陈豪在北京的ABC美国公司工作。他在走廊上遇到了美国同事Amy。
(Office ambience)
C：Amy, 你有时间吗？
A：Sure. What’s up?
C：我刚才收到部门经理Mae的电话留言，她说我们在留言机上的留话千篇一律，应该考虑如何改变一下。
A：I haven’t checked my voice mail yet. I have been out of the office so I haven’t heard her message.
C：我简单告诉你一下吧？
A：I’m all ears!
C：她建议，我们不用说，“我不在办公室或是正在另外一条线上”，因为你不说，别人也知道。
A：What are we supposed to say?
C：不如改为告诉对方你在哪里，比如说去开会了，三点回来，让别人知道几点钟能找到你，或是能接到你的回电。
A：I always try to let people know when I am away from the office for a few days.
C：对了，Mae还建议，如果好几天不在办公室的话，可以在留言里说明，你什么时候有机会查留言，回电话。
A：Did she say more?
C：Mae还说，如果你不在办公室，可以把临时联络人的电话和姓名留在留言机里。
A：I’ve had people do that and when I called the other person, she wasn’t in so I found myself in another voice mail. That’s annoying.
C：没错，所以要事先弄清楚临时联络人是否会在办公室里。Mae还有不少建议，我一时记不起来了，你还是自己去听听吧。
******
当天晚些时候。陈豪和Amy又见面了。
A：Wow, Mae made some other good points about our greetings. I get tired of hearing “Your call is very important to me.” I agree that we should drop that phrase, especially when it often lacks sincerity.
C：对啊，“你的电话对我很重要”根本就是废话。还有就是“我很遗憾没有接到你的电话 — “I am sorry I missed your call.” 有那个时间，还不如说点有用的。
A：I usually tell people that I will call them back as soon as possible. Mae says to avoid saying, “I’ll call you back as soon as possible.” A simple “I’ll call you back” is all that is needed.
C：你觉得Mae说的有道理吗？
A：It’s clear to me that we all have fallen into a rut, by leaving a greeting that sounds as if we are reading from a script.
C：确实是有些千篇一律。那我们应该怎么做呢？
A：What we need to do is update our greeting on a regular basis so callers know that we are attentive to our message system.
C：我们还应该保证尽快回电。
A：But we don’t need to take up more time than necessary.
C：好，我这就去改我的电话留言，就说 “Hello, this is Chen Hao. I will be in the office today. Please leave a message and I will call you back.”
A：Sounds good to me.