It’s an irrational annoyance, it really is. I can’t blame them, can’t blame YOU, for doing what you know. But pet peeves can’t be chosen, they can only be tolerated. And, despite my best efforts to remind myself that I’m being silly and beyond irrational, it still drives me up the wall.
Having my cell phone ring at work, that is.
I know, I KNOW…I could turn it off. I could turn down the ringer, leave it at home, or do one of 30 other sundry solutions so please, don’t comment and suggest that I do one of those. I KNOW I’m being ridiculous, and yet I can’t help it.
A self-proclaimed oft-times attention whore, receiving phone calls is a fun, FUN activity for me. You’re thinking of me! You like me! You want to talk to me! (And you maybe even want to ask me on a date – wahoo!) So phone calls, in any form, to any number, should be well-received with gratitude to boot. Yet for some reason, between the hours of 9 and 6:00 (my normal work hours – make a note of it please), my usual euphoria from hearing “Who Can It Be Now” as my cheeze-ass cell phone ring is instead replaced by irritation. EXTREME irritation. I’m sure my coworker is getting sick of me screaming into the phone “I AM AT WORK – STOP CALLING MY DAMN CELL PHONE!!!” which I inevitably do every time it ring, so for her sake, and my sanity, please – I beg of you – email me for my work number if you think there’s the slightest need to call me mid-day. I’ll happily give it to you.
**END Illogical, Ridiculous and Relatively Irrational Rant**
AubreySabala.com 
You’ve made it almost impossible to comment upon this. No title? That’s gonna be an archiving nightmare. Perhaps these people assume that you’re not going to answer your phone during the day, and simply want to leave you a message, instead of interrupting you at work? I’ve learned better than to give out my work number to anyone. By the same token there are some situations where one should never carry a cell phone. A first date, being the best example, especially if you want that person to like you. Movie Theaters, ditto. People who try to talk on their phones in elvators? It’s going to cut off, people! Then you’ve got the ‘Paris Hilton’ cell phone call, and everyone who’s seen it knows exactly what I’m talking about. Not the best time to answer the phone…
The last sentence left me confused. So it’s not the actual phone call that matters? Just that it comes through on your cell phone? If all the same calls came through, but on your office phone, you’d be fine with this?
Very strange . . .
Ok, sorry about that title thing. I thought I was being all witty using Begin () HTML coding signs, to indicate that I know I’m being ridiculous. Yet it actually read it as code so y’all just think I’m a bizotch.
As for your comment, Foss, yep – it’s illogical. It’s not the call, it’s the call on the Cell. I TOLD you it’s dumb, but hey – I’m nothing if not honest. Drives me up the wall.
I would assume the feeling is something akin to the feeling of wanting to unplug your phone line from the wall at home, yet nobody ever does it, because, we, by nature, still want to know we’re getting attention, whether we actually have any intention of responding to it or not. After all, married people still flirt, don’t they?
No, this makes sense. The issue isn’t about you but rather your callers not respecting the fact that you’re at work and don’t want to chat. And it makes sense that a cellphone call is especially annoying because it’s more likely to be a personal call. It’s like, there’s a proper way to reach you at work, and that’s your landline. Perfect sense. Trust me.
My personal office-phonecall-bete-noir is the way our receptionists put phonecalls through when I’m eating lunch at my desk. It’s like, hi! Just because I don’t take an hour to leave the office and doesn’t mean I want to talk to someone while I have a mouthful of sandwich…
But if you don’t have your phone with you on a date, how can you arrange for a friend to call you an hour or so into the date, at which point you tell him, “I can’t talk, I’m on a date. Huh? It’s going well; she’s really great. Which is why I’m hanging up now. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.” Then you hang up and say, “Sorry about that,” then make a point of turning it off.
Not that I would ever, ever do that.
Because, Mike, if she’s smart, then she’d think you brought that phone just so someone could call you with some fake emergency if it was going poorly, in which case you didn’t like her all that much in the first place, if you needed a back-up plan. 😉
Ohhhh, I am so in touch with your whole take on the cell phone thing. Although in my situation it’s a bit different, because the only reason I have the cell phone is so my ex can get ahold of me in case of an emergency with our daughter. Note that last word “emergency,” which she doesn’t seem to know the meaning of while I’m at work. I don’t mind if it is an actual emergency, but 9 out of 10, it’s not. I swear, she talks to me more now than she ever did when we were still married! She’s the kind that will keep calling back and leaving messages if it isn’t answered the first time too, which makes the whole matter even more irritating. Sorry for venting, but I feel your pain.