The Black Vault

This issue is very common. The vast majority of us have run into it many times, like with salespeople who don't take no for an answer. And I've had it all my life. No one that I'm aware of has come up with a realistic solution.

Ok. I'm temporarily working a new shift at work. This particular shift requires that I contact several security personnel at certain points on the map, to make sure the freight they are guarding (our freight) is ok and everything's fine.

The call should take a maximum of about 5 seconds.

Here's the deal. There's this one security guard who is quite obviously very bored. And perhaps he is medicated or even on some kind of stimulant like coke or even crack or crystal meth. Because this guy talks... and talks.... and TALKS..... and TALKS SOME MORE.... and will literally stay on your phone for an hour or more if you let him. He almost never allows more than about half a second pause between his chatter so there is never a polite place to interject any commentary of your own. I literally have to tell him something is happening (after an hour has passed) and hang up the phone while he is STILL talking.

I've been nice and polite to him for too long now, and to start being abrupt and cold and getting off the phone immediately everytime would be an obvious ploy and would hurt his feelings.


At this point, his feelings are worth slightly less than my desire to end this annoyance, but... what I'm looking for is...

A clever, sure-fire way to end this situation where he stops doing what he's doing but isn't all hurt and hateful about it.

The way I've handlled annoying situations in the past is to take it head-on, be honest with the other person and do so quickly before it gets out of control. I've been thought of as a mean person because of this. I'm looking for a better, less-hurtful approach. Besides, this guy and I will be talking every 2 hours of my shift for the foreseeable future, so, if I really hurt him or piss him off, I'll have to deal with it on a constant basis, day in and day out.


So... what are your suggestions.

FYI - He's a disabled war veteran -- so that adds to the incentive to treat him politely and delicately.

Frosty,

Some sales people do take no for an answer, they just don't last long.

No seriously, as a professional in the field, a dying breed I might add, People who talk a lot are easier to deal with than those of few words. You did say two very sketchy words, disabled and war vet, okay three words..lol

So the best approach are always close ended questions, never open ended...close ended require a yes or no response............simple practice and they become habit, you then will learn to reinforce the response by adding something like " wouldn't you agree "...................this is a real quick fix, and it would be impossible to hurt the guys feelings should you ever slip and botch your delivery.

What's the guys name????????????? For this sake I'll call him Bert...

Hey Bert...........have you seen anything out of the ordinary? Bert says NO.....But..........But..I did want to say........immediately Cut him off should he do this....Like so... Bert, Bert excuse me Sir........you do realize that I have several others to contact within the next few minutes, do you not?

Yes? I really need to complete these contacts in a timely manner, wouldn't you agree Bert???????????????? Yes..... Sooooo thank you for understanding Bert and I'll talk with you later!!!! Bye Bye!!

I've got a neighbor exactly like this guy.............He's lonely, I'll guarantee it. My neighbor ( I've seen him in action ) can talk the bark off of any tree.......

Literally seen him stand in one spot, one position, for two straight hours yacking away on his cell phone.........These two would make a great cage match..

Cole

I actually have a good friend like this
I love keeping in touch with her, but tend to do so with trepidation, because I KNOW once I am on the phone with her she will go on and Also maybe, get mad if I try to even find ways to get off the phone with her. When I try and end the conversation sometimes, she says stuff like ,"What? You don't want to talk to me?" (after going on for more than an hour)
It can be annoying

Depending on my mood I will sometimes just put up with it, sometimes actually get into it and enjoy it, tell her I I have to hang up now because, "my ear is hurting", or make up some polite lie as an excuse to get off the phone.

I am being unfair , though, because I know I have talked her ear off before, too.

On a persoanl note..
I realize me saying all this is kind of funny, because I know that those who can tune into my vibration will pick up on a-lot of mental chatter. (I have an active, ADHD mind that someitmes will not shut up..I know..I need to meditate and quiet my mind more..I KNOW!! It's on my, ever growing list of shite to do)

You might have to talk over him to get this out, something like "sorry, man/bro/sir/%name%/etc., I'd love to keep talking but duty calls."
click
How about something like that?

Idk if that's the best thing to do; just tossing that idea out there.

Tell him the boss is on a mission about tying up the phone.

greeney2 wrote:Tell him the boss is on a mission about tying up the phone.

I like it!

