Comments on: Office Manners

By: pat

pat — Wed, 24 May 2006 23:24:36 +0000

Only been to Japan once. late last year. I always thought that such ill-mannered behaviour is rare in Japan.

By: Tania

Tania — Wed, 24 May 2006 07:20:18 +0000

I have rules when I am chairing the meeting. No laptops, put down the screen if you brought one in. I have no problem getting full attention and participation. Also, I bring in healthy snacks once in a while to make them look forward to my meetings. It works.

By: Saffronsaris

Saffronsaris — Tue, 23 May 2006 14:32:30 +0000

Roy, I totally agree with you. It is bad manners to have cell phones ringing non-stop during meetings and presentations. If the calls are so important, perhaps the said persons should not even attend the meetings or presentations.
Unfortunately, it seems like the case whereby if the big bosses themselves do not set a positive example, they have no right to reprimmand their employees who follow their footsteps.

By: Darius

Darius — Tue, 23 May 2006 14:11:29 +0000

Sounds irritating all right. It’s not even “multitasking.” It’s ignoring one task and working on another one instead in a rude manner.

By: timothy

timothy — Tue, 23 May 2006 11:55:29 +0000

But you could be watching and your mind is elsewhere. That is no better or worse. I was looking at my iBook in a meeting today; not all the time but checking for an important incoming mail.
It is up to the speaker to be stunnning and if someone has their head in solitaire well then the teacher should see that and USE it in some way to get them out of it. I ban things in my classes. Come on;speaker take charge.
If you are reading this while in a meeting …. er … you are excused.

By: Robbie

Robbie — Tue, 23 May 2006 09:21:11 +0000

On Friday I walked past a training room near my cube and noticed that the entire back row was playing solitare while the teacher was talking. At first it looked like it was training FOR solitare. Bad tech manners seems to be an international phenomemon.
Don’t get me started on Blackberrys!

By: Roy

Roy — Tue, 23 May 2006 04:12:41 +0000

I think the least they can do it to pretend that they are listening. I should add that it is mostly foreign staff that do this more so than the Japanese.

By: J.

J. — Tue, 23 May 2006 03:23:09 +0000

I fully agree with you on this. It also happens in our office that people don’t pay attention when visitors do a presentation or something similar. It does annoy me but it seems to be a sign of our times.