Pretty much. We only go to the drive-in, where it's a free for all outdoors or people are locked up in their cars.

Either that, or when the local cinema does the dollar movies over the summer, then I don't mind. The movies are crap this summer though, which is a bit meh.

Definitely a pet peeve! Before phones, people talked to each other, now with cell phones they talk (and text) to others. F**ing pain. As many others have said, main reason I don't go to the movies any longer.

Mosquitoes. The type that bite. Specifically the ones that bite me.

We also have biters. They bite Mrs P, and she gets peeved about that too.

People who send you a business email but don't include their phone number.

I do this all the time.

I don't want people calling me on the phone. Even the ones that do just get voice mail, and that gets shunted to email anyhow.

I have a voice mail greeting on my desk phone that gives people my cell phone number, and a warning that it might take "several days" to respond if they leave a message, which is a thinly veiled threat I will ignore any messages. My phone has had a red light on it for the past three weeks, to tell me there is a VM waiting for me.

Another thing we have in common.

Yeah, I appreciate that often you may not want people calling you. I'm referring -- in the most recent instance -- of the MD of a supplier who came and saw us to help sort out a joint problem with supplies that he's been making for the last year or so and will continue to make (and continue to make profit on), assuring me that his people in charge on site would resolve problems as they arose, which they're not doing and now I need to get him to sort things out... The resolution of the problem is more a concern for him coz we're not paying at the moment because he hasn't devoted the resources to agreeing prices for variations.

I just consider it unprofessional in the particular environment where I'm working now, and in which he himself has emphasised the importance of personal connections. Unfortunately we can't go elsewhere...

i have my business address and phone number on the bottom of all my emails. That's not to say I will answer the phone, but they can leave a message. I work from home a lot so don't always log in or go in to check my emails.

All of my voice mail goes directly to email and then gets deleted from the voicemail system.

So send an email asking for a time for a phone conversation, and mark it urgent.


This is my biggest "professional" pet peeve of all time; people who think they can just pick up the phone and call me when it suits them, without regard to MY availability. If this guy is an MD of a firm, I doubt he's just sitting at his desk twiddling his thumbs waiting for calls such as yours; if you did ring, it would likely be answered by VM or an assistant, and then you are faced with leaving a message, which is the least efficient form of communication (unless you have voice-to-text translation).


I have one colleague who only ever calls me - never texts or emails first - and he thinks he's being 'efficient' by 'just picking up the phone'. He is clueless that I may be on another call, in a meeting, in the shitter, taking a nap, or whatever. Because he is a crucial contributor to my work, I always take his damn calls and - while some are worthwhile ("I found the answer! "), half the time he says "just thought I'd call to see how things are going". I just stepped out of a f**ing meeting to take that call!

I'm too OCD to let a little red light be on like that.

Not in this situation. We're his biggest customer at the moment, he was on site 2 days ago promising to have his staff resolve things. We're on first name terms, he asks me to get involved when he has difficulties. (Don't know why we don't have each other's numbers -- but at least mine's on all my emails to him.) He'd speak to me if I got through to his assistant. He's not in the position to play power politicis. Just sloppy.

That just conjours up an image of someone who's thirsty and just takes a swig of the nearest thing to hand, which happens to be a flower vase with water that's 3 weeks old.