There is nothing more irritating that sitting in a meeting planned a long time ago with someone who spends at least half of the allotted time talking on his/her mobile phone to someone else.

Such is the power of the mobile phone these days that, if it rings, you have to answer it – no matter what. Mobile phones are placed prominently on the table in meeting rooms, in cafés and in restaurants.
They are in full view and full hearing distance. And they are always answered.
There you are sitting in the office, deep in conversation about moving product x into China when off goes that mobile.
It’s usually young Henk who cannot find his hockey socks. You nod apologetically, raise your eyebrows and move away, so that your colleague can only half-hear you lambasting Henk for bothering you with such a trivial domestic crisis while you are at work.
Or you finally have the ear of the big boss, only to have him disappear when his mobile rings after two minutes into your carefully rehearsed pitch. ‘I must take this call’, he says, never to return.
Worst of all perhaps is the repair man who charges you an hour for his services – even though he spent almost half of it on his mobile sorting out some problem with an invoice last week. Sidelines would like to start a campaign for mobile phone manners.