Please help me find the right answer.

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kyleb

Final Approach
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Drake the Outlaw
I was in a meeting at work today. A meeting with important, highly placed people.

So SWMBO instinctively knew to begin a barrage of texts.

The phone beeps: "I'm at the grocery store."

2 minutes later:

"Do you need X?" I answered "Y"

2 minutes later:

"Do you need Y?" I answered "Y"

Somewhere in there she attempted to facetime me.

To stop my phone from buzzing every two minutes I texted her "Busy, please stop."

Apparently, that wasn't the right answer.

Does anyone know the right answer?
 
kyleb said:
I was in a meeting at work today. A meeting with important, highly placed people.

So SWMBO instinctively knew to begin a barrage of texts.

The phone beeps: "I'm at the grocery store."

2 minutes later:

"Do you need X?" I answered "Y"

2 minutes later:

"Do you need Y?" I answered "Y"

Somewhere in there she attempted to facetime me.

To stop my phone from buzzing every two minutes I texted her "Busy, please stop."

Apparently, that wasn't the right answer.

Does anyone know the right answer?
Click to expand...

Turn off your phone.

One of my life goals is to drop my cell phone and laptop off the transom of the boat into salt water. For good.
 
Tell her ahead of time that you're in a meeting from X to Y. DND.
 
Just turn the phone off, or don’t acknowledge the texts/calls.

Kind of like my Chief Engineer tour when the XO would spin up and start shouting over the radio. I’d just turn it off.

By the time he’d see me, I’d just explain I was down in the engine room and my battery was dead. He had usually had cooled down by then. I’ve found it works with my wife too.
 
My wife understands that when I am busy in a meeting and unless someone is bleeding profusely or dying I will get back to her when I can. She understands and will stop.
 
You're at work, in a meeting "with important, highly placed people" and you're responding to personal texts? Do you ever want to become one of those "important, highly paced people?"

If so, stop, just stop.

Edit: BTW, to answer you question, if you feel like you must respond then a simple "in mtg" should be adequate. If it's not then that's her problem, not yours. (Oh, and let her know beforehand that the message is translated as STFU.)
 
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One of the nice things about living in the country is that there are so many dead zones that when I don't answer messages, people just assume that I have no signal. More likely it's because I have the phone silenced or turned off. In all the years I've had cell phones, I've yet to receive an important text message.

Rich
 
kyleb said:
I was in a meeting at work today. A meeting with important, highly placed people.

So SWMBO instinctively knew to begin a barrage of texts.

The phone beeps: "I'm at the grocery store."

2 minutes later:

"Do you need X?" I answered "Y"

2 minutes later:

"Do you need Y?" I answered "Y"

Somewhere in there she attempted to facetime me.

To stop my phone from buzzing every two minutes I texted her "Busy, please stop."

Apparently, that wasn't the right answer.

Does anyone know the right answer?
Click to expand...

There is no right answer as long as you see yourself as HWMOH. I’m assuming you didn’t get her permission to post this. That’s a start.
 
As soon as you know the answer they change the question.
 
If the wife texts and I'm in class or a meeting, I'll answer with class or meeting and that's it. She does know that if it's a real emergency, to call security and have them find me. Fortunately, meetings and classes are not very often on our schedule and I've usually got enough lead time to let her know.
 
I'm not married, but when did alpha males become an endangered species?
 
Okay I had to Google SWMBO. Those that think they must be obeyed by me, quickly learn that I do not normally have the sound turned on, and that I'm not responding to text, emails, or calls until I am ready to do so. I do not respond do texts and emails when I'm doing something critical that requires undivided attention like driving or eating.
 
Texting to me is for non-important matters. It is more of a convenience for the person I am texting so they can get back to me when they have a chance. I'll text a friend and ask him something along of the lines of can I borrow your tractor tomorrow, or what you doing for lunch.. and when he gets a chance to answer back then he will get back to me.

If I need an immediate answer then phone call it is, but I do not expect a text to be an instant thing.
 
kyleb said:
To stop my phone from buzzing every two minutes I texted her "Busy, please stop."

Apparently, that wasn't the right answer.

Does anyone know the right answer?
Click to expand...

"Busy. I'll call when I can."
 
