Fun With Conference Calls

My company uses a conference call system for our meetings. Everyone dials in from their desks to an 800 number. Then they enter a "conference code" for the meeting, usually the telephone # of the meeting organizer. The robot voice then asks you for your name and to press the # sign. The robot dosen't care who you are, and it does not announce you to the group. As soon as everyone is in the meeting, we all have to identify ourselves again. In one of my "rage against technology" moments, I started making up names to identify myself with. It is extra fun because two of my staff share my office and there is an unending stream of people who drop by to talk to me each day, usually during meetings. If I can be a small source of amusement in an otherwise dreary and mundane work existence, then I have fulfilled a small part of my purpose here on the planet.

Here are some of the names I have used:

President George W. Bush (in Bush accent)
President William Jefferson (Bubba) Clinton (in Clinton Accent)
Zaphod Beeblebrox
Gandalf the Grey
Zippy the Pinhead
Arrr, Blackbeard the Pirate (in Pirate accent)
Bond, James Bond
My boss
My boss's boss

It is my unending hope, that someday there will be a reason and a way to go back and review the tapes of everyone logging into the call. I just wonder how long it will take for them to realize it was me.

So this week when you are back to the daily grind, impersonate someone famous in you conference calls and smile to your self in satisfaction that you can have some fun (albeit, very little) at work.