Aspies For Freedom

Siiting at desk. Phone rings.

[me]: Hello?

[caller, a WOMAN's voice]: Yes, hello. "John Smith" calling for Sean Weintz

[me thinks to self WTF?!?! Womans voice - john smith... someone is pranking me here]

[Me to caller:] I can tell this a woman. stop playing around.
[hangs up phone]

[phone rings again]

[me]: Hello?
[Caller, this time Man's voice] This is John Smith. Did you just hang up on my assistant?

lol, could still be a prank. I can't really blame you for hanging up.

In academia, the convention is to say that one is calling "on behalf of" a person or use similar terminology.

I would hav ethought so to - in fact even manners for the person calling to say hello i'm such and such a person calling on behalf of...

It was presumptuous and rude of the assistant to behave that way. She was assuming you'd know she was John Smith's assistant- as if everyone has an assistant that makes phone calls for them like that!  It was rude of her to be so imprecise about who she was; when you call someone, you tell them who you are.

This reminds me of those phone calls one occasionally gets from call centers... you know, the ones where you pick up the phone and a recorded voice says, "please hold for an important message from..." When I get those calls, no matter who they're from, I swear at my phone and hang up. If they have an important message for me, they can call me and tell me. They have no right to ask me to hold like that, as if their time is much more valuable than mine. I feel the same way about people who have assistants make their phone calls for them.

I think hanging up was not the wrong thing to do, even if you did it because of a misunderstanding.

It was a silly, pretentious way for the assistant to announce the call.

She should have said it in a way that made sense -- maybe "This is John Smith's assistant; can you accept a call from Mr. Smith?"

HAHAHA!!!  OMG, this is GOLD!  Sorry, but this is hilarious.  Not on anyone in particular, just the misunderstanding.

First, she announced it correctly.  It's how it's done.  Now, if you don't know the convention, that's perfectly fine.  It's the assistant's job to make you understand or clear anything up.  That's why they're an assistant after all.  They cut through all the details for their boss.  But if you hang up, then she can't explain herself.  So that was extremely funny.  I still can't stop laughing at how good this story is.  I hope I don't offend.  It's just a misunderstanding, but it's still funny.  I usually ask how a John Smith can be a woman and they explain they're calling on behalf of John Smith.  Then I go OOOOHHHH DUH!!!  By you hanging up, she thought you knew exactly what she meant and just didn't want to speak to John Smith and were pulling some kind of joke.  That's why it's so funny.  You thought she was pulling a joke and vice versa.  The hanging up part though, that's the best.

GOLD!!!  Keep these coming.  I do stuff like this ALL THE TIME!!!  You just gotta laugh it off afterwards.  They're no big deal anyways.

"First, she announced it correctly.  It's how it's done."

Oh, to be a slave to "how it's done."

Certainly not.  Were someone to try that in my line of work, she'd not be understood.  "This is John Smith's office" would be acceptable, but not what the assistant did.

I agree with DogBrain here. There are lots of things that are just "done that way" by some people, but that doesn't mean it's not rude, presumptuous and pretentious.

LOL, almost did that once but then realised it was the voice of our receptionist

I have never in 30 years had anyone call me and speak to me like that. It is courtesy to say who is speaking, who you are/job title and where you are calling from.

That is how "it is done"