Listen and Learn

It happened again last night; rude business etiquette at a dinner/speaker event. I attended an event at a lovely beach and tennis club in Spring Lake, NJ. A fun night with interesting people. I had heard the speaker before. His name is Fr. Joseph McShane, President of Fordham University. Just a fabulous natural speaker. He offers great inspirational stories and always captures his audience's attention. But there are always one, two or maybe even more who, regardless of the speaker or topic, will be drawn into a conversation of their own. It is one of the most common business etiquette faux pas; talking when someone else has the floor. It is disrespectful and rude. It distracts the speaker and is intrusive to others in the audience. We in the audience are either forced to tolerate it or try to get the offender's attention and stare him down with the hairy eyeball and raised brow. Adults can sit still without being disrespectful to an individual who is giving us his time to share information and expertise. Don't you think? We're bound to learn something.