I’m not a big fan of phone calls.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind hearing from friends & family, or if you have something pressing that demands my attention or requires an immediate response, then by all means, call me!
But in my job, my attention needs to be prioritized, and a phone call pulls me off what ever I’m doing. It’s the equivalent of someone saying ‘Drop whatever you are doing and listen to me’. Yes I know I could just not answer, but (most of the time) I’m not that rude.
E-mail works much better for me because I can see it when I’m free and I can prioritize if it needs an immediate response or not.
Phone calls don’t give me that choice. It’s an ‘interupt’, instead of a queued task. (geek speak, sorry)
Examples of annoying phone calls;
- I’ve run into sales people who just call to ‘check in’. This happens several times a week “Hi Matthew this is Deb from <Insert name of generic unheard of computer products sales vendor>, I sent you e-mail about <insert product du-jour> a few days ago and just wanted to make sure you got it and see if you had any questions.
- Other people will send me an e-mail in response to a question and in it they basically say ‘Call me’.
- Long lists that I need to write down. If only you had e-mailed the list and saved us both time.
I realize a lot more information can be conveyed quickly verbally than via e-mail. I don’t hate the phone calls per se, I just don’t like people who use it for ‘quick phone calls’. In my book, if you can e-mail me the info in close to the same amount of time it took to call, and it’s not urgent, then please please e-mail me.
This is also why I don’t often call other people. Usually if I have a question or want to share something, I’ll e-mail it. It seems rather arrogant for me to assume that my question or information is soooooo important that I need you to hear me right away. I save my phone calls for ‘Priority One Message from Starfleet’ type moments. So if I respond to your voicemail via e-mail, this is why, it’s not that I don’t want to talk to you, it’s that my response didn’t warrant your immediate attention. When/if I need it, I’ll call, I promise.
This feeling about time and immediate attenion extends to meetings and committees as well.
Seriously, you’re going to read a document out loud in a committee instead of e-mailing us that text in advance?
Or seriously, you have suggestions/input on a motion that was e-mailed in advance 30 days but you wait until we’re at the table getting ready to vote to share this because you don’t like e-mail?
I don’t mind discussion, it’s just moments where an e-mail would have saved 5 minutes of time x 20 people on a committee.. you just wasted 100 minutess of our collective time because you couldn’t spend 2 minutes to fire off an e-mail before we met. Nice. (I’ve noticed this action often comes from lawyers, and I’m guessing this is a ‘never put anything in writing cause people can use it against you’ type logic they must teach in law schools. I’m sure that applies in business negotiations and divorce settlements, but for a volunteer committee? Show some respect to your colleagues and e-mail.)
Anyways, just thought I’d share this minor glimpse in my warped persona. Agree or disagree, please e-mail me your response 🙂