Add your 'Grrr's here - Inconsiderate colleagues / public - 2 Minute Silence

My whiney female colleague who said "But I did it on Sundaaaay". FFS

When they announced earlier this morning that there would be a 2 minute silence at 11 one of the girls that sits near me said, "Och, that means we canny go for a fag at 11!" I mean, WTF?!!!

Our daft receptionist who also claimed to have "done the silence on Sunday" and so tried (in vain) to put a call through to me at just before 11.01....unsurprisingly I did not answer as I was busy paying my respects to my great grandfather and all those who fell in wars throughout the world

Didn't happen this time...but when we worked on support up til last year we would always get calls during that time.

Last years was a stroppy European that said they had already done their 2 min silence and we should have picked up the phone and answered his call because his expenses were crucial and he needed to go to lunch ?

2 years ago when we just looked after UK people someone kept ringing and ringing as their problem was very important. Also had someone walk through the office shouting loudly "Wow it is quiet in here who died"

My boss, who as an ex RFA Captain who served in the Falklands should know better, who has just sat and continued the meeting he was having.

Having said that, we did receive an email to say that the alrm would be sounded to mark the beginning and end of the silence but I certainly didn't hear it, so I'm a bit concerned about the effectiveness of our emergency alrm system ?

We had no notice go around about it, we did last year, no one took any notice anyway. I had to find a quiet corner to get away from the chatter of people on phones and discussing X Factor ?

My post came crashing through the letter box halfway through and my cat wouldnt stop miaowing!

We had a tanoy annoucement 10 mins before to warn people but someone still rang me right in the middle of it. I didn't answer my phone, my colleaugue did. Its only 2 mins why can't people just stop and think. Grr

My work didn't do a 2 minute silence at 11.

In the past they have, with the fire alarm going off to mark the beginning and end, although a lot of people didn't observe it. One year I was sat quietly at my desk with my head down, during the silence, when a colleague came up to me and started talking to me, and had a bit of a shouty strop at me 'ignoring' him. ?

When I used to be the sunday manager at one store where I worked I used to do the 2 minute silence on the Sunday, all the team would gather on the ground floor together to observe it. One year a customer started banging to the shutter to get in at 11 but obviously we ignored her until the 2 minutes finished. She decided to shout at me as to why I hadn't openned at 11 even after I explained to her the reason she still complained to head office who of course backed me up ?

Another time I had a customer asking for shoes during the silence we had after the twin towers attack in 2001 even after we made an announcement a couple of minutes before that we would be doing it, the look another shopper gave her shut her up!

Neither did mine and i'm a civil servant. Not impressed.

I did observe it myself, well as much as a could with all the phone conversations going on around me.

Gah - you'd think people could just grin and bear it for a minute or two, even if they can't respect it properly.

I observed it, despite the only phone in the office, which never normally rings, ringing at 11.01. Annoying.

We had a tanoy annoucement 10 min before as well and they marked the start and end with the tannoy noise, but some people still proceeded to talk through it.

Can I just grrr about the printer. Although I'd thought about it, and thought I'd planned it OK, as I had some largish documents to print, some technicalness which I don't understand delayed my printing, which meant that the printer was going at 11. I tried to "pause printing" but it didn't work.

I observed the silence personally, although the other person on my floor was stomping about muttering loudly.

A couple of years ago i had a colleague who typed away whilst the rest of us were silent and had stopped working - we thought that was pretty disrespectful.

I don't think we had a silence here although our office was quite anyway - apart from me having a massive coughing fit ?

I'm off work still so I watched the coverage on TV at home. When at work it's always hard with our children (children with profound learning difficulties) to do a silence but we usually try and do a minute.

I'm always stunned by people who carry on talking when everyone around them is observing.

I was in Tescos a couple of years ago during the two minute silence. You could hear a pin drop until the sodding passport photo booth boomed that someone's pictures were ready and didn't shut up until the end of the silence. Such a shame as it was such a poignant moment up until then.

