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Disrespectful/Unprofessional Employee Conduct?



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amother
OP


 

Post Wed, Jun 24 2020, 1:44 pm
I work in a relatively small office. I see something that happens quite often and I'm wondering if this is considered disrespectful or unprofessional of my fellow co-workers. I'm in my 30s and I often feel like I'm much much older than my co-workers in their mid-late 20s in terms of what I think is proper office conduct...

Many times when my boss is on the phone in his office (he keeps his office door open but it doesn't mean that anyone should walk in at any time...), my co-workers call to him from another room with questions, not checking first if he's on the phone, or they come to the door of his office and start talking to him even though they see he's on the phone. Now he might be on the phone with his wife, or, he might be on the phone on an important business call, they have no way of knowing. I feel it's a lack of respect for the boss, and also, unprofessional for the person on the other end of the phone to hear.

Am I right for thinking this is disrespectful to my boss? It might not be my business but it just bothers me that they are missing a certain sensitivity, a certain level of respect for the boss. I just don't get it. I feel that as the years go by people are starting to do away with certain boundaries which would never have been tolerated in the past.
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amother
Puce


 

Post Wed, Jun 24 2020, 1:48 pm
Keeping the door open does usually signal that it's ok to come in. And in an age of multitasking, maybe the boss is ok with taking to two people at once. If it doesn't bother him, it shouldn't bother you. Being overly formal at work is off-putting to a lot of people.
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amother
OP


 

Post Wed, Jun 24 2020, 1:55 pm
I'm pretty sure he keeps it open because otherwise the employees won't know if he's in the actual office, because he can enter/exit his office area from his own entrance. From what I see he does not seem to appreciate being interrupted while on the phone because the person on the other end hears and has to wait for the interruption to be over....

It is interesting to hear that respect = formal.
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amother
Babypink


 

Post Wed, Jun 24 2020, 1:59 pm
It's up to the boss to set the climate and tone of the workplace. Obviously he likes it this way.
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amother
Puce


 

Post Wed, Jun 24 2020, 2:05 pm
amother [ OP ] wrote:
I'm pretty sure he keeps it open because otherwise the employees won't know if he's in the actual office, because he can enter/exit his office area from his own entrance. From what I see he does not seem to appreciate being interrupted while on the phone because the person on the other end hears and has to wait for the interruption to be over....

It is interesting to hear that respect = formal.


You can be respectful and informal at the same time. It's standard in an office setting for everyone to use their first names. That's informal but not disrespectful. If you call your boss Mr. Smith after he has asked you to call him Bob, that would be formal but disrespectful.

It could be that your boss is on the phone all the time, and the only way to talk to him is to interrupt. Now, I wouldn't like being interrupted, but if he doesn't seem to mind, then that's how he rolls.
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zaq




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Jun 24 2020, 2:32 pm
I would say it's unprofessional and disrespectful to interrupt anyone who's on the phone, your boss or not. The proper thing to do is to stand silently in the doorway, wait to catch the occupant's eye, and make some sort of gesture that says "may I come in?" or "I'll come back later." If the occupant gives you the universal signal for "I'll be with you in a minute " you stick around, and if not, you go away and try later. But you're not the boss; your boss is. If he doesn't want to be interrupted, it's for him to say so, unless you're his second-in-command and riding herd over the staff is part of your job.

Calling from another room? Unprofessional, disrespectful, lazy, a mark of poor upbringing and absolutely unacceptable. You can rebuke the young ladies for this because it negatively affects your work. Their background noise makes your own phone conversations difficult and creates the impression of a very unprofessional workplace. It could cost you. Customers may consider doing business elsewhere if while trying to do business with you they have to struggle to hear you over loud conversations in the background.
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Mothers




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Jun 24 2020, 3:04 pm
Why don’t you ask him how he wants these situations to be handled?
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