Friends on CrackBerry? Miss Manners’ advice
This law school grad’s plea found its way to Fortune Magazine’s Ask Annie column:
I am a recent law-school graduate and, though I’m not yet working at a law firm, I have friends who are. I understand that things in international firms happen 24/7, 365 days a year, and I want to be as supportive of my friends’ careers as I expect them to be of mine. My question is, to what degree in social settings, on a regular basis, should friends be checking their BlackBerries, and at what point should I say something? What’s rude and what’s truly necessary? -Bored in BlackBerryLand
Glancing at my “WWMCD?” bracelet, I quickly think to myself what would Mary Crane do? - Which is the appropriate fork to stab their dominant QWERTYing thumb? Is it a breach of decorum to drown it in someone else’s margarita if I’ve already drained mine? Shall I send them passive aggressive e-mails on my own crackberry since they’ve so clearly indicated it’s the only way to get their attention?
Annie punted to Miss Manners who noted quite diplomatically that
“Of course it’s very rude to be doing business during a social outing,” Martin says. “But you should have nothing but sympathy for people who have no time off. It’s very sad to have no time off.”
“And of course you can’t socialize with people who have no time off,” she adds. “It’s as if you were hanging around their desk talking to them while they were trying to get their work done. So leave them alone until they have worked their way up in their careers to the point where they have some time they can call their own.”
I should note that I am far more likely to be the blackberry-crazed offender in that situation and am duly chastened.
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One of my goals in life is to never own a Crackberry.