陳豪在北京的ABC美國公司工作。他在走廊里遇到了美國同事Amy。

C：Amy，你有時間嗎?

A：Sure，什么事？

C：Todd這個人真是很奇怪。有時候，我打電話給他，他明明在辦公室里，而且也不忙，可他就是不接電話。我只好在電話里給他留言，可他好幾個小時才回電話，有時根本就不回。

A：How does that make you feel?

C：讓我覺得自己無足輕重。我不愿意跟他共事。

A：That happens when we use voice mail to hide from other people. Voice mail makes it easy to ignore callers.

C：我有的時候也不接電話，讓打電話的人留言，比如手頭工作急著要完成的時候。Is that wrong?

A：No. That's a perfect reason to use voice mail. All of us have times when we need to work without interruption.

C：可是有些人從來不接電話，電話打過去，一定是留言。這樣下次誰還會找你呢？

A：沒錯。It doesn't take long for people to determine who is responsive and values their callers, and they call those people instead.

C：他們這樣做不僅會得罪人，還會失去很多機會。我倒要看看，這個Todd什么時候才會回我的電話。

Amy第二天午飯時間又遇到了陳豪。

A：CH, I am curious. Did Todd ever call you back yesterday?

C：NO. 他一直沒給我回電話。我覺得他這樣做非常不禮貌。

A：Totally rude. It is quite one thing to use your voice mail when you can't be interrupted, but to use it all day for your own convenience is disrespectful of other people and their time.

C：這確實是對我的一種不尊重。說實話，如果能從別人那里得到我需要的信息，我以后是不會再去找他的。我覺得Todd不是那種能愉快共事的人。

A：There are people who think that they are too important to answer their own phone and always use voice mail or someone else to answer for them.

C：不過，據我所知，一些非常成功的人士反倒有時間親自接電話。Amy, 一般情況下，我們什么時候可以讓別人留言而不失禮呢？

A：Send your calls to voice mail when you have someone in your office, when you need to concentrate on a project or when you are away from your desk.

C：噢，辦公室里正好有人在談事兒的時候，手頭有工作趕著要完成的時候，或是不在辦公室的時候，這些時候都可以讓別人在電話上留言。

A：Otherwise, if your job or your business depends on relationships with other people, make yourself available.

C：對呀，不管是誰，打電話都希望能找到自己要找的人。