It is natural to care about your family. You should ideally care more for them than you do for anyone else! But, my assistant called a manager in India about a job we needed him to do. He interrupted our call to talk to his daughter and then forgot to call back. My assistant waited up for him for a long time. This is very irresponsible.
In India, people have a different idea about responsibility which is why they get in trouble with American clients. Americans don’t want their calls to be interrupted unless it is an emergency. This manager could have talked for 1 minute to his daughter, finished up with my assistant and then called his daughter back. There are ways to handle conflicting commitments without offending or inconveniencing anyone.
The result is that this particular manager in India is now off our list of prospective companies to hire. We think he is irresponsible, or just too busy to be able to handle a job from us.
We also heard another story about a young Indian guy who took a call during an interview. That is insane. That is an extremely unprofessional and disrespectful thing to do. Sometimes people lack common sense, but having sense can save you from losing clients.
The moral of the story is that if you interrupt a call with a prospective client, you will probably lose them. If someone has known you for a few months (a few weeks is not long enough), then you can put them on hold if necessary. You can take a few necessary liberties with people you know well, but not with strangers. Additionally, if you are in hot water with a client, don’t put them on hold. If you are already inches from being fired, putting them on hold for ten minutes could be the last straw that gets you fired for good.