Comments on: Meetings vs Cell Phones http://www.codesqueeze.com/meetings-vs-cell-phones/ Ideas for building efficient developers and software Thu, 11 Mar 2010 22:07:34 -0500 hourly 1 By: Mark Freedman http://www.codesqueeze.com/meetings-vs-cell-phones/#comment-889 Mark Freedman Wed, 02 Jan 2008 14:50:01 +0000 http://www.codesqueeze.com/meetings-vs-cell-phones/#comment-889 Although I agree that, in general, we should not be using our cell phone PDAs during meetings, there are at least a couple of legitimate reasons why I would NEVER agree to completely turning off my cell phone: 1) Sometimes you need to look things up during the meeting for info pertaining to that meeting. Our conference rooms are scattered over two floors, and it's inefficient to leave the room just for some quick info. 2) Personal emergencies. In this day and age, I (and many others) would consider it unacceptable, and would never forgive ourselves if there was an emergency at home that you didn't respond to just because you had to turn off your phone because some people are rude about using their phones. Setting a rule to shut off phones during meetings just because of rudeness of a subset of people, is a kindergarten cop action. Adults need to take responsibility for their actions, and if they want a reputation of rudeness, then they'll have to deal with the consequences. Although I agree that, in general, we should not be using our cell phone PDAs during meetings, there are at least a couple of legitimate reasons why I would NEVER agree to completely turning off my cell phone:

1) Sometimes you need to look things up during the meeting for info pertaining to that meeting. Our conference rooms are scattered over two floors, and it’s inefficient to leave the room just for some quick info.

2) Personal emergencies. In this day and age, I (and many others) would consider it unacceptable, and would never forgive ourselves if there was an emergency at home that you didn’t respond to just because you had to turn off your phone because some people are rude about using their phones.

Setting a rule to shut off phones during meetings just because of rudeness of a subset of people, is a kindergarten cop action. Adults need to take responsibility for their actions, and if they want a reputation of rudeness, then they’ll have to deal with the consequences.

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