But today, together with Kate Sokoloff, producer of Live Wire Radio, I solved a vexing etiquette issue. So I hereby institute the Mysterious Phone Disconnect Protocol. You know what I'm talking about--you're chatting away and the person on the other end suddenly disappears, which, in my case, can take a minute or two to discover because I talk so much.
ANYWAY, the vexing etiquette issue is: Who is responsible for phoning back? If I'm still on the line, I feel like it's the other party's responsibility. I mean, they mistakenly hung up or went into a dead cell zone or dropped the phone in the urinal, right? But what if they don't realize it's their fault? You wait a while, engaging in a game of chicken until, invariably, you both cave and dial each other at the same time, getting each other's voice mail, in which case now you really don't know who's supposed to call back.
So Kate and I decided it doesn't matter whose fault it is--the responsibility should lay on the shoulders of the person who made the original call. Having a system in place makes it easy for all of us to know what to do. That's right, even if you're certain it's because the other person's cell went dead. Just call them back if you made the call and leave a message. Y'know, something like, "Call me back." In which case etiquette dictates that person now return your call.
See how simple it is?
Maybe tomorrow we'll work on what to do when you meet people you most certainly know and cannot remember their names.
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