You Know What Really Grinds My Gears? Now with 3x more gears...

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by calf

I represent the people on the other side.

For the first point, a detailed voice message can take a couple of minutes to get through, sometimes things get dropped or are unclear, and usually get duplicated anyways when I call back, so listening to the message is an annoying waste of time.

I also find phone calls that are out of the blue annoying. Usually I'm focused on something, meeting with a colleague, and an unexpected call feels like you're demanding my time & feels like there's no consideration that you might be interrupting what I'm doing. A quick IM, text, or email is common courtesy now, as they can be easily ignored until one is at a good stopping point to chat. Letting a phone call ring is more disruptive, and flushing your call will result in an immediate call back.

It's fine if someone is busy not to answer, but at least checking the message before calling back is the courteous thing to do. Sometimes I am making 30 or more calls in a day to people about various matters that require attention. I am not calling to chat. Then when they call back with a "someone called me from this number, what do you want?", how am I supposed to know who they are or why I called after calling 20 other people several hours later? I'll ask what's it about, and they respond with an indignant "you called me". Screw off with that.

[WhiteTiger]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

Call me back at *engage speed talk* "8 mumble mumble mumble 5 mumble 2" *click!*

Oh man, do I ever feel this hardcore!

A phone number is ten separate numbers, not one very short word!

[keratosis]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

Call me back at *engage speed talk* "8 mumble mumble mumble 5 mumble 2" *click!*

Those ones don't get a call back. If you mumble your message it can't be that important.

Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk

[topfiverecords]

The people that text me to arrange to call. Like uh, you need to discuss something just dial my number. Can’t stand the “are you free for a call?” texting nonsense. You know how you know if I’m free for a call? You call me. I answer. Or I call you back like has been the norm for a hundred years.

[Paulie Walnuts]

Originally Posted by topfiverecords

The people that text me to arrange to call. Like uh, you need to discuss something just dial my number. Can’t stand the “are you free for a call?” texting nonsense. You know how you know if I’m free for a call? You call me. I answer. Or I call you back like has been the norm for a hundred years.

Most people do it to avoid playing telephone tag, sorry I missed you voicemails are 10x more annoying.

[topfiverecords]

Originally Posted by Paulie Walnuts

Most people do it to avoid playing telephone tag, sorry I missed you voicemails are 10x more annoying.

Texting tag is also annoying. Had you made my phone ring I would have been able to know you’re trying to get ahold of me. I’m not checking every text vibration instantly. I’ll do it probably hourly and by that point they’re no longer available so it’s just a huge waste of my time to chase them down cause they’re too lazy to attempt the call.

[calf]

Originally Posted by topfiverecords

Texting tag is also annoying. Had you made my phone ring I would have been able to know you’re trying to get ahold of me. I’m not checking every text vibration instantly. I’ll do it probably hourly and by that point they’re no longer available so it’s just a huge waste of my time to chase them down cause they’re too lazy to attempt the call.

It's not laziness, it's courtesy. A call out of the blue is a demand for my time and attention right away, a text is a request for my time. A text notification, or even a look at it, is usually super quick and not disruptive. Out of the blue phone calls suck, and I will die on this hill.

[jammies]

Text, call, meet, talk - all of them suck. Just infer my response by the quality of my absence.

[Traditional_Ale]

Originally Posted by topfiverecords

Texting tag is also annoying. Had you made my phone ring I would have been able to know you’re trying to get ahold of me. I’m not checking every text vibration instantly. I’ll do it probably hourly and by that point they’re no longer available so it’s just a huge waste of my time to chase them down cause they’re too lazy to attempt the call.

You do realize your phone has a setting to turn off vibration? Maybe its even one of the super fancy ones where you can turn off the vibration for everyone except a specific list of your contacts!

"Are you free to call?" - If you didn't see the text you weren't free. Not on you.

"When is a good time to call?" - Obviously not when they sent that text. Not on you.

"(text with pics and documents)" - If they're useful, win! If they're not, you're still getting back to them in your time at the same place you would of started anyway. Not on you.

Seems like this means you're way ahead in information before you make the call, that you're now doing entirely at your own convenience. How is this a problem? Am I missing something?

[Looch City]

No no no, the absolute worst is people who IM and start with:

Hey
….2min pause…

How are you?
….2min pause…

I have a question for you
…2min pause…

Just get to the point god dammit!!

[Paulie Walnuts]

Originally Posted by calf

It's not laziness, it's courtesy. A call out of the blue is a demand for my time and attention right away, a text is a request for my time. A text notification, or even a look at it, is usually super quick and not disruptive. Out of the blue phone calls suck, and I will die on this hill.

