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Chapter 20

TAKING PHONE MESSAGES

Allow yourself to daydream for a moment. Ten years from now, a phone call comes in. Someone, let’s say your evil little sister, answers the call. It could be the Atlanta Braves calling to tell you to report to spring training. It might be Harvard telling you they need to ask you a question before they can send your acceptance letter. It could even be a great girl calling to tell you that she will go to the prom with you. What if your evil little sister doesn’t write down the message and forgets to tell you? Obviously, you could be stuck with a bad job and a bad school, and stuck without a date to the prom.

Maybe this scenario is a little extreme, but you have to treat every phone call you answer for the other members of your family like it was a call that could change somebody’s life. You should write down the message and make sure to leave it someplace where it will be seen. Every call may not be as important as that call from Harvard, but it is not your job to decide how important a message might be.

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YOU DO

Ask if you can take a message when the caller asks to speak to someone who isn’t home.

YOU DON’T

Give out more information than necessary. When someone calls and asks to speak to your mother, you don’t say, “My mom has gone to the office, so I’m the only one here.”

Why

It is never a good idea to volunteer unnecessary information, especially to a stranger.

YOU DO

Write the message down. If you aren’t sure how to spell a name, you ask the caller to spell it for you. Then you put the message in the place your family has designated as “message central.” You don’t just stick it in your back pocket.

YOU DON’T

Assume you will remember the message without writing it down. (Remember when you promised to take out the garbage and clean your room and write a note thanking your Aunt Louise for the underwear she sent you for your birthday?) When you get busy, it’s easy to forget things. Just write the message down.

Why

You may forget to give the message to the person who’s supposed to get it. For instance, if you forget to tell your sister that a boy has called to ask her to go to a dance, he may think she is stuck-up and doesn’t like him. Then your sister won’t have a date and your parents might make you take her—and you know how awful that would be.

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A gentleman uses his best handwriting when taking messages, especially when writing down telephone numbers.

A gentleman does not write down messages on walls or furniture or tablecloths, just because there is no paper close by. If he must leave the phone while he searches for paper, he asks the caller to hold on a minute.

A gentleman does not ask for information that is not his business when he takes a message. For instance, he does not ask, “Why would you be calling my dad?”