don't leave me hanging on the telephone....

One of my first tasks at work this morning was to ring someone up to gather some information from them some detail on a number of key tasks that I need to get done in the next week or so (boring work stuff - you know how it is). I don't really like talking to people cold, even more so when it's a mobile phone number that I have been given to ring. For some reason I always have an image of the phone ringing at some awfully inconvenient moment and I consequently half-expect to be dealing with someone who is annoyed with me for ringing before I've even started talking. Much to my surprise though, this particular call seemed to be going quite well, and I thought I was really making some progress towards getting the information that I needed. There was one small sticking point though: the lady was going to have to check on something crucial and then get back to me. Ok. No problem. I gave her my phone number. I had no reason to worry until we had the following exchange:

"Thanks for that. I'll call you back as soon as I have that info. What was your name again? Paul?"

"No, it's Tim"

"Tim. Right. Thanks for that Paul".

She didn't ring me back all day, and what do you suppose my chances are of ever getting that call back?

Slim to none, I would suggest.

I hung up with a heavy heart and carried on with my day.