Waiting on the bridge

“Let’s talk it on the bridge”, said my friend while discussing a problem a few years ago. He continued, “I will ask others to join us”. I was confounded by this statement. In order to discuss this issue, we can use a huddle room instead of wasting time to assemble everyone and walking over to a bridge! When I put more thought into this, I remembered the often used adage. Workplace stifles creativity. My friend may be opting for a change in environment for enabling the team members to think out of the box. The annoying ring of the telephone woke me up from my reverie.

“Why haven’t you joined us on the bridge?”, my friend asked accusatorily. Sensing something amiss, I refrained myself from snapping back. “Bridge…”, I repeated his last word in a drawl imitating a busy man trying to search something. My friend continued in an irritated tone, “Check your email. The details of the teleconference bridge are in there!”. The hope for escaping the workplace was thwarted on hearing this. I mumbled an apology to my friend, connected to the bridge and greeted everybody sheepishly.

A bridge is a structure or something that makes connection. However, I associate bridge to a structure connecting two pieces of land over a water body. This association is primarily due to the influencing images of bridges during my childhood. If you look a teleconference bridge, it is also structure that make connection. Here, the connection is between the thoughts of two human beings! Kudos to the person who coined the word “teleconference bridge”. Due to the ease of use, we have shortened it to bridge for ease of use. But, this shortening has also made life hell for some! Here, I’m not referring to the challenges I faced in understanding the context in which this word was used.

Recently, another friend was waiting on the (teleconference) bridge for his customer contact in order to discuss important matters. After waiting for five minutes, he sent a brief SMS to the customer. The SMS read, “Still waiting for you on the bridge”. Now, he is busy convincing his wife that he is not having an affair and he is not experimenting with his sexual preferences since the customer contact was a male.

Picture Courtesy: http://www.appliedlanguage.com

Tags: Musings,Teleconference, Bridge

Comments

  1. Give the management types any 'development opportunity' and they come up with such lingo. They 'view' the world 'from 30000 feet'and 'at the end of the day' they 'take the lead on' on coining such jargon which only they understand. Whats wrong with using just teleconference?

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  2. Never heard about 'bridge' before.Thanks for sharing it here :)
    lol at your friends experience :d

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  3. hilarious:)

    you have narrated very well!! keep it up..

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  4. @Laks - :)

    @Aparna - The word "teleconference" is too bland. Isn't it?

    @Sorci - Thanks

    @AnishThomas - :)

    @AnishThomas - Thanks

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