Perhaps in some impossible corporate utopia (more like a dystopia, I think) all employees would comfortably sit at their desks for 10 hours a day, completely deaf to any outside influence, and rattle out evermore brilliant productivity numbers.

In reality, we’re all at the mercy of life: up-and-down health; unforeseeable family emergencies; the comings and goings of colleagues and bosses we love and loathe; periods of uncertainty, anxiety or depression; new information and ways of thinking; the list could go on forever. The idea that it’s simple to completely separate any of that from our work lives is absurd.

Not only is confrontation unlikely to change their perspective or approach to future decisions; it may even be just the kind of attention they’re craving.

If I was trying to find an excuse for this pathetic tattling, I might say your colleagues are astonishingly naive to these facts of adulthood. Much more likely, I think, they’re just petty and vexatious busybodies, so obsessed with the trivial and inconsequential they can’t fathom that someone might be taking calls at work for a good reason.

And this brings me to whether you should confront them. I’m going to be annoying and respond to a question with a question: would it change anything?

If this was a bad error of judgement by people without all the facts, I think it absolutely could. By frankly explaining how important these calls are to you, and how much time and attention you dedicate to your work (despite these unavoidable interruptions), you might help them understand just how unnecessary and insulting their actions were.

Based on everything you’ve told me, I just can’t see that working. Not only is confrontation unlikely to change their perspective or approach to future decisions; it may even be just the kind of attention they’re (childishly) craving.

I would certainly consider asking your boss why they felt it necessary to pass on such an obviously flimsy “concern”. But giving your colleagues a blast? Only if it helps you let go of some understandable fury. Just don’t expect it to make a difference in the future.

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