Interesting thoughts. I myself have operated on both sides of this line. I used to allow myself to be held hostage by telemarketers because I was brought up to be “nice”. The end result was nearly always that I’d patiently listen to their nonsense, then politely decline, only to have THEM hang up on ME before I even finished my sentence. When I finally woke up to the fact that being nice made no sense at all, I used to have a little fun with them. For a while my standard answer was an earnest “Oh, I’m sorry … we don’t take calls from telemarketers!” Often their response was a startled, “Oh, oh! I’m sorry … um.. ” as they stammered confusedly. But now I just politely get to the point … “Not interested, but thanks for calling.” Click. Occasionally I remember to ask them to remove me from their list, but I honestly haven’t had any luck with that .. they almost always call back anyway.

Anyway, while I agree with the premise of not allowing others to dominate your time without your permission, I do find the notion of saying something like “You have 30 seconds to get to the point” to be a blustery, unnecessarily rude method of handling the matter, and typical of many self-important men I know. After all, is the point be to get off the phone quickly or just to be offensive? The point made here seems more to be “I’m far too important for the likes of you, prove to me why I should listen to you.”

One last thing … you never know who might be calling. For a while, I was in a rude phase with unknown callers. During that time, I managed to be quite rude to people who didn’t deserve it … a headhunter calling for my husband, a client, etc. No, not everyone practices good phone manners (identifying themselves immediately, saying why they are calling), but it doesn’t mean that I need to practice poor phone manners as well. It is possible to take charge of your time without being a complete jerk.