During my recent visit to the Air Canada Lounge in Los Angeles (LAX), a self-important doctor decided to pace the lounge while on a loud phone call. Are these people really that clueless?
Doctor Thinks We All Want To Hear About His Business Dealings In Air Canada Lounge
I had just sat down and was trying to get some work done before my flight, when I heard a loud voice. It was a doctor talking on his mobile phone. He went on to talk about his surgeries coming up, a new machine he bought for his office, the stock he was investing in (some sort of weed company), how hard it was to find good help, and his vacation plans for the summer.
He was not using an “inside voice” and his language was also vulgar, filled with an alphabet soup of crude and profane words.
Give the man some credit…at least he did not have the speakerphone on.
My wife works with doctors all day long and I had to chuckle about this. So many of them (but not all, of course) think the world revolves around them and that they are God’s gift to mankind. In that sense, I am hardly surprised that the culprit here was a doctor. I’m also not surprised about his vulgar language, though you would think that any adult over 50 would at least have some decorum.
Thank you to the employee who finally told him to keep his voice down and stop wandering around. All of us were very grateful. He should have been kicked out of the lounge.
Folks, it is never appropriate to conduct a loud telephone conversation in a shared space like an airport lounge. If you must get on the phone, kindly step out of the lounge or keep your voice down to a whisper (or heck, just don’t yell). And for goodness’ sake, don’t wander around so that everyone in the lounge is equally annoyed…
At 0730 I heard an announcement: “This lounge will be closed in 5 minutes for Montreal* passengers.”
* 0830 LAX-YUL on A333
Nice inflammatory doctor line, generalizing because of this fellow. Next time you’re actually REALLY sick, you will feel like the doctor is god’s gift not that he/she has a “god complex”…
So I ask you, when someone goes into that chapel and they fall on their knees and they pray to God that their wife doesn’t miscarry, or that their daughter doesn’t bleed to death, or that their mother doesn’t suffer acute neural trauma from postoperative shock, who do you think they’re praying to? Now, you go ahead and read your Bible, Dennis, and you go to your church and with any luck you might win the annual raffle. But if you’re looking for God, he was in operating room number two on November 17th, and he doesn’t like to be second guessed.
Spoken like a true doctor (or pilot)… 😉
Oh Matthew- please tell me you don’t know this speech from the classic Alec Baldwin movie…..
The wink emoticon did not show up. Yeah, I got it! 😉
The “doctor” could have been a fake doctor trying to pretend to be on the phone.
Some people complain that nurses are not caring in reality but keep their eyes on the clock. The moment their shift ends, they drop their work even if in the middle of a patient’s surgery. Or even if the surgery is 3 minutes from completion.
Some people complain that nurses are sloppy and don’t give a rats a## if there’s a medication error unless they are caught.
So slamming doctors and pilots is not so good unless you can take it if a nurse is slammed as a profession. (Matthew is a nurse’s husband)
Because someone makes a generalized opinion does not imply all Drs are arrogant, self entitled, because they are for the most part educated and skilled. It means some are and it sheds a bad light on the many. As for people calling on God at Church? That is true and God can also be spoken to in the OR Room on November 17.. as to imply an important date in someones life. True character never speaks loudly and with vulgar language in an airport lounge. I’m surprised you defend this behaviour in your occupation.
DC is quoting lines from the movie Malice, you can see the scene in the link below.
The character in the movie, Dr. Jed Hill, played by Alec Baldwin, is actually putting on a show in order to commit insurance fraud. So the lines come from a fictional movie in which an actor pretends to be a doctor who is pretending to be a delusional doctor, with a god complex.
I’ve never done it (yet) but I’ve been sorely tempted to show up the jerks who do this by pretending to be on a call myself near the jerk and loudly proclaim how crass and tasteless it is to scream into your phone while there’s other people around, and how you’d have to be an oblivious idiot with no class to do such a thing. It would be really interesting to see if the jerk would self-own.
Larry David does this on an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm sitting by himself in a restaurant next to someone who is on a loud phone call.
Never seen it but now I’m tempted.
Respect. That word had been banned from dictionaries for a while now. People lost respect for others and they don’t really care. I am telling you, things will get ugly when people try to get back the respect they deserve.
Shocked the conversation lasted that long get all those details without you or someone telling him to shut the hell up. While the guy was certainly an ahole, the problem is good people are afraid to step up and confront others who are clearly in the wrong.
Maybe this is why a statue of George Washington is wearing a terrorist scarf and covered with stickers for over a week now. And towel head flags are flying at our universities instead of the American flag. And we all have just accepted it.
You bring a great point that is way broader than this. Just this weekend my son was talking about that guy in NC from a fraternity that defended the American flag when protesters wanted to replace with one from Palestine. My son said while that was amazing, he would probably be afraid to do that and potentially be beaten to death. Same goes to this moron talking loud on his phone. So many times I wanted to go and tell people to lower their voices or stop being morons for other reasons, I stop before doing so to avoid confrontation. You never know how an idiot like this could react and thus I avoid it. Very difficult times we are living right now. You want to do the right thing but might be better off staying quiet.
@Santastico … you can do it without speaking … simply get a glass of ice water and hold it under his chin . Guaranteed he will stop talking when he becomes aware of it .
