Silence is an equal opportunity employer

Modern technology is an amazing thing, right.  Just think, many of us can simply reach into our pockets, take out a phone, and call someone anywhere in the world…even if they don’t want to be called.

I seemed to get called when not wanting to be called when I am either at home or at work: my home/office phone rings, and being Pavlovianly trained to pick it up and answer, I do so. Many times - - far, far too many times - - there is apparently no one there, because no one responds after I say “Hello.”

But it seems I am wrong. (Well, I have been wrong maybe four or five times in my life!)  Often someone is there, or perhaps more accurately, someone is monitoring their telephone marketing software program, waiting to see if an actual human picks up the phone before they bother to flip whatever button they have to flip to actually talk to me.  After all, they don’t want to waste their precious time listening to a phone ring and ring and maybe never be answered, so they wait for some system to inform them . . . after several seconds . . . that a real human has answered the phone, is on the line and is waiting to learn all about the piece of crap they are trying to sell me.

What I do, after answering a phone and holding it to my ear for what seems like an interminable number of seconds, when the person finally sells “Hello,” or often calls me by my first name, is repay the favor: I don’t say anything, and, without disconnecting the line/call, simply put the phone down and walk away, letting the caller waste his/her time listening to nothing and waiting for someone to talk with them. 

 

I suppose I should be a better human being than the caller, and not be so terribly upset that a telemarketer does this.  But if you are calling me to tell me something or sell me something, I think the least thing you could do is have the decency to be there when I answer the phone, say hello and begin to pitch your product before I say, “I am not interested.” If you are calling me to tell/sell me something and you think it is fine to inconvenience me further because you are not ready to say hello as soon as I answer the phone, then you can waste your time and listen to the same nothing I had to listen to when you interrupted my day...mainly, nothing at all.

Yes, there are times, when silence is golden, but when you interrupt my day to impose your silence on me, I shall do the same to you because silence is an equal opportunity employer.