry if this seems rude, but I get a lot of robocalls, and this is the only way I can control the problem. You should do the same thing that I do about this. When you answer a robocall, you are telling the computer that called you that you answer robocalls. Doing that gets you more robocalls, calls like: “Your auto warranty is about to expire” or “Congratulations! You have been selected to receive a free…….” I recently got a robocall that said that I failed to appear for jury duty and that a bench warrant for my arrest would be issued in 48 hours unless I paid a $500 fine, a fine that I could only pay with Walmart gift cards. It seems hard for me to believe that there are people gullible enough to fall for a scam this obvious, but I am told that a lot of people do.

CALLING ME ON THE TELEPHONE.

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Before I answer my phone, I always check my Caller I.D. screen first. If my Caller I.D. does not identify the caller or says that the call is from ‘Private Caller’, ‘Unknown Name’, ‘Blocked Number’, ‘Unavailable’, ‘Toll Free Number’, ‘Out of Area’, etc.; I will not answer the call. If you are calling me from a telephone that does not identify you or if you have Caller I.D. blocking, just leave a message on my voice mail. Do not hang up and call me back later. That won’t do any good. I check my messages frequently, and I will reply to legitimate voice mail messages. I am sorry if this seems rude, but I get a lot of robocalls and calls from scammers, and this is the only way I can control the problem.


You should do the same thing that I do about this. When you answer a robocall, you are telling the computer that called you 2 things: 1. Your phone number is active and 2. You answer robocalls. Doing that just gets your name put on sucker lists, and crooks sell their sucker lists to other crooks!

Calling Me On The Telephone.

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When calling me on the telephone, please remember that before I answer my phone, I always check my Caller I.D. screen first. If my Caller I.D. screen does not identify the caller, or if it tells me that the call is from ‘Private Caller’, ‘Unknown Name’, ‘Blocked Number’, ‘Unavailable’, ‘Toll Free Number’, ‘Out of Area’, etc.; I will not answer the call. If you are calling me from a telephone that does not identify the caller or if you have Caller I.D. blocking, just leave a message on my voice mail. Do not hang up and call me back later. That won’t do any good. I check my messages frequently, and I will reply to legitimate voice mail messages. I am sorry if this seems rude, but I get too many robocalls and calls from phony charities, crooks, and scammers, and this is the only way I can control the problem.

You should do the same thing that I do about this. When you answer a telephone call from a robocaller, you are telling the computer that called you that your phone ​number is active and that you answer robocalls. Doing that just gets your name put on their sucker list, and crooks sell their sucker lists to other crooks!

P.S. – I am writing this because 2 days ago I got a voice mail message from “the awards committee” saying that I had “just won a free all-expense paid vacation to Bermuda, including the airfare.” The caller was a man. He spoke with an accent that sounded to me like he was from the British West Indies, but I’m not sure. He said that in order for me to claim my prize, I had to call him back within 24 hours with my credit card number and security code to “verify” my identity. The call came from the 234 Area Code. That’s the Area Code for Nigeria. I didn’t call him back because this didn’t smell entirely kosher to me. Several people have told me that I have a suspicious nature, and I think that’s true. Anyway, it’s been more than 24 hours since I got this message, so I guess I’ve lost my free Bermuda vacation.

Calling Me On The Telephone.

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When calling me on the telephone, please remember that before I answer my phone, I always check the Caller I.D. screen first. If my Caller I.D. screen does not identify the caller, or if it tells me that the call is from ‘Private Caller’, ‘Out of Area’, ‘Unknown Name’, ‘Toll Free Caller’, ‘Name Not Found,’ ‘Blocked’, ‘Unavailable’, etc.; I will not answer the call. If you are calling me from a telephone that does not identify you as the caller or you have caller I.D. blocking, just leave a message on my voice mail. Do not hang up without leaving a message or call back later. That won’t do you any good. I check my messages frequently, and I will reply to legitimate voice mail messages. I am sorry if this seems rude, but I get a lot of robocalls and calls from crooks and scammers, and this is the only way I can control this problem.

You should do the same thing I do about this. When you answer a telephone call from a robocaller, you are informing the computer that called you that your phone ​number is live and active and that you answer your phone when calls come in from robocallers. Doing that gets your name put on the robocaller’s sucker list, and they sell their sucker lists to other robocallers.

My Telephone Policy.

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Before I answer my telephone, I always check the Caller I.D. screen first. If the screen does not show the name of the caller and his phone number, I screen incoming calls, but I will not answer the phone until I know who is calling. If my Caller I.D. says that a call is from: ‘Private Caller’, ‘Out of Area’, ‘Unknown Name’, ‘Incoming Call’, ‘Toll Free Caller’, ‘Name Not Found,’ or ‘Blocked’; I will not answer the call at all. If you are calling me from a telephone that does not identify you as the caller, just leave a message. I check my messages several times a day. I am sorry if this sounds rude or discourteous, but I get a lot of phone robocalls from phony charities andcrooks, and this is the only way I can get control over this problem. When you get a robocall and you answer your phone, the computer that called you will make a note of the fact that you answered the phone. Then they know that your phone number is live and that you answer your calls. That gets your phone number placed on their sucker list, which they then sell to other phony charities and crooks.