I’m Calling You On Vacation

Tag : Cell Phone Stand


D.F.
Krause


Read D.F.'s bio and previous columns

June 30, 2008
Im Calling You On Vacation, And I Dont Care

Ive decided that, starting right now, Im interrupting yourvacation. And its your own fault.

This is the result of my calling you and getting a most unwantedbit of information: Youve reached Bob Matheson. I am out of theoffice until Monday, July 14. Please leave a message at the toneand I will get back to you upon my return. If this is an urgentmatter, you can reach me on my cell phone at 616.BLAHBLA.

Now, the old D.F. would have said, Oh dear, I dont want to botherBob on his vacation! I might have tried to conjure up, in my mind,some justification I might have used to explain why it really was avery, very, very urgent situation, and I needed to make his cellphone ring at the very moment he was strapping water skis on littleBob Jr. for the first time.

Had I actually made the call, I would have apologized six or seventimes before bringing up whatever business had necessitated thecall, and six or seven times after. That was the old D.F.

What does the new D.F. say?

Screw it. Make the call.

Much of this is the product of my own evolution, but there are goodpractical reasons as well. In the past two years, Ive made atransition from mainly using an office phone for business to usingmy cell phone almost exclusively. The only reason I even still havethe desk phone is that I have a lease on the system and no one isquite sure where we would go to get rid of it. The cell phone hasgraduated from my when-Im-on-the-road-or-after-hours phone to My Phone.

And once your cell phone becomes Your Phone , you get used to the idea that youre never really out of theoffice. If this offends your sense of work/home separation, dontgive out your cell phone number. But chances are, youll realizeafter about three weeks that your personal sovereignty is not underattack because you got a work call while you were doing the dishes.

So I dont fret for Bobs personal time because Im not tooterribly concerned about my own.

As a practical matter, Im calling Bob on vacation because I knowdarn well that there is no one else in his office who has theanswer to my question, and I have no intention of waiting untilJuly 14 to get it. I suppose I could. It wouldnt be the end of theworld if this item stayed on my to-do list until then.

But I want to get it done, and Ive simply decided Bob being onvacation isnt a good enough reason to have to wait two weeks. SoIm calling.

Bob did make a choice, you realize. Two choices, actually. First,he made a choice to give out his cell phone number on his voicemail greeting  not to mention leaving it up to me to define whatan urgent situation is. I define urgent by how patient Imfeeling that day.

Second, he made a choice not to include the following in his voicemail greeting: If this is D.F. Krause, my colleague Erin has theanswer to your question.

Would I still call Bob on vacation then? Of course not. Im not asadist. I just want my question answered. But Bob wouldnt think toleave the information with Erin because Bob doesnt think likethat. Hes very good at his job, but he figures that when its timeto go on vacation, all he needs to do is go.

So I made the call. It took about three minutes. Bob had exactlythe information I needed. I did hear Mrs. Matheson grousing in thebackground, Were on vacation!

Ill leave it to Bob to explain how that ridiculous D.F. Krausejust cant let a man take his family on vacation in peace. I justhope they dont stand there arguing about it too long. Bob Jr. iswaiting to ski!