In an open-plan office (or basically anywhere), I always keep my phone on silent and always keep it with me. Obviously, I do occasionally fail at this and hate myself, but I do feel there's a difference between "ringtone went off in public once in four years" and "ringtone went off every day".
But there's always someone, generally someone who's uber-respectable in normal-people ways, but less respectable in tech ways, who has a hilarious ring-tone and occasionally goes away from their desk and leaves their phone behind.
To me, this isn't a big problem. Normally, it's just funny, not that annoying. And if it IS that annoying, I'd ask them to change the ring-tone. Or, if they've gone all afternoon, I'd try to silence it, or, if that fails, turn it off or take the battery out[1]. I've never actually done this, but it seems that since I can't actually answer the phone usefully, it's no worse than not answering.
But other people, when they get exasperated, feel like they WANT to do something, but actually SAYING anything like "can you change your ringtone?" would be too forward, so start making jokes about how they would drop the phone into a bucket of water, etc. Which just seems completely pointless. Why don't they use their extrovert powers and actually fix the problem? Either say something WHEN THE OWNER IS THERE, or let it go. For me, common annoyances deserve a one-line joke, not a whole afternoon spent complaining about it but not doing anything. Why do people do this?
[1] Or put it in the sound-proof EM-proof chamber, assuming I work somewhere that has one :)
But there's always someone, generally someone who's uber-respectable in normal-people ways, but less respectable in tech ways, who has a hilarious ring-tone and occasionally goes away from their desk and leaves their phone behind.
To me, this isn't a big problem. Normally, it's just funny, not that annoying. And if it IS that annoying, I'd ask them to change the ring-tone. Or, if they've gone all afternoon, I'd try to silence it, or, if that fails, turn it off or take the battery out[1]. I've never actually done this, but it seems that since I can't actually answer the phone usefully, it's no worse than not answering.
But other people, when they get exasperated, feel like they WANT to do something, but actually SAYING anything like "can you change your ringtone?" would be too forward, so start making jokes about how they would drop the phone into a bucket of water, etc. Which just seems completely pointless. Why don't they use their extrovert powers and actually fix the problem? Either say something WHEN THE OWNER IS THERE, or let it go. For me, common annoyances deserve a one-line joke, not a whole afternoon spent complaining about it but not doing anything. Why do people do this?
[1] Or put it in the sound-proof EM-proof chamber, assuming I work somewhere that has one :)