Metro

Don't Be A Jerk!

Business etiquette expert Barbara Pachter
provides tips for cell phone use.

Suzanne Chessler

Special to the Jewish News

B

arbara Pachter is happy to
have a cell phone, although she
doesn't use it very much. Pachter
is happy others have cell phones except
when they use them too much in public.
A business communications consultant
who graduated Oak Park High School and
earned two degrees from the University of
Michigan, Pachter doesn't suffer in silence.
She discusses cell phone abuse during
corporate seminars she conducts and in a
book co-written with Susan Magee.
The Jerk With the Cell Phone: A
Survival Guide for the Rest of Us
(Marlowe & Company; $9.95) has given
her at least one very large audience at one
time — viewers of the ABC show 20/20.
She was featured on a segment about
mobile communicating. Other TV appear-
ances include one with CNN's Anderson
Cooper.
"I wrote this book because somebody
had to do it," says Pachter, who only makes
cell calls when absolutely necessary and
limits the number of people who have her
cell phone number. "Things were getting
out of control.
"My area of expertise is etiquette and
assertiveness. This book is a combination
of both. It talks about how to be polite
with the cell phone and how to be asser-
tive if somebody isn't."

Six Steps

The Jerk With the Cell Phone, written
in a light-hearted tone and filled with
anecdotes and cartoons, starts out with
examples of cell phone use that are annoy-
ing to others. Callers who are too loud,
too personal or too distracting are among
those described.
The book moves on to explore six steps
involved in curtailing annoying cell users

38

September 21 • 2006 AN

— understanding why callers are incon-
siderate, realizing that others may not
know they are irritating, maintaining a
polite atmosphere when commenting on
overheard calls, knowing when it is appro-
priate to take action, choosing the best
response and responding to the phone
users' reactions to the comments.
"I used the word 'jerk' because I think of
it as a fun word:' says Pachter, in her 50s
and co-author with Magee of The Power
of Positive Confrontations, When the
Little Things Count ... And They
Always Count and 601 Essential Things
Everyone in Business Needs to Know.

A SuRvivAt GuivE Fog THE REST OF uS

41; - .7,27 ,1

„

BARBARA PAG1 ER & SUSAN MA6CE

K5-1 '4E

"I think jerk is a negative word without
being mean."
Pachter, who urges that people refrain
from cell phone use while driving, also
has collaborated on a number of books
specifically on business etiquette, includ-
ing Minding Your Business Manners:
Etiquette Tips for Presenting Yourself
Professionally in Every Business
Situation.

Barbara Pachter: The U-

M grad conducted one of

the first women's
seminars in Kuwait.

"All these books ultimately are about
gaining an awareness of how we present
ourselves:' says Pachter, who writes the
draft for each book and turns it over to
Magee for refinement. "All the little things
put together make an impression that can
work for or against a person."
Coming out in September is her new-
est book, New Rules @ Work: 79 Tips,
Tools and Techniques to Get Ahead
and Stay Ahead, in which every mistake
one shouldn't make is paired with real-life
anecdotes and advice to help build com-
petence and confidence in the business
arena.

Business Trainer
When Pachter completed the University of
Michigan, she didn't anticipate her career
path. With a master's degree in com-
munications, she spent a year in Israel as
a member of the World Union of Jewish
Students, studying Hebrew and religion
while teaching English as a second lan-
guage
After moving back to the United States,
Pachter got another job teaching English
as a second language and brought her
interest in photography to her classroom,
soon finding work as a freelance newspa-
per photographer and later accepting a
position as a full-time photojournalist.
"After the paper folded four years later,
I became an industrial photographer,"
recallS Pachter, who lives in New Jersey
with her attorney husband and only son.
"I didn't like industrial photography and

.

b •

applied to be a trainer in the company. I
went out on my own 15 years ago."
Pachter, who will return to the area in
August to conduct an auto industry semi-
nar on assertiveness and conflict resolu-
tion, leads about 100 seminars a year
and has been hired by the University of
Michigan, DaimlerChrysler and Saginaw
schools.
Her contacts with different levels of
employees have given her the ideas for
books. When the Little Things Count
was the subject of a sermon she recently
delivered at the synagogue where her fam-
ily belongs.
Pachter thinks cell phone use has
improved since she wrote on the subject.
Those attending her seminars no longer
have to be reminded to close down their
phones while the meetings are being con-
ducted.
"People e-mail and write to me a lot
about their cell phone experiences:'
Pachter says. "One woman said she loves
the book and its suggestions but is too
shy to talk to people who are being cell
phone jerks. Instead, she carries the book
with her, takes it out when a mobile caller
annoys her and pretends to read. She says
this approach works every time." Li

Barbara Pachter's books may be
ordered through her Web site,
www.pachter.com .