If you do leave a message please give us a good reason why you

If you do leave a message, please give us a good reason why you think we should call you back.”Many US companies now employ voice mail police, to check up that people are answering all their messsages promptly and changing their greetings regularly. Employees who are caught out have their voice mail taken away and have to – the shame! – answer th e ir calls in person. The Americans , too, have come up with some imaginative uses: Voice-mail boxes, for example, are given to the homeless in Seattle, which lets them beat the unemployment trap of having no phone number or address.As more and more of everyday life – work, love, friendship, community – is conducted over the phone , it is reassuring to see the communications system adapting and regulating its power. But alongside that, the obvious benefits of telephonic living, – savings on taxi fares, hairdos and contraception, for example – is the problem that technology advances so quickly that etiquette cannot catch up. Large parts of our lives are conducted in an area where the rules of good manners are unclear – exactly how rude is it to screen calls, ignore answerphone messages, chuck someone via voice mail?Chris Ellis, marketing manager for GPT Communications Systems, says: “We don’t quite go into that sort of detail, but people need to be trained in more than the simple mechanics. The golden rule is always to give a caller the option to escape the system.If it says dial 0 for an operator, there must be an operator on the end. The telephone is always best answered in the first instance by a person.”Dr Fielding at Edinburgh finds many problems arise simply because systems are devised by engineers, not communications experts.

He advises companies on how much information a caller can digest, how many options are too many and what sort of voice works best. “They have to remember that some clients might be calling the same number 20 times in a week – they don’t want to have to listen to a long, annoying message every time. And always bear in mind that even the most sophisticated computer is thicker than the thickest person.”Rousingly, some companies, such as the bank First Direct, have already rejected voice messaging. I called First Direct for a comment, left a message with a real person and was called back promptly by the chief executive – telephone heaven.”What people tell you they want is often not what they turn out to need,” the chief executive, Kevin Newman, said “A computer can’t work that out. Our business is all about two-way communication, and by definition voice mail is only one-way When custo m ers ring up they want to speak to a person What, after all’s said and done, is the problem with that?”. PAUL O’GRADY, aka Lily Savage, performer: I wouldn’t touch it with a bargepole.

I used to work in the office of an abattoir and now I only eat meat that doesn’t look like the animal. EDWINA CURRIE, MP: I’m not at all sentimental, but I usually eat fish or a steak Veal seems like a particularly insipid meat. I prefer something more red-blooded.
EGON RONAY, food writer: If I suddenly stopped eating it what would happen? Nothing. There is no relation between what consumers eat and what happens to calves, though keeping them in crates is absolutely horrendous.LISA I’ANSON, DJ: I don’t agree with anyone eating veal.IAN McEWEN, writer: Never I find it curiously tasteless It’s a very uninteresting meat. Why eat veal when you can eat chicken? If veal vanished off the face of the Earth I don’t think humankind would suffer.SUSAN SULLEY, Human League singer: I haven’t eaten meat for 10 years The way they kill calves is obscene. Veal should be taken off the market.ADRIEN CLEMMY, butcher: They don’t look after veal calves very kindly, but look at the way fish are trawled and left to die.

We don’t like the thought of that but we still eat fish with our chips.DAVID SHEPHERD, wildlife artist: I won’t eat anything that involves barbarity.JULIE McKINLEY, hairdresser: Yes, because it tastes good The way it’s raised doesn’t even cross my mind I like it well done. An escalope is the best.JASON MASSOT, singer/ songwriter: Veal, pate de foie gras, frog’s legs, oysters, I eat them all.. HERE is another token – number 13 – in case you need it to complete your collection for our Alfa Romeo Spider competition. You will find another entry form in the Independent tomorrow and there are more tokens to come. The Alfa Romeo Spider, worth at least £25,000, is one of the year’s finest sports models. This elegant and powerful car made its first appearance at the Paris Mondial de l’Automobile last October.
The left-hand drive version is due to be launched in the major European markets and in the UK early this year The right-hand drive version will be launched in 1996. Our winner will be able to choose either version and be among the first to own it .Don’t miss The Independent tomorrow for your entry form..