FWIW, you can’t really be a doctor (especially any sort of surgeon) without the ego and self confidence to be able to cut someone open, fix or replace whatever is wrong, and sew them up again without killing them or causing permanent harm. Your average person can’t do it.
Yes, narccisism can be advantageous in some ways.
Sometimes one just HAS to make a stand.
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
There are most certainly narcissistic and even psychopathic doctors, but I wouldn’t be so sure that surgeons are the worst of the specialists or even that doctors are any worse than other professions. Perhaps lawyers and financial service professionals are worse than doctors and perhaps only behind ambitious politicians in a proclivity to be bad in this regard.
There are studies on this topic. My conclusion from reading them is that narcissism is likely more common in surgeons than non-surgeons, among doctors, but… there is data indicating that that narcissism among doctors, and even surgeons, is less prevalent than in the general population.
How uncouth.
Typo: “His Business Deadlings”
@Todd … the typo is not uncouth .
It’s called Cell Yell and it’s not limited to doctors.
I’ve always wondered how come when people speak loudly on their phones it’s not to discuss the lab results of an embarrassing infection,sexual aberration or instructing escorts on the current popular techniques to infiltrate elite members of society organizations.
Yell “What do you mean you tested positive for Herpes? Did you get it from those hookers I told you to stay away from?” into your phone and you’ll quickly discover who’s listening and who’s not.
I’ve always thought this was a case of the few bad apples spoiling the bunch… there is probably at least one doctor, if not more, in most airport lounges or gate areas– thankfully mouthy surgeons like this aren’t in every lounge and every gate.
I’ve found it very amusing and effective to take notes and then question, within earshot of those who heard it all, specifics from his call. So what airline are you taking to the Maldives? How long have you been screwing Nurse Susie or is it Nurse Bob?
Back during the GW Bush Admin years when I was flying YYZ-Italy-LCA and LHR-Italy-DEL a lot on Alitalia, I got a lot of stops in at the Alitalia lounges in Milan and Rome. There was so much loud cell phone conversation going on in those lounges that I got inured to it pretty quickly. What I never got used to was all the wild hands gesticulating during some of those cell phone conversations in the Alitalia lounges.
I think lounge chatter problems have gotten worse over the years but I wouldn’t blame just cell phone ubiquity and video calls for that. I would also blame in part the workplace shift away from private offices with closed doors and into “open landscape” floor plans with or without cubicles.
LOL forgot the name of the guy in the Alitalia ticket office in the Empire State Building who was handling those.
Wasn’t that Nicolo Antonio at the NYC office? I can probably still find some of the Fedex shipping labels some tried to use about 17 years ago for too late to refund tickets one of those greatest of all time Alitalia business class fare deals. 😀
The guy was great, and he deserved a prize for handling all of us “deal or no deal” mega-flyers on those mega-deal flights that we even got CNN to cover.
He’s probably hoping to prevent us from getting more such deals, except on Jetblue nowadays where I last heard he was working in a revenue management role. Wishing him more career advancement in the years ahead as he really dealt well with that situation being dumped on him.
at least there are “Section sans cellulaire” signs in the SFO AC lounge
And this is why I dread the day they start permitting phone calls on board airplanes. Five or six hours of this, coast to coast.
For years, I wondered what mysteries lay behind those sleek, glass-paneled airport lounge doors. I imagined a realm of unparalleled sophistication and class, a place where the elite gathered to sip champagne and discuss their latest yacht acquisitions. Would I ever be worthy enough to cross that hallowed threshold and rub shoulders with the crème de la crème of society?
Well, my friends, I am here to report that the answer is a resounding yes! If you can tolerate the deafening chatter of self-important windbags and the suffocating presence of penny-pinching jerks, then congratulations – you, too, can gain entry into this exclusive club!
Upon entering the lounge, I was immediately struck by the sheer volume of the conversations. It seemed that everyone was trying to outdo each other in a game of “who can speak the loudest and most obnoxiously.”
If you can overlook the noise, the arrogance, and the cheapskates, then by all means, step right in and join the party. Just don’t forget to bring your earplugs and a healthy dose of patience!
In all seriousness, the LAX Maple Leaf lounge is usually not too bad. There is the same lovely lady working the front desk most days, who’s name escapes me, and she’s been there for over 35 years!
Happens a lot to varying obnoxious degrees. I usually just employee a stare down and it works 71.2% of the time.
I haven’t flown through ORD in a while, but I remember the United Lounge had a “no cell phone/quiet” area that I frequented. This would be a great addition to all lounges!
Please add to this the “talking on my phone standing next to you in urinal or while sitting on a toilet because both my call and I are so important that I’m violating your space” phenomenon that is sweeping across bathrooms…..rude is as rude does
That’s wild that this is becoming common. I’ve had it happen to me only once. I added in very loud bodily functions to the point where the guy stopped his nearly one way conversation to comment, “Really man?!?” To which I replied,”You took the words right out of my mouth.”
Me me. Me. ME ME me me. Me Me.
And Me.
I am now shocked at so many shouting into their facetime calls, too. Too many people are self absorbed and just plain inconsiderate.
Great at parties.
That is not a doctor or physician. That is a textbook surgeon. Please learn the difference.
Only people more insufferable than doctors are travel bloggers.