Far Out Friday: Conference call craziness

Brokers are no strangers to conference calls, often having to contact clients in multiple locations. But have you ever wondered what they’re doing while you’re chatting away? Now, one new survey has revealed the strangest places workers say they’ve ever answered a conference call from. 

Employees admitted to answering calls from:

• A truck stop restroom
• A McDonalds play area
• The beach
• Disney World
• Behind a church during a wedding rehearsal
• The racetrack
• The closet of a friend’s house during a party
• On the street, while chasing a dog

The survey, commissioned by conference solutions provider InterCall, surveyed 500 professionals to not only find out the most peculiar places they’ve ever picked up but to find out what else they’re dong while they’re supposed to be listening.

Here are the top ten things employees do while listening (or pretending to at least):

• Doing other work – 65%
• Sending emails – 63%
• Eating or making food – 55%
• Going to the restroom – 47%
• Texting – 44%
• Checking social media – 43%
• Playing video games – 25%
• Shopping online – 21%
• Exercising – 9%
• Taking another phone call – 6%

We’re not quite sure whether we’d be annoyed or oddly impressed to discover clients were multitasking to this extent. Taking a conference call and exercising seems like a near impossible feat to us…

Somewhat more alarmingly was the following:

• 39% of respondents said they dropped out of a call without announcing it
• 27% admitted to falling asleep during a call
• 5% said they’d had a friend take the call in their place

While your clients may have engaged in some odd conference call behavior, they may not be alone. Have you ever taken a conference call from a weird location?