Along with the hiss and the radio announcements in the background of our phone is an even more worrying problem – signal crossover from other  cordless phones with answering machines. Normally we can't really hear what they are saying and they can't hear what we are saying, but occasionally words do slip through. Ours is a high powered financial institution with clients from among the richest businessmen in the whole world, and so security is a premium. If people can inadvertently hear a word or two gleaned from our conversation over our  cordless phone with answering machine, imagine what someone bent on industrial sabotage could do!

Another problem with the cordless phone with answering machine is that the darned phone is always getting lost. My secretary takes it and then puts it down getting coffee, forgetting to return it. I take a call, and leave it in my closet or filing cabinet, searching for some client information or other. It's somehow impossible to keep track of the  cordless phone with answering machine, although in truth we've both managed to hang on to our cellphones for years and only lost them once or twice.

I guess the difference is that you're always on the go at the office. That was the appeal of the cordless phone with answering machine in the first place: it gave you the flexibility to move about the work space while conferring with clients on important business. But the slick, compact phone headset finds its way into the most unlikely and inconvenient places. A junior partner accidently took it to lunch with him the other day and the whole office was paralyzed for an hour. I know that modern technology is key to keeping a business on the cutting edge and giving it the competitive advantage that we all need, but I wonder some times if the tried and true methods don't have there merits as well.