Our Assistant CEO came round the whole building and we all went to a public area and had prayers and a bugle playing, it was really really nice. They also set off a canon in the grounds for the start and finish. OH's place, they weren't even allowed to put callers on hold or whatever and had to keep working. I really feel like doing a N&S on them! He's already complained to HR....

My phone rang and i ignored it but it rang all the way through.

We had a weekly team meeting yesterday and one woman asked what we were doing. Boss asked her to do an email to remind people before 11. She said ok. I realised at 20 past 11 that we'd missed it and she'd not sent the mail. She was out having a fag. I told my boss that maybe she had observed it whilst on her smoking break. Grr. Most upset to have missed it, as were my colleagues. I did go to our village ceremony on Sunday but this is the first year I've totally missed the 2 minutes.

I got a sarcastic comment aimed at me but not directly which is really rude, this morning when i spoke to a colleague when the silence had started.

I did not speak intentionally but

a) It was an emergency

b) I had not noticed the time or realised the date

c) i would of course observed it had i remembered.

d) the sarcastic comment maker could have organised an official silence which would have prevented my mistake instead of then also talking through it to have a dig at me.

So, i just wanted to say that not all talking is done intentionally, people make mistakes as i did this morning.

Somebody phoned just as the Westminster chimes were going. (They rang back, and I was tempted to make a comment). Line manager (ex Army, dad was in the Army) then disappeared to the gents before the two minutes was up.

I was going to say the same - I've not realised before and felt a complete idiot when it's dawned on me. Of course, that's no excuse when there's actually an announcement.

I didn't observe it at 11 as I was in a baby and toddler music class and it would have been impossible but I will take a quiet moment later to pay my respects.

I watched it on TV whilst feeding my daughter and cried during the whole thing ? Wasn't possible to keep my todder son quiet so I just paid my respects the best I could.

Feckin' postman didn't stop though. Bang on 11 he dropped my post off and carried on his way. OK I appreciate he might not have realised the time but when it's the 11th I do make a mental note to keep checking my watch if I wasn't in work etc.

I'll add a Grrrrr too......3 of our managers talked through the whole of the 2 minutes, mucy to everyone else's disbelief, which resulted in a colleague ranting about their lack of respect after the period of silence was over.

I spent it remembering lost friends.

We had an e-mail to say if we wanted to observe it we could and managers weren't to stop us (which made me wonder who tried). My colleague then said but I thought that was Sunday. I think she realised the time halfway through my time as her stopped typing was different to mine but my other office colleague had been typing as I started and went onto make a phone call as my 2 mins finished (thankfully she didn't get through until after else I might have made a comment).

I was one of only a handful wearing a poppy today as well which surprised me especially the colleague who lost a relative two years ago.

I observed it twice!

The silence was 5 minutes into our third lesson of the day, with a bell at the start and the end, and my year 9 class were fantastic. When my year 8 class arrived 40 minutes later their teaching assistant told me half of them had talked through the official silence. So I gave them a stern lecture and made them do it again. They didn't speak for about 10 minutes afterwards. I think they realised just how disappointed and upset I was with them, and just how foolish they'd been for not observing it properly the first time.

I was pleasantly surprised that my work, customer service call centre, closed the phone lines from 10.55 - 11.05am so we had time to finish calls and be ready to observe the silence on time. I was less pleasantly surprised by one team leader carry on doing on whatever she was doing on her computer through the whole 2 minutes so you could just hear typing and mouse clicking. Also not impressed with the people in H's meeting who apparently ignored it completely, despite the tanoy plinky noise thing to mark the beginning and end.

We got an e-mail confirming the process. The fire bell went off to signal the start and everyone observed it, no phones rang etc but the fire bell to signal the end kept going off for about a minute until we almost evacuated the building!

I observed it because I'd set my diary to remind me, but not every team in my office had a reminder - some of them had a huge fright when the fire alarm went off.