Monday, July 21, 2008

And the reason we care about the weather is .. ?

Have you noticed that when there's dead time waiting for people to show up on a conference call that everyone automatically starts talking about the weather?

There's a need for universal guidance on ways to sound engaging or charming during the conference call wait (which can turn into the very extended conference call wait). Surely there's an alternative to everyone greeting the new arrival call with a hello: "hi bob, hi bob, hi bob, hi bob, hi gail, hi gail, hi gail, hi gail" - or the dreaded "so what's the weather in (fill in city)?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

LOL - that is so true! Of course in our members' business, weather is pretty important. But it's the same conversation no matter who is on the phone.

Anonymous said...

Interesting that you find the idle chatter about weather annoying. While I'd love to see calls start on time with all on board, that almost never seems to happen. So, you're left with trying to make people comfortable talking, preferably a topic in which everyone can participate, and nothing of such substance that those joining late feel that they've missed something important ... voila, weather! But hey, maybe next time we could try favorite color, last meal, or other random subject .. or ... or ... or maybe we could just start on time!