
A survey by hotel chain Future Inns found that 41 per cent of businesspeople think that it’s acceptable to regularly answer phone calls or respond to emails during meetings whilst half (50 per cent) will go as far as actually getting up and leaving meetings to answer calls.
But interestingly, the survey found that many of us have double standards when it comes to etiquette. Of the 41 per cent who admit to regularly answering calls and emails during meetings, over two-thirds (70 per cent) actually consider it rude when others do the same. Battle of the sexes When it comes to the battle of the sexes in the workplace, men emerge as the ruder sex. Half of businessmen (49 per cent) consider it acceptable to take calls during a business meeting and almost two-thirds (61 per cent) will often leave their colleagues or clients waiting whilst leaving the room to attend to a call. A third of men (31 per cent) admitted to regularly yawning in meetings and 35 per cent think nothing of arriving late. In contrast, just a third (33 per cent) of women will answer calls and respond to emails during a business meeting and just under a quarter (23 per cent) would consider arriving late.- Forgetting client names or repeatedly being called the wrong name in a business meeting
- Falling off chairs (or accidentally breaking them)
- Spilling drinks. Almost half (45 per cent) of those surveyed had spilt drinks over themselves or others in a meeting (exploding Coke cans and coffee spillages topped the list)
- Falling asleep – in fact 28 per cent of those surveyed said they had fallen asleep in a meeting
- Arriving at meetings on the wrong day or even at the wrong venue
- Falling overboard during a sales pitch on a yacht (yet still winning the pitch)
- Walking headfirst into a glass door on leaving a meeting, causing serious concussion
- Allowing an LCD projector to overheat, causing a full scale evacuation of the hotel where the meeting was taking place
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