“Etiquette means behaving yourself a little better than
is absolutely essential “
(Will Cuppy quote)
You may call it whatever you like etiquette or decorum, but
certain things in life need to be executed in a manner, which is becoming of
them. There are some ‘Do’s” which must be done exactly as they are expected to
be done.....by the 'caller' in a phone-call or the sender of a formal/ general sms.
The first must-do is announcing your name at the end of a greeting! ‘Disclosing’ your name,
immediately after greeting the person on the other side is something
each caller must do! Many a time I have people calling me up after
ages and then irritatingly asking “Guess, who?" or “recognised me?” as if they are Amitabh Bachchan with that definitely recognisable
voice. Then when you say, Sorry, but I have not, they waste another couple of
minutes coaxing you to guess....Not only is one fiddlesticks on the guessing
end but most likely offended, or then, extremely irritated! Sometimes the level of irritation is so much
that one is just compelled to tell the other side that they have reached a
wrong number or just shutting out!
For people who are in the habit of playing this ‘peekaboo’
games, please understand that the person who you called, may be absorbed in some engaging activity or something requiring his immediated attention and not in a mood for stupid time-consuming games! He/She
may be in a pensive frame of mind, seriously occupied, may not have your
number saved by name, or may have lost or displaced their earlier cell bearing
your number and/or name. Moreover, what does one
gain by wasting someone’s time in these guessing games?Because if the person
cannot guess your name, you don’t want to converse? When you are conversant with
someone on an everyday basis, they would know by your greeting or number as to
who is calling them, but if you are especially calling someone after ages,
please disclose your identity first! It is a ‘MUST’.
The next ‘must do’ I would request all to follow is to
please sign your name in a formal message or greeting sent via sms so that the
person on the receiving side knows who it comes from. There are so many
festivals and special days throughout the year when we send greetings in form
of sms to all our friends, relatives and acquaintances. I have found that people
forget to sign these messages with their names. Probably they think that the
person receiving the message has their number saved with name so it should not
be necessary to do so....Wrong!!! For the same reasons such as above, like either
having lost or misplaced their earlier cell or long gaps between communication,
the person on the receiving end may not have your number. And also, everytime,
it may not be possible to call that number and find out who sent the message as the
purpose of even the sender sending it is defeated! The best thing to do,
therefore, is to please sign your name below and make it easy for the reader to
read and reciprocate! Infact, this is best followed for any kind of sms, if you
are not in touch on a regular basis.
Small little things these, but they mean so much! Life is, even otherwise, so stressful....why not make it simpler?
No comments:
Post a Comment