Please do not answer someone else’s phone without permission not even if the phone belongs to your spouse.
When you do answer, you must immediately identify yourself e.g. “Good afternoon”. This is Tayo’s phone, Mavi speaking.
It is rude to wait for the person to start talking before you identify yourself. If a person gives you their phone to check a specific thing on their phone, don’t go checking other things except they give you permission to check.
The whole idea of people saying after all my spouses’ properties are mine does not apply to the mobile phone. The mobile phone is a very personal property. It’s not like someone taking peep into your diary or journal. Many businesses have been known to be lost due to the behaviour on the telephone of an interfacing spouse. Etiquette frowns on anyone, spouse or no spouse answering someone else’s calls without their permission.
Etiquette insist it is good etiquette to enquire and ask permission before you give someone’s telephone number to another person, especially a telephone number you are privileged to have in the first place.
For many business calls, it is impolite to call people too late in the evening. As a rule of thumb cut off time for business calls should be 7:00pm to 7:30pm from the recipient of the call.
Conversely also early morning calls are absolutely not acceptable especially in Lagos, 7:00am and upwards.
Monday mornings are meeting days for many organisations in Nigeria so etiquette demands that you respect that period and not make calls to people who most likely would be in a meeting from about 8:00am to 12:00noon.
The best time to a very busy executive would be while he or she is in the car being driven to work that would be 7:00am to 8:00am generally.
Precedence
Precedence even in telephone must be observed for example:
If you have someone sitting in front of you especially a guest who has taken time to see you in your office etiquette demands the guest is given precedence over an incoming call, even if it is an international call, you can always call back. However if you feel that the call is urgent for instance: a call from your child’s school, it is polite for you to:
1) Seek permission from your guest to take the call
2)Speak in a language your guest can understand so that you are not pulling the wool over their eyes.
3) Make the call as short as possible.
Location:Finally, there are certain places where answering your mobile phone is considered an absolute taboo. Locations and settings like: Church service or a mosque, in the library, in a cinema, theatre, board meeting, lecture room and most of all during a job interview. Please excuse yourself (if you can and if call is urgent) from these settings whenever you have to receive a call.
A lesson from my day out at the salon
I was at the salon doing what women normally do at salons, my hair, nails and so forth, when she suddenly walked in. “Hello, Hello’’, a heavy set, dark skinned fellow customer yelled, as she answered her phone, “I have just spoken to Francis. Why are you people not at the venue. You see, you see! When I start shouting now, you people will say I shout too much. Why are you messing me up like this? Get everybody together and proceed to the venue immediately. I will call you again later”.
All this at the top of her voice.
The drama did not end there. Shortly after, the phone rang again, and she went on and on until she left the salon some two hours later. I do not wish to bore you with the details, but needless to say, we were regaled with all the intricate details of her business, family and other activities and nobody was left in any doubt as to the authority she wielded.
Civilised Driving or Executive Danfo / Bad Traffic Manners?
I have been opportune to live in some of the states in Nigeria, and of all the metropolises in the country, Lagos stands out as the city with the highest traffic offences. Don’t you wonder sometimes on the Lagos roads if people are human? If they understand what it means to relate with others and be considerate? Is it just me or are drivers becoming more agitated, more selfish and lacking any respect for other motorists these days? Some motorists do not necessarily break the law, they just make driving burdensome for others. It baffles me sometimes why we are so different from other nations in attitude and behaviour. Whereas etiquette is consideration for the next person, this truth somehow seems to elude us especially when it comes to driving on Lagos roads. The establishment of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) has no doubt brought some sanity to the state, but ever so often, the old habits rear their ugly heads that result in road commotion and hideous traffic jam. There seems to exist an unwritten code that promotes what we fondly call the “Lagos Driving”, a style of driving that is best described as: reckless, restless, manic and daring. Among the several manifestations of this classic incivility are:
Weaving in and out of traffic like stunt drivers
Flashing lights relentlessly
Sounding the horn excessively
Driving at high speeds to terrify drivers in both lanes
Rude gestures and verbal abuses or threats
Exiting the car in the middle of the road to confront another vehicle owner over a collision.
Creating multiple lanes
Throwing projectiles from a moving vehicle with the intent of damaging other vehicles
Beating the red light
Not stopping at zebra crossings
Enumerated above are examples of bad traffic manners. Some of which are not common only to Danfo drivers. These old habits often result in road commotion and hideous traffic jam.
Where road rage happens to be an occasional problem in most cities in the country, it appears to be the norm in Lagos and an acceptable way of life. So much so, that the new generation of drivers consider it an achievement to learn to drive in this so called Lagos way. Those who would ordinarily be uninclined to flout traffic rules are forced to rethink why they should obey the law and remain in queues while some others break them and get away with it. Interestingly, most of us agree that one unique category of people with irredeemably bad traffic manners are the danfo drivers. The question now is: when we are equally guilty of breaking the traffic laws that have been put in place to maintain safety and decorum do we dare call danfo drivers uncivilized and vindicate ourselves?
Danfo drivers of old used to be illiterate but because of the high rate of employment present-day danfo drivers are secondary school leavers.
Then there is the menace of the okada/kekemarwa, who think that they are not subject to traffic laws. They stop anywhere to drop and pick passengers. The run into a car and refuse to stop; they beat up other motorists and get away with it.
It is time we understood that the road is a public facility. It belongs to everyone: rich, poor, luxury cars, battered cars, buses, taxis, okadas, KekeMarwa, pedestrians, beggars and so forth. We all have a responsibility to show other road users courtesy in order to avoid road rage and apoplexies in traffic.