Cole_Trickle wrote:Frosty,

Some sales people do take no for an answer, they just don't last long.

No seriously, as a professional in the field, a dying breed I might add, People who talk a lot are easier to deal with than those of few words. You did say two very sketchy words, disabled and war vet, okay three words..lol

So the best approach are always close ended questions, never open ended...close ended require a yes or no response............simple practice and they become habit, you then will learn to reinforce the response by adding something like " wouldn't you agree "...................this is a real quick fix, and it would be impossible to hurt the guys feelings should you ever slip and botch your delivery.

What's the guys name????????????? For this sake I'll call him Bert...

Hey Bert...........have you seen anything out of the ordinary? Bert says NO.....But..........But..I did want to say........immediately Cut him off should he do this....Like so... Bert, Bert excuse me Sir........you do realize that I have several others to contact within the next few minutes, do you not?

Yes? I really need to complete these contacts in a timely manner, wouldn't you agree Bert???????????????? Yes..... Sooooo thank you for understanding Bert and I'll talk with you later!!!! Bye Bye!!

I've got a neighbor exactly like this guy.............He's lonely, I'll guarantee it. My neighbor ( I've seen him in action ) can talk the bark off of any tree.......

Literally seen him stand in one spot, one position, for two straight hours yacking away on his cell phone.........These two would make a great cage match..

Cole

I want to address these one by one because you took your valuable time and helped me out, you deserve a personal response.

Ah yes... sales tactics with the closed ended questions ending with "wouldn't you agree?" etc. Reminds me of the 6 months I spent in telemarketing... I did great on the phone always number 2 or 3 in the office in sales, but never number 1. There's a reason for that but that's for later. Anyway, yes. I like your approach. However I think he'll pick up on it. I've already let him run amuck for 2 weeks straight -- so a sudden string of mulitple instances of "I'm really busy you know," will definitely seem contrived.

Still, I haven't read the other responses but right now I'm thinking your approach (in my own style--said very compassionately and politely) is the way to go. I simply need to tell him (which is no lie) that I've got stuff I need to be doing and I (here's the white lie) *wish* I could talk more but I've gotta run. A few of those consecutively will make it obvious but, what can he say in the end. I'm not sitting in a car watching a dock door, I'm multitasking and making and answering calls.

Good thoughts and ultimately it will be at least a hybrid of that I'll be using.

FYI I got so lucky tonight. Everytime I called him, he had someone on the other line or there was another guard hanging out that he was talking the ears off of, so *he* actually had to get *me* off the phone! I loved it!

bionic wrote:I actually have a good friend like this
I love keeping in touch with her, but tend to do so with trepidation, because I KNOW once I am on the phone with her she will go on and Also maybe, get mad if I try to even find ways to get off the phone with her. When I try and end the conversation sometimes, she says stuff like ,"What? You don't want to talk to me?" (after going on for more than an hour)
It can be annoying

Depending on my mood I will sometimes just put up with it, sometimes actually get into it and enjoy it, tell her I I have to hang up now because, "my ear is hurting", or make up some polite lie as an excuse to get off the phone.

I am being unfair , though, because I know I have talked her ear off before, too.

On a persoanl note..
I realize me saying all this is kind of funny, because I know that those who can tune into my vibration will pick up on a-lot of mental chatter. (I have an active, ADHD mind that someitmes will not shut up..I know..I need to meditate and quiet my mind more..I KNOW!! It's on my, ever growing list of shite to do)

Well if it isn't miss fancy pants/disappearing act/show up whenever you feel like it...


hahaha Hi Girly Girl.

Well yes I kind of play it like that most of the time. I have an uncle that's the same way but at least he isn't a complete stranger. We're talking 4 hours straight on the phone with my uncle. However I haven't talked to him in many years due to a major blow-out argument. Anyway, I don't see any solutions there but you were very empathic and warm like always.. so I ate up every word of it, of course.

at1with0 wrote:You might have to talk over him to get this out, something like "sorry, man/bro/sir/%name%/etc., I'd love to keep talking but duty calls."
click
How about something like that?

Idk if that's the best thing to do; just tossing that idea out there.

LMAO!!!!

When I read your message the first time, the c and the l in "click" looked like a d ..... so it reads.. "I'd love to keep talking but duty calls.... dick."

Bold approach! I like it!