Phone Etiquette
@Phaedra_Scythe (3325)
October 31, 2010 9:01am CST
Is there anyone out there that still thinks it's OK to call someone up after midnight after they've been drinking?!
Apparently so as one of my partner's friends called the landline at 12:45am to ramble on at me about nothing in particular. He was just clearly drunk and I was too polite to chew him out for calling so late. He went on for nearly twenty minutes, repeating himself and telling me how much he loved us both. It was a classic drunk call. I just stayed polite until his curry and chips were ready and he rang off.
Does anyone else still do this? It's just so inconsiderate! I need my sleep! ![](/Content/images/emotes/angry.gif)
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1 person likes this
10 responses
@frontvisions101 (16043)
• Philippines
31 Oct 10
My girlfriend's friends do that to me too. They call me after hours when they're drunk and tell me stuff very unrelated to us and then tell me about how cute we are together and then just saying she loves us both.
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@Phaedra_Scythe (3325)
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2 Nov 10
Does it bother you? Would you ever talk to them about it and tell them it's rude?
@frontvisions101 (16043)
• Philippines
2 Nov 10
I often told them to f*** off.:)
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@ferritic (82)
• Philippines
31 Oct 10
Phaedra_Scyte,
Good day!
It is Ok when your friend call you up early in the morning. It is nice of you to be polite to your friend's call even if it is 12:45 in the morning. Although he is drunk and keep on saying he loves you both. You might see it in another way, he subconsciously is trying to convey something to you. I do not get angry when someone tries to call and wake me up in the wee hours of the night. They may be calling me because of an emergency or may be due to the caller is calling from a different time zone or he just being a nuisance. In any case always be polite, anger will just rob you of sleep. You may be quite awake when you get mad. Politeness and phone etiqutte goes a long way. Keep it up.
More power,
Ferritic
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@Phaedra_Scythe (3325)
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2 Nov 10
If it were an emergency I wouldn't mind at all. I'd feel privileged that someone thought of me first to help them. This was just a rambling call though! Thanks. ![](/Content/images/emotes/happy.gif)
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@derek_a (10874)
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1 Nov 10
This has happened to me on more than one occasion in the past. I usually stay friendly enough, but tend to say something like, "you're drunk! Phone me tomorrow when we can have an intelligent conversation. I am laughing when I say it so the caller doesn't get offended, but it works. If they don't hang up the first time, I repeat myself a little more forcefully. However, it doesn't happen these days because I have an answer-machine and it is turned on every night once 8 o'clock arrives. I can still hear who's calling and if it's an emergency I will pick up. If the caller goes on for a long time, I will turn the volume down. Usually the next day they cannot remember they called anyway!
_Derek
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@Phaedra_Scythe (3325)
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2 Nov 10
That's what I should have done!
Next time I'm trying that. We need an answerphone! Trouble is I probably wouldn't often pick up the phone at all if I could screen!
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@Phaedra_Scythe (3325)
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2 Nov 10
If it's an emergency I wouldn't mind, but I'm too auto-programmed to be polite when I probably should have said something about the hour. He wasn't too coherent so I don't know if he would have understood. He didn't remember calling afterwards!
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@mentalward (14690)
• United States
2 Nov 10
I don't have a problem speaking my mind and if someone called me up that late and was drunk with no obvious emergency, I'd let them know how agitated I was and that they should call me when they are no longer drunk, preferrably when the sun is up. I would probably tell them that I would never call them if I had been drinking too much and would like the same courtesy in return. Chances are, I'd have to hang up on them since drunks don't usually hear what you have to say anyway.
I have a friend who did that to me once. I have tried to make her understand that I need whatever sleep I can get since the more sleep I get the less I hurt the next day. (I have fibromyalgia so you know how that is, I'm sure.) She apparently didn't hear me or didn't care because she called me once at 2:00 a.m., just to tell me that she had added me to her "fave five" on her cell phone! She had programmed my phone number into her phone. That's all she had to say so why she felt she needed to tell me this at 2 a.m. is beyond me.
She could have been drunk, she's been known to have a few too many a few too many times. Whether she was or not, I let her know that I had been sleeping and she woke me up. That didn't phase her and she kept on talking. So, I said, while she was still talking since she wouldn't shut up long enough for me to say anything, that I was going back to sleep and I'd talk to her in the morning after the sun was up, then I hung up the phone. After hanging up, I turned off the ringer so, if she tried to call back, I wouldn't be bothered by it.
I really didn't care if she was hurt or insulted or whatever. She was very rude and inconsiderate for calling at that time in the morning and she needed to know it was unacceptable. Apparently, she did get the message because she hasn't done it since then. ![](/Content/images/emotes/thumbup.gif)
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@Phaedra_Scythe (3325)
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2 Nov 10
I have trouble with confrontation. I can't break past the ingrained politeness! It bypasses my common sense sometimes!
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@bounce58 (17387)
• Canada
2 Nov 10
Not since I was still in college! And that was already some years back. I couldn't believe that somebody still does this. But, I guess being drunk gets your concept of time mixed up, and we forget what year it is. And we think calling after getting wasted is still a great thing to do. Uggh!
I hope you've caught up in your sleep.![](/Content/images/emotes/thumbup.gif)
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@Phaedra_Scythe (3325)
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2 Nov 10
It is more of a college thing. That's why I was so surprised that at 39 this bloke will still do this.
I never seem to catch up on enough sleep!
@nangisha (3496)
• Indonesia
31 Oct 10
I don't think its polite to call any one thats late. At home we set rule not call thats late if not emergency.
I think in thats hour people already sleep and will really annoying is someone wake up just for chat. I usually not pick up my cellphone in thats time and set it in silent mode.
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@Phaedra_Scythe (3325)
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2 Nov 10
I think I have an unwritten rule that calling after 9pm is a bit rude. That's just me though. I don't mention it to the caller though!
I wouldn't answer my mobile phone at that time unless I was worried it was an emergency, but this was the land line so I didn't know who it was and my partner was still out so I thought it might be him. I think it's just instinct to answer the phone when you're half asleep!
@NoWayRo (1061)
• Romania
31 Oct 10
Heh. All my friends do this. I think I have "drunken depression hotline" listed somewhere in a phone book next to my number. At least they call on my mobile, so I can turn it off if I really need to sleep.
My female friends who have small children call me at 12 am for a chat, because they're trying to put their babies to sleep, and figure it's a good time to exchange recipes while they're at it. At least once a week one of them calls me at 2 am to tell me her child must be suffering from some life threatening disease (something that goes away by next morning).
All my male friends go through some mid life crisis or something. They call at the weirdest hours (don't have to be at night, some can be perfectly smashed at lunch hour) to tell me how their marriage is going to pieces, how they've wasted their lives, how it's too late to achieve any of their goals, and about 500 other things - most of which I don't really understand.
In most cases I put up with it. I don't sleep that much anyway :)
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@Phaedra_Scythe (3325)
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31 Oct 10
I'm not surprised you don't sleep much with all those calls! It seems crazy to me to call someone at that time of night. I would have thought most people would put the phone down!
@Phaedra_Scythe (3325)
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2 Nov 10
It wasn't my mobile phone it was the land line! If I'd seen it come up on my mobile I probably wouldn't have answered because this isn't the first time this guy has rung us when he's in his cups and I knew he was going to a bar! You're lucky your friends are more sensible! ![](/Content/images/emotes/happy.gif)
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