Fun in the Office
I often have conference calls between the USA, England and Europe. These are notoriously long-winded and can go on for an hour or more. So it's not unusual for people to be late in "dialing in". Today was no exception, the Chairman of the call (i.e. the chap with the meeting password) had sent an email to all participants saying that even he was going to be late. However, I dialed in smack on time (at 14:00 BST) to hear the meeting start - the Chair having resolved his earlier problem. The following amazing1 conversation took place:-
14:00 "Hi all, how are we going to proceed?"
14:01 "On Tuesday we'll turn everything off and restart with new parameters"
14:02 "Everyone alright with that?"
14:03 "Yup"
14:04 "Bye"
(click, click, click).
I then immediately receive another call from a customer which goes on for approximately 30 minutes. During which time I see an email pop into my inbox at 14:25 with the message "Your phone is engaged, are you still waiting for the meeting to start?"
My colleague had dialed in at 14:05 and had been listening to hold music for 20 minutes...
Hmm, reading this isn't as funny as it was then.
1Amazing because we actually made a decision.
14:00 "Hi all, how are we going to proceed?"
14:01 "On Tuesday we'll turn everything off and restart with new parameters"
14:02 "Everyone alright with that?"
14:03 "Yup"
14:04 "Bye"
(click, click, click).
I then immediately receive another call from a customer which goes on for approximately 30 minutes. During which time I see an email pop into my inbox at 14:25 with the message "Your phone is engaged, are you still waiting for the meeting to start?"
My colleague had dialed in at 14:05 and had been listening to hold music for 20 minutes...
Hmm, reading this isn't as funny as it was then.
1Amazing because we actually made a decision.
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