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Things got a little bit heated during a recent episode of The Real, when hosts Loni Love and Garcelle Beauvais got into a debate about the proper etiquette concerning FaceTiming people out of the blue. Accompanied by fellow co-hosts Adrienne Houghton and Jeannie Mai, the ladies of The Real made us wonder, is it okay to video call someone without giving them a heads up first?
In a short clip grabbed from the ladies’ conversation, Garcelle kicks things off when she quite sharply called out Loni for abruptly FaceTiming her a while back. Even though Loni later noted that she only called her co-host because apparently, the actress had been sick, the ladies had already started a spirited back and forth about whether unexpected video calls were appropriate.
“… and I picked up your FaceTime call,” Garcelle is seen saying to Loni through a smile although she seemed pretty serious. “So now let me just tell you — don’t you ever do that again.”
“Oh don’t worry I won’t,” Loni sternly replied. Speaking on how unplanned FaceTime calls aren’t her general go-to method for contacting people, the comedienne continued, “The only people I do that for now is my best friend of 30 years Monique — hello Monique — and also Roderick. I FaceTime him. I only FaceTimed you that one time because I knew that you were isolated and you were sick, so I said ‘Well, let me do that” — it was a fun time. But I normally don’t do that so –”
After agreeing that she and Love did in fact have a nice chat, Garcelle still firmly doubled down on her point that video calling people when they’re not expecting it is simply rude. The actress added, “Just because we’re in a pandemic, doesn’t mean we’re available to everybody 24/7 — I could be in the bathroom, I could be doing all kinds of things.”
That’s when Loni quickly interjected with, “– Well then just don’t pick it up. My thing is, I feel like when I FaceTime [you] just don’t pick it up, you’re busy. It’s a phone call.”
From her perspective of the conversation between the two, Jeannie then pointed out, “What’s happening between the courtesy text, and then you deciding whether or not you’re going to pick up the phone?”
To be real, I definitely think Loni was in the wrong. While her intentions may have been kind and she just wanted to check-in on Garcelle since the co-host was under the weather, FaceTiming out of the blue almost always comes across as inconsiderate. Especially in this instance, although one might assume that Loni and Garcelle are at least friendly outside of work, at the end of the day, they are still co-workers, and fairly new ones at that.
Along those lines, being video-called by someone you work with outside of a mutually agreed upon time is pretty inappropriate. As Garcelle mentioned, just because people are working for home more these days due to the pandemic, doesn’t mean that people want to be constantly available to the co-workers while at home. Even though she just shouldn’t have picked up the call, like Loni suggested, overall, it seems like Loni put her in an unwanted situation to being with.
How do you feel about receiving FaceTime calls out of the blue?
