I was doing my usual gym thing this morning, but with one essential difference. I had forgotten to charge my wireless headphones, so I didn’t have headphones in my ears. About two-thirds of the way through my workout, I noticed something. I was surrounded by guys talking on the phone on the weight floor – three of them, to be exact.
I understand that sometimes important calls come in, and you have to take them. But do us all a favor – get off the weight floor. I don’t need to hear, simultaneously, about the shipment that didn’t come in, your baseball team’s stats, or that you’re going to be late to your child’s birthday party. All it makes me want to do is grunt loudly so you can’t hear. (By the way, I just dare you to ask me to keep it down because you can’t hear your phone call.)
The worst part of this is that it’s become even more frequent with the advent of one of my favorite pieces of technology – wireless headphones. Almost all of them, whether designed for listening to music or placing calls, have a microphone and can be used to answer calls – some of them even hands-free. Then you get the dude in the middle of a set answering phone calls, because he doesn’t even have to drop the weights.
I understand that your call may be important – to you. To me, it’s an unwanted distraction from meeting my fitness goals, as well as rude.
You’re not that important.
Take it off the weight floor. In fact, be kind to the cardio folks, the folks who prefer machines to free weights, the racquetball players, the class participants, and your locker room users – take it outside the gym. If the weather sucks, take the call in your car. This isn’t your home, your office, or your home office, and the rest of us have work to do.