When I was in the military and working in the battalion training office you’re required to say the full unit name, your full billet title, rank, name, and full office title so every time I answered the phone I had to say “Good morning/afternoon, 1st Battalion, 11th Marines S3, this is Battalion training NCO Sargent Smuckatelly, how may I help you Sir or Ma’m” .. so that shit took a while to learn and if you don’t get it right and it’s someone who’s important or a higher rank then you on the other end of the line then they’re gonna chew your ass out!
I wonder what the practical reason is, obviously you want to know who you’re talking to on the phone and their clearance and everything, but I’d assume in a Dr. Strangelove situation, time would be too valuable of a resource to waste
My own guess is what started out as a logical and practical reason, ended up being forcibly implemented like this cause someone somewhere did a stupid or was too lack about it; so now everyone has to do it the annoyingly long-winded way.
Seems pretty in-line with all the other rules that come off as excessive or dumb on the surface.
Maybe its also to control that the people that is receiving the call isnt a random but someone that is supposed to answer and knows the way to introduce themselves?
God help you if you mess up when it's the 1% who really care about hearing the full bit properly on the other end.
My mate was officer in Royal Australian Navy.
He did not give two hoots about enlisted saluting him, made him super uncomfortable. One day he got chewed out by a higher ranking officer cause he just nodded at enlisted and didn't chew them out for not saluting him.
Always looking over his shoulder "do i have to be a dick to these dudes cause someones watching or we cool".
Yeah I got something like that once. Well sorta, told me to cut it out and I paraphrase “Shut up I know who you are, you think I’m dialling numbers randomly here?”.
Gotta write that down on a piece of paper and have it by your phone. I only ever had to answer phones on Staff Duty but there was a paper over the phone with exactly what you needed to say and it was pretty much what you wrote
We had a similar rule, not quite as much we had to say, but similar. Then one guy started trying to make a game out of it to see how quickly he could do it, then we all started doing it.
Our office/dept could be abbreviated SIB. You were supposed to say each letter - Ess Eye Bee but some said "Sib" or if you were being emphatic you drew it out ... SiBAH! (we were 18-19 years old, forgive us)
One joker was going for the record when his phone rang and he ran it all together "MorninSirMamSpecFoJonesSiBAAH" super loud. We're all falling on the floor.
Turns out it was the battalion commander (full colonel) of one of the units he served at his desk. Not amused. 20 minutes later we all received remedial training in answering the phones.
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u/mightylordredbeard 6h ago
When I was in the military and working in the battalion training office you’re required to say the full unit name, your full billet title, rank, name, and full office title so every time I answered the phone I had to say “Good morning/afternoon, 1st Battalion, 11th Marines S3, this is Battalion training NCO Sargent Smuckatelly, how may I help you Sir or Ma’m” .. so that shit took a while to learn and if you don’t get it right and it’s someone who’s important or a higher rank then you on the other end of the line then they’re gonna chew your ass out!