Tweet
I'm in school full-time, have a regular part-time job in a convenience store, and a work-study job at a natural history museum as a tour guide. I love the work-study job most of the time since my job as a tour guide is to educate the public and provide information about the history of the fossil site and what we do at the museum. Paleontology has nothing to do with my studies since I'm a computer science major/accounting minor, but I'm a science nerd by hobby. So, I read a lot, and have learned a great deal about paleontology. There's still a lot I don't know, but I'm learning.
My c-store job and similarly menial retail and fast food experiences have made me absolutely hate cell phone zombies. Most of the time, this is not an issue on tours at the museum because those who take the tours generally have an interest in learning more. Overall, being a tour guide at the mueseum has been a positive enough experience over the last two years that I've worked my work-study contracts that I no longer totally hate the general public. Now, I only hate the general public when working at the c-store.
So, last weekend, I had this woman on one of my tour groups who decided to start yaking on her cell phone during the tour. Most people will graciously walk away from the group if they need to be on the cell phone, but this woman was apparently too dense to think of that. It had been a particularly busy day since the weather is now getting nice enough to enjoy being outdoors. My voice was getting a little hoarse. The wind was a little strong, and we also had construction equipment running on a nearby portion of the museum grounds. So, needless to say, it was hard enough to project my voice over those things. Then, this twit decides to place a call and talk rather loudly. I tried to talk a few more seconds, but decided that it was more distraction than I cared to compete with. Plus, I could judge that a few others in the group were instantly annoyed as they shot her dirty looks. She was totally oblivious. It just pissed me off enough that I decided to put a stop to the issue before it went any further. I simply quit talking and stared intently at her, stating very loudly, "I'll continue the tour when the cell phone is put away." I continued staring her down. She clued in surprisingly quick when she realized everyone was giving her dirty looks, and I was not speaking a standard tour guide spiel. She scuttled back inside the building still jabbering on her phone.
The part that pissed me off most was that she was the one who called whoever she wanted to talk to because I saw her dialing on the phone. I know what's said about common sense being uncommon, but common sense would have dictated that maybe she should have taken care of that call instead of tagging along with the tour group or waiting until the tour was done. During a guided tour at a museum or other such destination where people pay money to participate in the activity is certainly not a good time to place a call to anyone.
Had it been a case of receiving a call, that would have been different so long as they respectfully departed from the group to take the call or ended the call as quickly as possible. Personally, I ignore incoming calls if I'm busy with something because I figure that caller ID and voice mail will take care of it until I have time to mess with it. Just today, I had a woman on a group who was surprised when her phone rang. She answered, and quickly informed the caller that she was busy and would call back later. That's reasonable although my personal choice would be to silence the ringer and ignore the call until later.
My c-store job and similarly menial retail and fast food experiences have made me absolutely hate cell phone zombies. Most of the time, this is not an issue on tours at the museum because those who take the tours generally have an interest in learning more. Overall, being a tour guide at the mueseum has been a positive enough experience over the last two years that I've worked my work-study contracts that I no longer totally hate the general public. Now, I only hate the general public when working at the c-store.
So, last weekend, I had this woman on one of my tour groups who decided to start yaking on her cell phone during the tour. Most people will graciously walk away from the group if they need to be on the cell phone, but this woman was apparently too dense to think of that. It had been a particularly busy day since the weather is now getting nice enough to enjoy being outdoors. My voice was getting a little hoarse. The wind was a little strong, and we also had construction equipment running on a nearby portion of the museum grounds. So, needless to say, it was hard enough to project my voice over those things. Then, this twit decides to place a call and talk rather loudly. I tried to talk a few more seconds, but decided that it was more distraction than I cared to compete with. Plus, I could judge that a few others in the group were instantly annoyed as they shot her dirty looks. She was totally oblivious. It just pissed me off enough that I decided to put a stop to the issue before it went any further. I simply quit talking and stared intently at her, stating very loudly, "I'll continue the tour when the cell phone is put away." I continued staring her down. She clued in surprisingly quick when she realized everyone was giving her dirty looks, and I was not speaking a standard tour guide spiel. She scuttled back inside the building still jabbering on her phone.
The part that pissed me off most was that she was the one who called whoever she wanted to talk to because I saw her dialing on the phone. I know what's said about common sense being uncommon, but common sense would have dictated that maybe she should have taken care of that call instead of tagging along with the tour group or waiting until the tour was done. During a guided tour at a museum or other such destination where people pay money to participate in the activity is certainly not a good time to place a call to anyone.
Had it been a case of receiving a call, that would have been different so long as they respectfully departed from the group to take the call or ended the call as quickly as possible. Personally, I ignore incoming calls if I'm busy with something because I figure that caller ID and voice mail will take care of it until I have time to mess with it. Just today, I had a woman on a group who was surprised when her phone rang. She answered, and quickly informed the caller that she was busy and would call back later. That's reasonable although my personal choice would be to silence the ringer and ignore the call until later.
Comment