About ten years ago I was on a conference call in negotiations with a very important business partner. We were all getting frustrated and exhausted from the three hour verbal tennis match. I was attempting to rationalize a point of contention when I heard, “Blah, blah, blah, blah. ‘Ooooo…I’m so smart and love the sound of my own voice!’….”, followed by hysterical laughter. Then suddenly it hit them and the world went quiet.
Yes, they had a broken mute button.
“Oh crap”, said the mocking executive on the other side of the speakerphone. “Mark… umm… well… sorry…” was the half-apology as he quickly tried to backpedal. Everyone on my side was a bit stunned and then I started to smile. My response?
I pretended our mute button was broken too and said in a false whisper, “C’mon people. These guys really did their homework. How did they know I love the sound of my own voice???” 
This broke the tension, we all had a good laugh and successfully wrapped the call ten minutes later.
If this situation hasn’t happened to you yet, it will. Believe me. And when it does you will briefly panic, curse like a sailor and wish you could turn back the hands of time. I have suffered from broken mute buttons at least seven times and they were all cringe-worthy moments.
The advice you’d expect from me is to simply avoid these situations entirely. To be careful. To watch yourself. To never, ever, ever put yourself on the edge of this particular cliff.
But here’s the reality – we’re humans and sometimes we need to vent. And oftentimes the only way we can get through an eye rolling, painful, time wasting, pedantic conference call is to tap ye ole mute button and yammer away.
My advice? Make sure your mute button works!
I’m serious. Test it. Stop reading right now, call a friend, press the button and see if they can hear you. Doing so will help you avoid this situation:
Do you have a mute button story to share? Have you been on the giving or receiving end of a mute button nightmare? Any advice on how to extricate yourself from this verbal train wreck? Share your thoughts below and let’s keep the (unmuted) conversation going.
7 Comments
I heard a story once where someone intentionally broke the mute button because their boss would often make bad comments and they wanted to get them in trouble. Don’t be a dick to your employees people.
I have the classic ‘reply all’ story-a colleague announced a change in plans that meant people would have to work on Black Friday (for you non-retail types, it’s the day after Thanksgiving). Well, someone responded (and hit ‘reply all’) to them, saying how unfair it was because that was the time for family and so on. I’m being mild in terms of how she framed her response. Needless to say, someone gave her a terse reply which left hundreds of other people reading the e-mail saying, “Ouch!”
I suspect that function has cost dozens of people their jobs. Be afraid of ‘reply all’!
Along those lines, here’s something that took place just yesterday. I came across the following tweet:
“My mommy works at XXXXXX! She hates it though. People suck.”
The thing about it is that XXXXXX is my client. I felt obligated to bring it to the attention of my client contact, XXXXXX’s head of human resources. I can’t imagine it’s going to reflect well on her, um, mommy.
We need to be thoughtful about our communications all the time, in all situations.
(I was going to tell the story of how I learned one of the cardinal rules of consulting, “don’t talk in clients’ bathrooms”, but you can probably figure that one out for yourself.)
OHMYGOSH! We had this very conversation on Friday. I have been the recipient of thinking the mute button worked. And discovering latter that our mute button was broken – a colleague and I were on the phone and she put me on mute to speak to someone who walked in our office. I could hear the entire conversation. We both spent a few stunned minutes trying to envision all the people we had “put on mute” in the last couple of YEARS.
I never, and I do mean NEVER say anything at all until the phone is in the cradle. Lesson learned years ago.
@HR Minion – That’s a terrible story. Wow.
@Victorio – Having been on both sides of “reply all”, your advice is spot on!
@Joe Brown – Agree with the “talking in bathrooms” point Joe, but did you really have to bring a kid’s tweet to the attention of her mom’s head of HR? Seems like that might be taking it a step too far (IMHO).
@Deirdre – I hear you Dee. The realization that it’s broken is a heart stopping affair.
Thanks for your response, Mark. Definitely a fair question and reaction. A good friend presented me with a similar question and reaction shortly after I posted the story to your blog. I later asked Victorio for his opinion, and got a solid “it depends”, along with a few very good questions as to context.
I generally don’t consider myself to be someone who acts impulsively, but given the three reactions I’ve received, I am definitely second guessing myself on this one and have given it considerable further thought. There are a few things I wanted to share to elaborate on the story and perhaps give a bit more context that may (or may not) impact your opinion.
One clarification is that I don’t believe the quote was from a “kid” (which one might presume from the use of the word “mommy”), but instead appears to be from a college student at a pretty decent school. Also, the tweeter was identified only by first name and last initial, so it was not quite as explicit a “ratting out” (to use my friend’s phrase) as it may seem. I realize that I helped worsen the impression in my original comment about it not reflecting well on the employee.
My friend asked a very good question…”How was the tweet harmful to your client?” My response was that, to at least some small extent, it affected the organization’s reputation as an employer. From what I could gather, the tweet was in response to someone saying they were considering or had been offered a job at the organization, and would also be viewed by anyone who might search Twitter for the organization’s name.
I’ve given a good deal of thought over the past couple of days to my motivation. In part, I think it was in the spirit of sharing information. I’ve worked with this particular client for nearly two years, and have developed a fairly close relationship with the HR head and other senior folks (one of whom I’ve known and worked with professionally for over 15 years). I’ve also made a point of sharing positive mentions when I’ve come across them. Beyond that, I think my action was in part rooted in a deep disdain of toxic workplace situations that go unaddressed because people would rather badmouth than speak up and perhaps create some improvement in the situation. Finally, given that I’ve been working with them for nearly two years on efforts to make it a better organization to work for, I probably also took the comment a bit personally.
I present none of this to defend my action, but as explanation and elaboration, and to share with those who’ve questioned a bit of the reflection their questioning has compelled.
Victorio astutely observed that the tale might be a good business case for the organization to establish a social media presence (and they are, regrettably, pretty much in the dark ages in that regard). I’m just not sure that is a battle for me to fight there at this particular time.
Again, I appreciate the questions and reactions, and definitely welcome any other feedback that you (or anyone else reading this) might care to share with me.
Joe,
The other thing to consider (and to possibly bring to your client’s attention) is that conversations are being had about the company. If you think tweets are bad then you haven’t checked out http://www.glassdoor.com. So ask them honestly-are their communication channels truly open to be able to receive, listen to, and address workplace issues? I mentioned social media as an option; however, that’s not going to address the problem if employees feel as if they won’t be heard internally.
I agree that toxic workplace situations stink. The responsibility still falls on management to be able to provide reasonable methods for assessing and improving the organizational climate.
I want to make clear that this is not a critique of your client’s organization. These are just suggestions that may help either now, in the future, or with another client.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts Joe.