Human Call Waiting
July 23, 2010 
6 Comments
Life is like call waiting. Call waiting is so annoying.
I seems like it has gotten even more annoying. I think it used to be just two beeps, and that was it. Now it seems to go on beeping forever. Well at least if you have an iPhone or a BlackBerry you can hit ‘ignore’ and not hear the beeping go off.
Life, though, is a lot like call waiting. There is always an option.
Here you are starting to talk to some woman (or man) in a store or at a bar, and there is one person after another coming in and out of left field interrupting. Those people and their interruptions are what I call “human call waiting.” We’ll shorten that to “HCW” for the rest of the blog.
Those people and their interruption are HCW because the person you’re talking to will always feel the need to talk to the HCW whenever they interrupt. The HCW brings their energy in the middle of a great conversation you were having.
So what do you do when a HCW comes over when you are having a conversation? Well it depends whether you are the person that the HCW is coming over to see.
If you are the person that the HCW is coming to see, then you need to tell the HCW “Listen, I’ll talk to you in a few minutes. I’m just in the middle of this great conversation with Mary right now. I really want to talk to you, but I want to finish my conversation with Mary first and give her my undivided attention.”
You need to ignore when other people come crashing into your conversation. You need to do it the way I’ve described, because that shows respect to the person with whom you were having the original conversation.
Think about it. Here is someone who is enjoying a conversation with you and is interested in you (or becoming interested in you). You don’t want to get distracted by HCW. HCW is a distraction you need to ignore.
It is no different than if you are on the phone having a great conversation with someone. HCW is a distraction you need to ignore. Ignore it and continue to give that person on the phone your undivided attention.
It shows interest. It shows attraction. It also shows manners.
You have manners. It’s really important to always give someone your undivided attention.
Life is full of all kinds of HCW. There is always some kind of HCW out there trying to distract you. If you allow HCW to distract you, you are going to miss a lot of great moments in life.
If only everyone knew this knoweledge and actually applies it. I see this thing happen over and over. If it happens to me, I just walk away. I don’t like to wait on people, when someone else interupts and takes over my interaction.
If I am talking to a person however, and someone distracts me. I will tell them to hold on to their word, finish talking with the person I was talking, and after that give the person who interrupted me, my attetion
So, if the person comes in to interrupt the conversation you are having with that female, how would you handle that, David?
James, come on man, read the post.
I see HCW happen a lot at work. The people who interrupt always seem to expect people to put everything aside and give them undivided attention. Or the person I was currently talking with will back away and say they’ll come back later. To me, it should be the opposite. The person who is interrupting should just say, hey, I see you’re busy so why don’t you call me when you’re free?
How do you handle the situation where the HCW is coming to see the person you’re talking to? If they were coming to talk to me, I can handle it like you outlined, but if its the other way around, some people like me will out of reflex just start talking to the HCW and get fustrated later that they budded in my convo and let a girl slip away. chances are they’re not fustrated but it’s annoying to wait until they’re done. Sometimes the conversation will go on a long time and then i look like an idiot. So to save face, i just leave.
Good tip !!
thanks david W