Question you have a phone on your desk do you answer it ?

[gettingolderandgrumpier]

Even if you’ve not been told to answer the phone . But you haven’t been told to ignore either . If nobody on your team is available and it rings would you ignore or answer ?.
Sounds a daft question but people that can’t or won’t answer a phone on their desk and say’ sorry gettingolderandgrumpier is not available can I take a message ‘ is really baffling .

Given I work in a contact centre I answer anything that rings
Hand me the pub phone, your mobile, whatever, I'll answer it

We only have direct lines ring on our desks so yes generally I answer, but if I'm mired up in something one of my team will grab it and lie say I'm in a meeting & can they drop me an email.

Ha this used to be my life

Number of times I've answered my mobile with the company greeting

Or dialled 9 for an outside line, at home 🙋🏻‍♀️

I don't like speaking to people on the phone if I am working on something. I will ring them back when it is an appropriate time.

but if those people aren’t there why wouldn’t you answer if the phone was ringing and take a message ? For me the phone ringing and ringing and going ah it’s not my job it’s not for me I don’t know what to say I’ll leave it . I think it’s unhelpful. One time it was just me and 1 other colleague I was on the phone and the line was ringing and ringing it was internal yes they will ring back but just pick it up and say there is only gettingolder here at the minute she’ll ring you back . Why do you actively have to be told this ?

I think that’s the point if the job you do involves you not answering the phone fair enough, but if your colleagues are busy and I mean on the phone themselves or in a meeting . You have a phone it’s ringing you should be answering it I don’t see why it’s an issue .

I do if no one else is able to. But I always get the awkward calls 😂

Would I answer the phone on my own desk if ringing? No. I don’t even think I have a phone on my desk. But previously when I did, it wasn’t even ‘my phone’. I didn’t know the number and no one called me there. The one time in 4 years that someone actually did, it was a parent of a student (I work in a university) calling to rant about something in a completely different department in the university. I couldn’t even tell them who to actually call because I truly have no idea who Bob in the history department is.

I don’t think I’ve given out my landline work number or made a landline call in probably 6 years. But similar to Teams calls, if i didn’t want to speak to anyone at the moment, I’d ignore it. I’d unplug it or turn off the ringer though if the ringing would annoy others though.

And would I answer the phone on someone else’s desk? No. Because where I work, it’s better that people could leave a private message for the actual person who could them action that information.

Are you sure they've not been told to not answer the phone?

Our phones ring 1st in reception, and then after x-peals (I think 3) ring to a number of other phones in the office, then after x-peals to an increasing number of phones.

It's an open plan office, and atm we only have 1 part time receptionist/admin staff so the team often have to step up and answer calls.

The calls could be for anyone, but ate unlikely to be for the more junior staff.

Calls are meant to be answered within 5 rings, hence the escalation if not answered.

When we have new juniors start (training office so regularly) I get the receptionist to give them "phone training" after a couple of weeks bedding in - nothing special just a format to follow, how to transfer, taking a message etc.
The junior time is less valuable (to us as an organisation at that point) than the senior staff time, so it makes sense that they assist more with the phones.
I'll answer if no one else is there/available/doing it - but that is a rare occurance.

If I'm at someone's desk and the phone, or more likely at my desk and the phone on the desk next to me, rings I'm more likely to call to the receptionist that the person isn't here and please take a message - because that is easier in terms of call transference etc that picking up the phone and saying the same, but if it wasn't then I'd pick up the phone.

In a situation where office/department phones weren't being answered I'd address it rather than ask on mumsnet.

You don’t appear to have understood what I’m asking.

BillyNoM8s
In the no land line offices, what do you use? Mobiles or irritating Skype stuff? I never answer anyone who attempts to call my PC. I have no headset and I'm not loud speakering my conversations.

Answering the phone used to be a big time waster in offices. My first job in the mid 1980's, the sales staff expected me as a software support person, to answer their phones.

They loved the idea that they were important enough to have 'secretarial support'. I hated that task because talking and taking a message was so unproductive.

Nowadays, I love how phone systems have come on in leaps in bounds. We use lots of different messaging systems for different purposes.

I have an 0207 range office phone number which can configure to ring on my laptop (Teams) or my mobile or even my home line. Of course, I have a headset to use with it, to avoid disturbing anyone else and importantly to avoid holding a phone between my neck and shoulder.

We spend a lot of time in Teams meetings with video/audio.

Like a PP, before ringing someone at work I would routinely contact them by IM to check it's a good time for them to chat, a courtesy they would almost extend to me, unless it's a really serious emergency. Come to think of it in an emergency if IM anyway.

I don't know if any phone numbers configured to ring more than say three times before going to voice message. Or straight to voice message.

It's just more productive to have the system allow a message to be left than have someone else stop what they are doing, write a message and ensure that message gets to the right person when it is convenient for them to read it

Phones were a step on the evolution of communication. I love how they have evolved. When I retire, I'm really going to miss this laptop phone and hope that by then we will have these routinely like mobiles.

There are clearly other parts of the business, arranged in contact centres whose job is to answer the phone. That's not the scenario I think being discussed here.

I’m genuinely confused why you wouldn’t just pick up a ringing phone ?

@gettingolderandgrumpier

The wider question in this data and age when there are so many possibilities for how phone calls can be routed, that there is a number which rings and rely on a passing stranger to answer it. That is a colossal waste of time for the person ringing the number as well as the person answering it, so vanishingly rare in offices these days.

It’s not a passing stranger though ! It’s a phone on your desk .

At exjob we had a temp accountant who sat next to me and instead of answering the phone would come and find me and announce 'your phone is ringing.' I wish I had £ 1 for every time I bit back 'well pick it up and take a message, then.'