Your parents never taught you manners, so I will

portia911 · #1 08-16-2008, 12:53 AM

So I give up a couple of hours in the first day off I have had in 3 months to come into work and do a presentation for one of the local hospo training institutes. The instructor brings in a dozen feral munts who have absolutely no hope of working in a customer facing role if you held a gun to their heads. Great.

So as a start giving them my speil and imparting my infinate wisdom to the great unwashed I hear the click click click of text messaging from the one standing next to me. I stop talking. The room goes silent except for the clicking. I turn to face the culprit and for the next 30 seconds she is compeltey oblivious to the fact everyone in the room is watching her and me.

Me - sarcastic angry person
FM - Feral munt

Me - Excuse me. Am I boring you?
FM- nah I'm just sending a message to my mate
Me - Great. Was it worth it?
FM - huh?
Me - Your behaviour is extremely rude. If you worked for me you would have just lost about $2000 worth of performance bonus. I did not give up my afternoon to help you with your course to put up with this. Go and wait in the van.

Ok it was a bit harsh but FFS, what ever happened to manners?

Chanlin · #2 08-16-2008, 12:58 AM

Nah I don't think you were bad at all. I've had college professors do as much and worse. Its rude to be overtly ignoring you like that when that's not what they are there for.

Its funnier when the prof manages to sneak up behind someone and reads what they are typing out loud.

AdminAssistant · #3 08-16-2008, 12:59 AM

A good part of my GTA training orientation earlier this week was "How do deal with students and their *^%&*% electronics".

I need to post about that....

Speaking of professors... I had one who would answer phones that rang in his class. In funny accents. AND he would make up stories. Remember kids, once tenured, professors can get away with ANYTHING.

Imogene · #4 08-16-2008, 01:13 AM

Hey, not that I would ever do such a thing (stupid text messaging not on my cell phone... *grumble, mutter*) But I have the ability to listen and comprehend while not paying the slightest bit of attention to you. One of my teachers taught me in High school how to multitask my brain.
I point you at an example where a teacher was trying to explain how telephony can get disrupted by having one of my classmates start reciting the alphabet. Mid stream, the teacher starts talking over him. Once classmate finishes, teach looks at the room and says, "Now, did anyone understand what I was saying AND what K was saying?" I raised my hand. Teach looks at me, and says, "And that's an example of a dual processor."

Evil Queen · #5 08-16-2008, 01:48 AM

I'm currently teaching my Boss K's ~~monsters~~ kids manners. It seems to have rubbed off on them pretty well. At least, from what I'm told anyways. I haven't seen them in a few weeks.

~~One-Fang~~ · #6 08-16-2008, 01:52 AM

I can almost do that multi task thing. I reckon I do get around 70% of two things happening at once. In most cases, 70% of a message is actually fine. You get the gist of what's going on.

Occasionally though, I have to go "Whoa, wait ... what???" and get a bit re-said.

Soulstealer · #7 08-16-2008, 02:35 AM

Quote:

Quoth AdminAssistant

A good part of my GTA training orientation earlier this week was "How do deal with students and their *^%&*% electronics".

I need this as a manual.

Quote:

Quoth AdminAssistant

Speaking of professors... I had one who would answer phones that rang in his class. In funny accents. AND he would make up stories. Remember kids, once tenured, professors can get away with ANYTHING.

Or do research for creationist groups when you're in an anthropology department.

Polenicus · #8 08-16-2008, 11:41 AM

Quote:

Quoth Juwl

Hey, not that I would ever do such a thing (stupid text messaging not on my cell phone... *grumble, mutter*) But I have the ability to listen and comprehend while not paying the slightest bit of attention to you. One of my teachers taught me in High school how to multitask my brain.
I point you at an example where a teacher was trying to explain how telephony can get disrupted by having one of my classmates start reciting the alphabet. Mid stream, the teacher starts talking over him. Once classmate finishes, teach looks at the room and says, "Now, did anyone understand what I was saying AND what K was saying?" I raised my hand. Teach looks at me, and says, "And that's an example of a dual processor."

Y'see, I can't do that. I can have two things going, and toggle between them fairly easily, and be able to fill the gaps enough to comprehend both threads, but more than two and I kinda get glazed eyes, forget where I am, and discover at the end of everything I have no memory of ANY of what was said, and a paper in front of me with 'I AM A FISH' written 400 times.

Golden Phoenix · #9 08-16-2008, 01:54 PM

Quote:

Quoth Polenicus

[snippy!]
a paper in front of me with 'I AM A FISH' written 400 times.

Do you do a silly dance and pass out afterwards?

I can't do the listen-to-two-things task, but mainly because i have a hearing problem where i can't pick out individual noises from background sounds.

(Think concentrating on one person's voice at a party)

However i can and do multitask, you have to when a customer is bending your ear about their bill and you're trying to fix it at the same time because you get marked on your call handling time (which is deeply unfair as any callcentre worker wil agree)

Phone Jockey · #10 08-16-2008, 03:41 PM

Quote:

Quoth portia911

Me - Your behaviour is extremely rude. If you worked for me you would have just lost about $2000 worth of performance bonus. I did not give up my afternoon to help you with your course to put up with this. Go and wait in the van.

Ok it was a bit harsh but FFS, what ever happened to manners?

YOU ARE AWESOME! Stick to those guns, that's why you're there. Plus, you've shown them all that there are consequences for acting like dipshits.