Agreed I had this happen to me and I forgot to put my phone on silent and sent the call to voicemail. I got hit with a bunch of texts calling me an ahole I’m sorry I didn’t know you wanted to justify chat at 10:30 at night.

It’s a courtesy thing. Imagine being out on the night with your wife and all of sudden your mistress starts calling, a simple call me when you are free can save you a big headache.

[topfiverecords]

Originally Posted by calf

It's not laziness, it's courtesy. A call out of the blue is a demand for my time and attention right away, a text is a request for my time. A text notification, or even a look at it, is usually super quick and not disruptive. Out of the blue phone calls suck, and I will die on this hill.

You’re my client or you’re calling related to my client’s project. It’s business hours. If I’m not on another call/meeting, or driving, I’m answering.

Out of the blue is hilarious. During business hours I expect I could be contacted by all sorts of people at any given time. I’m not so holier than thou that “sorry bub, I’m in the middle of working on someone else’s [more important] project, how dare you phone me.”

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by Looch City

No no no, the absolute worst is people who IM and start with:

Hey
….2min pause…

How are you?
….2min pause…

I have a question for you
…2min pause…

Just get to the point god dammit!!

Every Microsoft Teams chat, but without the pauses.

[calf]

Originally Posted by Looch City

No no no, the absolute worst is people who IM and start with:

Hey
….2min pause…

How are you?
….2min pause…

I have a question for you
…2min pause…

Just get to the point god dammit!!

I think if you found everyone who does this in the Bay Area, the FBI would have an excellent short list of who the Zodiac Killer is.

[Paulie Walnuts]

Originally Posted by Wormius

Every Microsoft Teams chat, but without the pauses.

Usually IT

Hello

Hi

20 minutes later starts cold calling

Sorry I was free 20 minutes ago when you said Hello and I responded I wasn't going to wait 20 minutes for you to get back to me.

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by Paulie Walnuts

Usually IT

Hello

Hi

20 minutes later starts cold calling

Sorry I was free 20 minutes ago when you said Hello and I responded I wasn't going to wait 20 minutes for you to get back to me.

Yes. And also its dumb, counter-intuitive, incredibly illogical, carriage-return to send, not carriage return to line-feed. Every single time it is:

them: "hey wormius,"
them: "oops"
them: remembers to go into text formatting mode

[calf]

Originally Posted by topfiverecords

You’re my client or you’re calling related to my client’s project. It’s business hours. If I’m not on another call/meeting, or driving, I’m answering.



Out of the blue is hilarious. During business hours I expect I could be contacted by all sorts of people at any given time. I’m not so holier than thou that “sorry bub, I’m in the middle of working on someone else’s [more important] project, how dare you phone me.”

It's not holier than thou to set some soft boundaries. It's asking for courtesy, and some flexibility on timing. A cold call in my world is 'i don't give a #### what you might be doing...I need your time right now". That's selfish and rude, quite frankly.

[GGG]

What’s the difference between not answering a text and not answering a phone call?

Both are intrusions into your time demanding an attention. The phone goes to voice mail with a quick description and ask for a call back the text does the same. Both create an annoying ring or vibration that distracts the recipient.

[ZedMan]

A text first of all doesn't require my attention to ignore, just one quick alert and done. With a call at minimum I have to pick my phone up and mute it. Furthermore, I can skim a text and quickly decide what to do about it, vs listening to an entire voice message.

[FlamesAddiction]

This is going to be really specific, but I am in regulatory compliance and enforce several provincial regulations. Part of my job is responding to incidents and non-compliance, in which case the responsible party usually has some kind of deliverable to submit before they are either in the clear or facing punitive legal and financial measures. Technically, once someone fails to meet their legal obligation, I can just escalate it and it's off my plate. Usually as a courtesy to the responsible party and my colleagues who have to deal with it after me, I'll reach out to the person first to remind them of their obligation and give them a little more time.

This is completely my discretion and if I am calling someone, I am doing them a huge favour by even calling or leaving a voicemail. If they are calling me back, it should be to thank me for reaching out before getting indignant that I dare intrude on their phone.

Most of the time, I don't even ask for a call back and if they would have checked their message before wasting my time and demanding answers, they would have realized they didn't need to call back. When they call back with indignance like I intruded on them, I am usually tempted to just send it down the line for enforcement and cost recovery. If they check their message and can at least give me some information so I can help them, that's fine and I am happy to help, but it's not like I sit there with their file in front of me 24/7. You can't just call back and start a whole mystery quest for me to figure out your specific case information from memory. It's the person returning the call who is wasting time at that point.