pet hate of the day: office phones.

my office phone system:

• disturbs ten people so one person can receive a phone call
• if that person isn’t there then the entire office is disturbed to page that person, who probably isn’t in the office or available to take the call anyway
• if the line called is engaged the call will go through to the next extension therefore being sure to disturb the wrong person

office phone systems should:

• keep disturbances for a minimum

for example:

• have one phone per person
• be switch offable, have answering machines and vacation settings

i know it would be more expensive, but what’s the trade off against lost concentration and disgruntled employees? no one else seems to mind so much. maybe i’m just touchy. after all i don’t even like getting phone calls for me and usually end up saying “er, could you just put that info in an email…“.