I have always used phones at work but it was only the other day that I got to thinking about how they have changed over the years, and how this has helped me enjoy my career. We never had a phone at home when I was growing up, so I was a little bit worried when I had to use one for the first time.

The Giant Phone
My first job saw me sitting at a small desk with a giant, old fashioned phone perched on it. I lasted a couple of years there but I never did work out how to transfer calls or pick up other people’s phones. There was some sort of secret code – ##232# or something similar – but I was always so amazed to hear the phone ring that I would be too startled to mark the code. You see, we had very few phone calls, so it allowed me to get into the habit. I enjoyed the few calls I answered and it made me realise that the phone wasn’t to be feared, even if the long, coiled cable always seemed to end up horribly twisted after every call.

The Headset
Next, I moved into a sales job and got given a fancy headset. I felt very sleek and professional when I put this on for the first time. A new call would cause a beep in my ear and the display would tell me how long I had been talking for. I wasn’t that great at selling but I really enjoyed using the phone. We would get a print out at the end of the month with our call statistics and I used to like going over them. This job got me used to speaking to customers directly and I found that it gave me a lot of confidence in using the phone to build relationships. It even helped me become more comfortable using my new home phone.

 A Mobile Meeting
The first day I got given a mobile phone at work was pretty exciting. It made me feel rather important actually, or at least until I realised that everyone else in the office had already been given one. With this new technology I could attend meetings wherever I was. I can clearly remember one day sitting out in the park across from the office. When a plane flew pretty low overhead my boss starting asking where everyone was. Clearly, as a seasoned professional I covered the phone with my hand and bolted across the road to my desk. Despite this, I enjoyed the freedom which working with a mobile phone gave me.

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