Unless your wife is about to go into labor or your kid is in surgery, why would you bring a cell phone to a meeting?

I get absolutely fed up with people bringing laptops to meetings and ignoring the meeting to skype / email, etc.
If you are important enough to be invited, I better have your undivided attention. If I am invited, the inviter has mine.
 
If you can’t have a simple and honest conversation with your wife about something like not being able to respond to texts immediately, I just don’t know that you will like the “right answer”.
 
Yeah just text back "I can't talk right now, in an important meeting" then put the phone on silent. If needed apologize later but just tell her you genuinely couldn't talk and that should really be good enough.
 
Proper prior notification/training. From my earliest days with my wife when I was in the Army she knew not to call me unless it something important/urgent at my office. This was before cellphones. Even as a Commander, when I had a direct line, she called very infrequently. As cellphones became available, to common, to ubiquitous and I retired and joined the Corporate world, she still didn't call unless it was urgent while I was at work. If she called and I didn't answer, she knew I was unavailable. As texting became more prominent, she continued the no call behavior. She will text and if I don't respond she waits, having the courtesy to realize I am doing something else which requires my attention.

My wife is a classroom elementary school teacher. It is EXTREMELY rare I call her during the day for the very same reasons stated above. She is fully engaged with 20+ nine year olds most of the day. I give her the same courtesy of texting her a "Please call me when you have a moment." if I need to talk, with the understanding it could be a couple of hours before she has the opportunity.

Maybe it is a phenomenon of the younger folks who have never known a world without cellphones, text messaging, email and more, but those of us who came up without them understand the idea of calling, leaving a message and understanding it could be awhile before getting a response is normal rather than instant gratification. Just because we have the capability, does not mean we MUST respond instantly.

On more than one occasion in meetings with my Senior Managers, I've paused and said, "Let's all wait while Bob finishes his urgent text or email and we can resume." I believe employers have a reasonable right to expect people on their payroll to actually be "BE HERE NOW" as it is called my work place. In other words, when you are in meeting or speaking with someone about work related business, give them your full attention. Let emails, texts and yes, even phone calls wait. For that same reason, I hate "Hey you" impromptu pop ins while I am working on something. I believe in concentrating on one thing at a time. If managers need to discuss something more than needing a yes or no on the spot answer, I encourage them to schedule a short meeting time, either in my office or in a conference room. The reason is, so I am not distracted by other work, ringing phones, email etc. If they do that, they know they will have my undivided attention.

It isn't that she isn't important, but about priorities. When you are at work, you need to be focusing on work, especially in an important meeting. As someone else noted, failure to do so could ensure you are never one of the important people...and once you become one, you will have more time to do the other stuff like post in POA at work. :D

Now, back to work and to answer my wife who texted me 20 minutes ago...
 
Back in the good old days wives would ocassionally call the boat on the infrequent times we were in port. Stock answer: He just left with his wife. Cured them of calling pretty quick.
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
If you are important enough to be invited, I better have your undivided attention.
Click to expand...


If your meeting is important enough to tie me up for two hours you’d better not waste my time.

I despise meetings so poorly planned that the part which concerns me is only 15 minutes out of two hours, and it’s 2 minutes here and 5 minutes there and 3 minutes later on and.....

If you intend to waste my time that way, you can expect me to be filling the void with my laptop. And I’ll likely decline your next meeting and direct you to send me an efficient agenda before I’ll attend another one.
 
Half Fast said:
If your meeting is important enough to tie me up for two hours you’d better not waste my time.
Click to expand...
I'm sorry I could only "like" this once. The fifteen minute meeting crammed into an hour is likely to elicit a rant from me only second to 10-word coffee orders. And don't read me your f'n slides, I can do that myself outside of this conference room. Death by PowerPoint (or "gSlides" these days) is real. Help find a cure. Or get the door for me when I walk out.

Nauga,
who asks that you turn to page 153 of your briefing package
 
I wonder what the 'important highly placed people' thought about you answering your phone during the meeting?

If I'm in an important meeting I silence my phone, period. I silence it in unimportant meetings. I silence my phone when I go in church. I silence it when I have any kind of appointment. I silence it in any kind of meeting. I silence it anytime I would think it would be inappropriate for it to ring or buzz or for me to answer it. Or just annoying for it to happen.
 
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