I recently went to lunch with a friend of mine, Mark, who is a high school teacher. Our conversation eventually led to a discussion of students and cell phones.
"I used to give my cell number to my students," Mark said. "But now kids have no sense of boundaries. They call late at night, or they text early on weekends."
Does he have a point? When we only had land lines, I would never have dared call someone at home earlier than 9 am or later than 10 pm. With cell phones, is it safe to assume that everyone puts their phones on silent at night? Is it okay to call at any hour of the day without fear of bothering the call recipient?
Does telephone etiquette exist anymore?
4 comments:
My boss has called me as late as 2am, and as early as 5am. He has no boundaries.
I don't think it's safe to assume that people put their phones on silent overnight, now that more and more people do not have landlines. I used to turn my cell phone off overnight when I did have a landline and important people could reach me in an emergency, but since I don't, I keep my phone on.
New to your blog, but enjoying it so far!
My boss also has no boundaries, but rarely calls me. Instead, I receive as many as 15 e-mails a day...I think technology has made it unacceptably acceptable to expect people to do their jobs at all hours of the day. It is an endless source of frustration for me.
Is it safe to assume that everyone puts their phones on silent at night? No. There are many reports of teenagers having trouble in school (esp HS) and/or work because they don't get enough sleep at night. No one can afford to miss any text or Fb update, no matter the hour! I recall an "intervention" type show where some HS kid was shaking like they just gave up heroin rather than their crackberry.
We have a college study area with a "no calls" rule but that is why texting was invented. You should see how disrupted and intermittent their concentration is when studying.
I use my iPhone as my alarm clock, so I can't turn it to silent overnight. Luckily, although my main boss and a couple of other PIs do have my number, they tend to email unless we're very close to a grant deadline. But I do get emails at all hours of the day and night... which is why all push notifications are turned off on my phone!
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