Why can't the receptionist ever learn to hang up with her fingers and not slam the receiver down when making an overhead announcement?

Answer 1

... or why can't the employees at Home Depot learn to page an employee without screaming into the handset so loud that your ears bleed, or why do used car dealerships insist on yelling into your radio in hopes that their messages of deceit will convince you to rush right out to their used car lot to buy the lemon that's on the front line?

All these things can be easily explained when you just consider the fact that people are, by nature, inconsiderate. People tend to be focused so much on their own needs that they ignore the fact that they may be affecting others negatively.

Should the employee's handbook instruct everyone on how to hang up the phone after making an announcement? Seriously? Is that the kind of thing that should be consuming our time at work? Or should people learn (somewhere, who knows where that bit of education might come from) that banging down the receiver makes an unpleasant noise across the Public Address system?

Should companies install a volume limiting device on all public address systems? Well, yes, that would be a good idea.

Should we all avoid those automobile retailers who insist on yelling into the radio, well, sure, but there are enough vacuous drivers out there who don't pay attention to the fact that the dealers who yell are the same ones who rob you blind.

Somehow we have, as a society, forgotten how to be courteous. Even if we can't hold doors for ladies any more, and a gentleman no longer tips his hat to a lady, at least we should try to be a little less annoying in our daily behavior.