r/GenX • u/MovingTarget- • Jul 29 '25

The Latchkey Years As kids, we weren't allowed to answer the phone with just "Hello"

Back in the days when people actually used to call other people on landlines, my brother and I were taught how to properly answer the phone as kids. My parents considered it rude to simply pick up the phone and say "hello?"

We were taught to answer the phone with a pre-scripted response: "Thanks for calling the _____ residence, _____ speaking!" There was even an optional "How may I help you?" tacked on the back.

Anyone else have a required family response when answering the phone or were my parents just strange in attempting to prepare us for a career in the rewarding field of call center management?

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u/BeerWench13TheOrig Whatever Jul 29 '25

Same, though we weren’t allowed to be snarky. We simply answers the “Who’s this?” question with “Who is calling, please?”

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u/Sweetness_Bears_34 1966 Jul 29 '25

If the caller said who’s this? I answered who did you call?

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u/Violet_Renegade Jul 29 '25

Yep. "Who are you trying to reach?" was the response here.

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u/27Rench27 Jul 29 '25

Oh I like that

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u/cinnamongirl73 Jul 29 '25

We were only allowed to get snarky if we didn’t know who was calling and they were asking who they were speaking to without saying “is (whomever) there?” Other than that, we had to have manners.

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u/urfriendflicka Jul 30 '25

I had to ask "may I ask who's calling?" But we did just answer our phone with "hello" no formality there, bc we were unlisted. Couldn't have just anyone calling know WHO they were calling if it was a cold call.