Work calls on trains

Sort of related, but there's a youngish lad who sometimes gets on my train and I'm 100% sure he's having pretend phone conversations.

The first time he was talking about winning a legal case, and he was adamant they would win if they let him represent them (I doubt very much he's old enough to have finished university or practice law, bless him).

Then there was something about banking and many more but I zoned out all of these.

Then, last week, I was trying to read but he was apparently arranging coaches and at 16.15 was sure he could he could confirm coaches for a 18.00 departure if they could commit half a mill (his words), the shocking amount of money for coaches got my attention, not sure what he was pretending to transport or to where in these super expensive coaches.

I'm now looking forward to finding out which pie his fingers are in next. Law, banking, luxury travel ... Hoping I've not missed something particularly scandalous when I've been ignoring him.

Quiet carriages and first class are even worse

Maybe what’s really needed, instead of quiet carriages, is noisy ones, and a rule that anyone who wants to play music, or have phone calls goes in there.

Sometimes only hearing half a conversation can be quite amusing 😂
I'm still curious about the bloke on the phone I overheard the other day "We have the sheep pens, we just need the field"🐑
(This was in London.....where sheep fields don't really exist 😂)

If there is anything you can glean from the one side of the conversation, if you leave before they do, stop and ask a question about that. Or if you have a clue about the company, contact them with some of the information you have gleaned.

Or even a comment that I hope they are more discreet when having an affair.

It’s been found that brains generally can’t tune out hearing one side of a conversation whereas they more easily can hearing two people corresponding. That’s probably what this poster is referring to.

Quiet carriages exist in theory, but I've never experienced one that is quiet in practice.

Quiet carriage. Lol.

I hate it. We have had to put rules in place that work calls are not to be taken in public places and work laptops not to show confidential data in public places.

They are more often than not in the bloody quiet carriages !!!!!

I work in a job where I'd get into serious trouble if a member of the public could even see my laptop screen for 80% of the job.
The fact people talk through sensitive information while STILL WEARING THEIR WORK LANYARDS... baffling.
In my wider team there's a guy who has actually confronted (nicely) people on trains by figuring out who they are, finding their linkedin profile and then pointing out that he's just overheard market impacting information/customer info.

Doesn’t bother me, I actually find it passes the time to listen in and try and work out what they’re doing and which industry they’re in.

Hybrid working means our days now involve a mix of meetings and home working. If I didn't work in transit I would have probably 6 to 10 hours to make up in the week. I'm buggered if I'm doing that at the weekend just so you can have a quieter journey.

e g.a typical day, I have school run to breakfast club, an 8am zoom at my desk at home, travel into town 9am -10.15, f2f meeting til 11.30, a zoom in my diary 12-1 so i do it in a coffee shop, then travel to another meeting at 2, travl home to have a meeting from home at 4.30 so as to be at home when children delivered back at 5.30.

If I don't work on the train and in the coffee shop I am effectively not available during my working hours. If i ask my PA to only put in meetings in clusters or on same days or with chunks of travel time, my diary can't cover all the things I need it to.

So I'm not keen to have long calls in the train, it makes me feel sick tbh, but I'm at work during those hours so I have to.

It’s extremely inconsiderate. We were raised to be quiet on public transport, and talk in hushed tones. Now it’s like going into a crowded bar. There is zero consideration for other people nowadays. Why should I wear headphones? I can’t wear in-ear ones, and I’m buggered if I’m walking round all day with a massive pair of ear defenders to protect myself from obnoxious people with no social skills.

Loudly discussing confidential information is a problem because of the data breach, and being a tool by being so loud

But those 20 minutes on a commute can be the only 20 minutes of peace for a quick call sometimes.

It's not like there aren't other people talking around you anyway.

I agree - they never speak at a normal volume! It's totally about making sure the whole carriage can hear.

See also garden parties which are not enjoyable unless the whole street can hear what a great time they are having.

Have you tried experimenting with different types of noise? I have a bunch of different music types, but also nature scapes that I switch between depending on what I’m doing. I have no idea why, but different sounds work better for me depending on what I’m doing. I particularly find talking as background chatter helpful for drowning out people noise (coupled with quality noise canceling headphones). I know it doesn’t work for everyone, but I love the soundscapes I have to just drown out the world.

It’s not being overly focussed on the comfort of others to be aware of their existence and not subject them to your overly loud ongoing conversations.
Ditto for not playing loud music, farting, burping, eating smelly food.

Also I mainly want to read on the train so headphones don't help. I can't listen to something and read at the same time.

It’s not OTT where I live. Money and family are the main reasons people in my community commute. That and the lack of housing pushing people out (yes where I live professionals were ending up homeless because there’s no housing)

You’re in a public space where noise and conversations are the norm. This is a you problem. Your comments about your workplace make it really clear this is you not coping with normal (but still annoying) sounds that come with being in a loud public space. You won’t get silence so you need to change.

Imagine if he was a public sector worker discussing your personal details on a public train, imagine if that data was identifiable. He's discussing something, OP never said what.

I do find it irritating when they are speaking really loudly - it’s all very “I’m very important, look at me everyone”

Tbh, anyone speaking really loudly on the phone, work related or not is annoying. Just lower your voices, why do you think everyone in the carriage wants to hear your conversation?
It’s weird.

Loud calls of any nature bug me on the train, work or personal. Fine if it’s someone quickly picking up the phone to someone and saying “I’m on the train I’ll call you when I get off” or “hi I’ll be at X station in 15 minutes” and ending the call quickly.

Other pet peeves include people letting their kids run up and down the carriage, children or adults watching something without earphones etc.

I’m not bothered by people working on laptops though.

I always have earbuds in so I can't hear the nonsense.

I hate it - however, if you can work out the company/business it might be worth a phone call to say you heard quite a lot of company info on the train this morning going from A to B....drop 'em in it I say