A morning rant:
Probably not my favorite moment of RE BarCamp Denver (#rebcden) but it certainly was the most memorable. Thirty minutes into a presentation, a real estate agent took a call during a presentation and then continued on with the call for half a minute at an audibly unacceptable level. The speaker bravely avoided acknowledgment of her diva act. Finally, a gentleman sitting close by, asked her “to have a little respect for the speaker” and to stop the call. She packed up her shit, walked to the aisle, spun around and muttered “Asshole”. When she left, a half dozen people thanked him.
It led me to think about the differences in boundaries that people have. She obviously has no boundaries, she’s just a rude piece of shit. His boundaries gave him the green light to confront her, as the rest of us, stunned this imbecile had the nerve to conduct a call in the middle of a presentation, sat silent. Our boundaries hadn’t been broached, they’d been dulled by the shocking nature of what was developing.
Boundaries are a nurture thing. They are shaped by friends & family growing up. How do they get checked when we’re all grown up? By society? Peers? When & how did this woman come to believe this behavior was acceptable?
Finally, why was she at RE BarCamp Denver?
About jbinfrisco
While I completely agree with what this Gentleman did, in asking her to have some respect, what makes your “boundaries” any less evident by calling her a “rude piece of shit”?
Asking her to “get a Clue” is acceptable, joining her in gutter is just not.
Enjoyed the rest of the article.
@TheRECoach
Thanks for the rant. This is a post I could write literally every day. And, because of that, I never write it. Thank you for doing so.
Our culture has become one big “boundary-free” zone where people feel more than comfortable talking into a cell phone AT UNNECESSARILY HIGH VOLUME RIGHT INTO YOUR EAR as they stand behind you in line at Starbucks.
I’ve said on Twitter many times that I’d pay extra – particularly for restaurants and even health clubs – for “cell free” zones. I never talk on my cell in public – I mean NEVER – because I don’t want to encroach on someone else’s space. Sadly, I’m clearly in the minority.
Thank you for allowing me to live vicariously through this post…
“When & how did this woman come to believe this behavior was acceptable?”
Maybe it started the day “as the rest of us, stunned this imbecile had the nerve to conduct a call in the middle of a presentation, sat silent. Our boundaries hadn’t been broached”….. became the rule rather than the exception.
Maybe the real concern is into what other facets of life and Business has “Our boundaries hadn’t been broached” taken root.
Nice post, JB.
I was sitting right in front of the woman when she did that. I’m not sure it was boundaries that stopped me. I just kept thinking… “this must be some kind of emergency”, or “she’ll drop her tone and/or walk out of the presentation”. Like you said, I think it was more shock than anything.
The guy who asked her to have some respect was incredibly kind and nice about it, I thought. We can use more people in the world like that
That was classic. The guy said what everyone else in the room was thinking!
This would be incredulous if we’d all not experienced the same type of scenario on an ongoing basis.
Lines have always existed were it was rude to “interrupt” someone while they were on the phone. Then the phone became unleashed… we’ve been trying to put a leash back around it ever since.
Let’s face it, making your phone calls public is rude, wherever you are.
As an aside, during the announcement at RE barcamp SF last year I suggested that if you have business to tend to, it’s probably more important to you than anything happening right now. I would encourage you to take your call or you laptop to the lounge we provided and take care of your business.