Sometimes the Dilbert cartoon strip is so "on-point" it's scary..
Seems to me that, these days, whatever business meeting you attend and however you measure the importance or urgency of the topics being discussed, it's become completely socially acceptable to take a call or message from (literally) anyone, i.e. your husband, your wife, your hairdresser etc. And to decide to prioritize it over the other five people in the room and the thought-thread of the current speaker. It also seems increasingly common that people call you 15 minutes before a meeting is due to start and cancel it, even though you may well have traveled some distance to attend. Sometimes people just take the call and at other times they just walk out and take the call, often they just sit and twiddle with their messaging platforms.
Call me old-fashioned but I think how a person handles a distraction says a lot about that person. Personally I'm always dubious about the sincerity and motivations of people who can't tell the difference between "important" and "urgent".
Seems to me that, these days, whatever business meeting you attend and however you measure the importance or urgency of the topics being discussed, it's become completely socially acceptable to take a call or message from (literally) anyone, i.e. your husband, your wife, your hairdresser etc. And to decide to prioritize it over the other five people in the room and the thought-thread of the current speaker. It also seems increasingly common that people call you 15 minutes before a meeting is due to start and cancel it, even though you may well have traveled some distance to attend. Sometimes people just take the call and at other times they just walk out and take the call, often they just sit and twiddle with their messaging platforms.
Call me old-fashioned but I think how a person handles a distraction says a lot about that person. Personally I'm always dubious about the sincerity and motivations of people who can't tell the difference between "important" and "urgent".
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