Reply #47

When he diverted the conversation away from a business issue he was likely trying to bait you.

I would suggest you should have kept bringing the conversation back to the business matter. You should be polite and business like but give him two or three nudges to bring it back to business. If that fails I would have said, I'm sorry Mr.(whatever his name is) this is a business telephone line and I am currently at work. If you have no further business matters to discuss with me I will end the call. Then I would have simply politely said, Goodbye and hung up.

Don't let them bait you. It isn't worth getting into trouble or losing your job. Had you been polite and kept trying to bring him back to the reason he called and when it was clear he was taking your time to discuss non-business matters, it would have been reasonable to terminate the conversation. Your boss(es) could still have been angry but I think you would have stood on much more solid ground.

Yes, they are going off the deep end. People in the GOP demographic are seeing the country change underneath them. I think many of them know, deep down inside, that their policies and beliefs are not going to survive in a democracy where the composition of the population is rapidly changing.

I just remain calm and extricate myself from situations where someone is trying to goad me. I purposefully purchased magnetic bumper stickers so that I could place them on my vehicle when I got into the car to drive somewhere and remove it when I arrived at my destination. I would risk road rage if some nutcase didn't like my bumper sticker while driving but at least my vehicle would be less likely to be damaged by one of them in a parking lot or parking deck.