This past week brought me another new adventure in “phonework”, this time from a lawyer I was trying to reach in Newfoundland. He did return my call but unfortunately reached my voice mail. He did leave a message – with specific instructions. He said he was in his office but wasn’t taking calls. If I would email him when I was available, he would receive that message and call me back promptly.
Aside from the fact that this occurred at the exact moment EastLink was struggling to communicate with my server, creating a bit of a scramble before I could send the email, it did finally go through – and he did call me back very promptly. We had a lovely conversation.
This connects back to previous discussions about being overwhelmed, searching for balance, that each of us is trying to get as much done as possible and doing our best to control the chaos.
Everyone has their own way of controlling the ebb and flow in their work environment. Today if you truly want to communicate with someone – share an idea, set up a meeting, ask a question – its incumbent upon you to identify the controls they have in place and work with them. When you do this, it illustrates your diligence, respect and your desire to communicate. And 99.9% of the time, you’ll end up having that conversation and it will become the foundation of a solid working relationship.
On a completely different note, I spent some time in Bear River this summer, my husband’s hometown. There is a very interesting, eclectic shop in the village, the owner of which has been going to auctions and estate sales for over 30 years, filling the shelves, floor and ceiling with a wealth of interesting things. I happened upon some old issues of Canadian Time magazine where an uncle of mine is listed on the masthead as one of the contributing editors. A great find! I chose four copies, one for myself and the others to mail off to siblings. As I flipped through them, in awe of both the stories and the advertisements, I found some amazing telephone nostalgia.
Here’s the copy from the ad – October 1953: Next Best Thing to Being There! On birthdays, anniversaries and many other happy occasions …at Thanksgiving and other holiday times…send home one of the most appreciated presents there is-your voice, via a long distance telephone call. It means so much to the people you love, and it costs much less than you think. Use long distance often.
The ad is by Trans-Canada Telephone System and states that calls Montreal to Edmonton are as little as $2.80 per minute!
Happy phonework everyone! TPL