Odessa

My boss got a phone message today. He asked the secretary if the caller said what it was about. She told him that the caller took an attitude and said "It's personal!" when she asked what it was about. To which my boss said "I don't know who this is, I'm not calling her back."

Obviously if my boss doesn't recognize the name, he doesn't know the caller; therefore, how "personal" can it be. I share my boss' sentiments.

We get people like this calling us regularly. Strangers who want to be treated special. They don't want to leave a message beyond their name and phone number. It's "important" but it is so top secret that they can not share it with our secretary. Most of the time when we do call these folks back they wind up being 1) a little nuts, 2) insist we do something that we can't do, 3) trying to sell us stuff, or 4) pick our brains for arbitrary information that has little to do with what we do.

Why is it a good idea to leave a meaningful message? For those for whom it is not obvious, let me explain. You leave a message, we can do some homework BEFORE we call you back. Then stand half a chance of answering right away when we call back. If I have to call you, get your take on the background and then look something up and call back, it's not efficient. And honestly it is just irritating. Also, if you don't leave a message I might assume you're just on fishing trip to see if we can help you because no one else will help your crazy ass or it's a gripe session over a problem you either created for yourself or imagined.

Besides if I do talk to you, I'm probably going to go tell the secretary what your "personal" issue was. So just tell her and save us both the trouble.