electricland (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
electricland) wrote2006-04-28 10:28 am
electricland) wrote2006-04-28 10:28 am
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Some days I wonder why I have a phone at all. (I'm a writer! All I really need is a small room where people can't get at me! Oh, and the Internet.) I think I actually get more wrong numbers than right ones. I work for a big hospital; everyone has their own four-digit extension, some of us are direct dial, some have to go through the switchboard. (I'm direct dial.) My number seems to be quite easy to misdial, for some reason, maybe because the last four digits are all clustered on the keypad.
Anyway, the failures come at various spots, so the wrong numbers fall into a few categories:
1. Straight-up wrong numbers.
2. Doctors who have been paged to a number that is not mine, wrongly dialing my number.
3. Doctors who have been wrongly paged to my number. (Those ones are really fun. I answer, someone says "This is Dr. X," I say "Yes?", they say "Is this the NICU?" (or Emergency, that's another one I get a lot), I say "Um... no...", they say "Then why did you page me?" Confusion reigns. I always wonder what happens after that.)
Today was in category 1, as follows:
TELEPHONE: Ring.
ME: [My department], [my name] speaking.
SMALL CHILD: Hello.
[Pause.]
ME: Hello?
SMALL CHILD: Can I speak to my mum?
ME: I think you have the wrong number. [Calling up the internal directory] What's your mum's name?
SMALL CHILD: Ann.
ME [looking helplessly at the 7000+ names in the directory]: Yeah, I'm sorry, this is the wrong... Ann what?
SMALL CHILD: Just Ann.
VOICE IN BACKGROUND: ...wrong number...
TELEPHONE: *click*
I think I had a message on my voicemail last week from the same kid.
This may be related to why I yell "Who are you and why are you calling me?" at the phone a lot.
Anyway, the failures come at various spots, so the wrong numbers fall into a few categories:
1. Straight-up wrong numbers.
2. Doctors who have been paged to a number that is not mine, wrongly dialing my number.
3. Doctors who have been wrongly paged to my number. (Those ones are really fun. I answer, someone says "This is Dr. X," I say "Yes?", they say "Is this the NICU?" (or Emergency, that's another one I get a lot), I say "Um... no...", they say "Then why did you page me?" Confusion reigns. I always wonder what happens after that.)
Today was in category 1, as follows:
TELEPHONE: Ring.
ME: [My department], [my name] speaking.
SMALL CHILD: Hello.
[Pause.]
ME: Hello?
SMALL CHILD: Can I speak to my mum?
ME: I think you have the wrong number. [Calling up the internal directory] What's your mum's name?
SMALL CHILD: Ann.
ME [looking helplessly at the 7000+ names in the directory]: Yeah, I'm sorry, this is the wrong... Ann what?
SMALL CHILD: Just Ann.
VOICE IN BACKGROUND: ...wrong number...
TELEPHONE: *click*
I think I had a message on my voicemail last week from the same kid.
This may be related to why I yell "Who are you and why are you calling me?" at the phone a lot.
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i also love the person who calls, is told they have the wrong number, and then yells at whomever answered the phone for no apparent reason. er, i know someone that this happened to a few weeks ago. *headdesk*