Gen Z And Millennials Are Hung Up On Answering the Phone (bbc.com) 265
A quarter of young adults aged 18-34 never answer phone calls, according to a recent Uswitch survey. The study reveals a generational shift in communication preferences, with 70% of respondents in this age group favoring text messages over voice calls. Experts attribute this trend to the rise of mobile technology and social media. While avoiding calls, younger generations maintain constant contact through group chats and social media platforms. Voice notes have emerged as a compromise, with 37% of 18-34 year-olds preferring them to traditional calls. This communication shift extends to the workplace, causing challenges for some employers.
Makes sense (Score:5, Informative)
I only pick up only if it's a number or ID that I know. Otherwise I'm committing an unknown amount of time randomly.
Re:Makes sense (Score:5, Informative)
100% agree. They didn't even address spam. It's so obvious and such a big reason that people prefer voice messages rather than answering, that it's difficult to take this article seriously. I'm a millennial and prefer voice messages for this reason alone.
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i'm 34 and i fucking loath voice messages. either message me or call me. i FUCKING HATE voice messages and WILL NEVER check my voice mail.
Calls from private numbers or international numbers get answered just so i can verbally abuse scammers and other unsolicited callers. I say it's a healthy outlet.
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But some people don't even want to phone out. Which could be a serious problem. If your employer doesn't read texts, how do you tell them you'll be late? What if you need to call a plumber?
It just feels utterly bizarre to treat the "phone" part of a smart phone like it was infected. What I think is that they don't totally avoid the phone, but just avoid it for day to day stuff. They will use it for emergencies even though they tell others that they "never" use the phone. At least that's what I hope ot
Re:Makes sense (Score:4, Interesting)
Although you need to call trades such as plumbers, once you make initial contact most use text to communicate and receive photos as well.
I know you are being snarky but text to 911 is a thing and is widely supported in most cities. You can check support at the FCC website.
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Yes, I'm sure there's a way to text to 911. But in an emergency, do you remember what it is? Whereas the phone call is just holding down the 9 for a few seconds (thus accidentally purse dialing it as happened to my mom :-).
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("help, how do I text to 911?").
Text-to-911 is the ability to send a text message to reach 911 emergency call takers from your mobile phone or device. However, because voice calls to 911 provide more information to 911 call centers, you should always make a voice call to 911 during an emergency whenever possible.
https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/... [fcc.gov]
Re:Makes sense (Score:4, Informative)
If you're calling a 911 call center, then the call center staff are literally employed to sit there and wait for calls, so you're not interrupting them. If you call random people you are telling them that your call is more important than whatever else they might already be doing and that they should immediately stop their activity to speak to you, which is extremely rude really.
There are also many cases where you absolutely need to send a text, for instance if you are trying to secretly contact 911 because there is someone dangerous nearby who would hear you speaking.
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Re:Makes sense (Score:5, Funny)
Fire - exclamation mark - fire - exclamation mark - help me - exclamation mark. 123 Cavendon Road. Looking forward to hearing from you. Yours truly, Maurice Moss.
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I would rather have a plumber who completes his plumbing work and then reads/responds to his messages afterwards, than one who keeps stopping in the middle of the job to answer phonecalls.
The problem is that a phonecall requires you to immediately stop what your doing to take the call, which is absolutely not conducive to getting work done. Asynchronous communication is massively better.
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I answer all calls. I haven't even had a spam call in like 2 years.
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Otherwise I'm committing an unknown amount of time randomly.
You can always just hang up, unless it's something important, in which case you really should talk to them. This phone stuff is not hard unless you make it hard.
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If you pick up at all you are tagged as someone who picks up, and will receive 10x the amount of spam calls. At one point I was getting 4 to 5 spam calls per day, and 0 legitimate ones.
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If you pick up at all you are tagged as someone who picks up, and will receive 10x the amount of spam calls.
Sounds like a superstition. Hasn't happened to me yet.
Re: Makes sense (Score:5, Insightful)
For me that changed when I became a dad eight years ago. Who knows what number their caregiver or school nurse or front desk or teacher might be calling from? Or camp counselor, first aid person at theme park?
(The only spam calls I receive are realtors asking if I want to sell).
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Google has a good feature for this. Their AI thing answers the phone for you, and asks what the call is about. What the person is saying appears on your screen transcribed in real-time. Great for screening unknown numbers.
Most of the spammers hang up when they hear it anyway.
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I only pick up only if it's a number or ID that I know. Otherwise I'm committing an unknown amount of time randomly.
Yep, only exception is if I'm expecting a call.
Very few people I need to speak to call me randomly. This is done for security reasons because there are so many spam and scam calls. My doctor will schedule appointments (or rather, ask me to schedule them online these days) via post or text, banks and officialdom (I.E. DVLA, taxation, et al) will contact me via post. Businesses I have business with will either use email, text or post and ask me to contact them if there's an issue (airlines... I haven't had
Re: Makes sense (Score:3)
Don't do that if you don't want more spam. Simply picking up will get you on a list of rubes ripe to target.
spam (Score:2)
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The point of me calling you is I need a response now.
If it weren't time sensitive, I would text.
And leave a message? Please. When was the last time someone actually called you back?
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Also, a mutual understanding would have been reached regarding preferred communication methods as they related to a given emergent situation. Honestly though, most everyone has their device sitting on the table in front of them most of the day. If you want your message in my brain straight away, shoot a text.
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Most people who think they need an answer "now" don't actually need an answer as urgently as they think.
No, if you need an answer "now," leave a message, and if I agree that it's urgent, I'll call back.
A whole lot of people have an inflated sense of what "emergency" means.
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It's all spam. If it's important they'll leave a message or text.
That has been my experience with every number that calls me that I do not know. A sales pitch. A political pitch. A scam call.
I'm older, but... (Score:5, Insightful)
Phone calls are really unpleasant now, for numerous reasons. I can understand why, especially since there are better alternatives.
First, you've got the fact that most calls are going to be spam or cold calls. With a number from another state, I'd say 50% are of that nature, from the state where the number was originally from. The rest are 'adult' type things, like businesses calling me back.
Second, if I do actually talk to someone, I've got to content with horrible codec over compression and filtering. That means: people with really deep voices will be hard to understand, and people with high pitched voices will similarly be difficult to understand and their voices will be shrill. Everyone else will be compressed, and horrible. It's not like in the 'old' days of analog or high quality VOIP calls, cell calls are generally quite trash.
Third, add in the fact that it's got to have a high degree of intentionality. It's not really useful for anything except "long conversations on the phone" or "exigent situations" - and you've got to catch someone when they're not going to be interrupted.
Then, there are better alternatives: facetime/whatsapp, etc. all have higher quality audio, with video. I can have a clear conversation.
Most of my phone calls last about 10-30 seconds and are highly transactional and exigent, due to the above.
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If I didn't answer, I didn't have time to take your call. Why waste time answering at all if I don't have time for you? A no answer means I'm busy. See how easy that is.
My great grandparents (Score:5, Insightful)
When my great grandparents were young, people would not normally have telephones in their homes, so they are another generation that wouldn't normally answer the phone either. It wasn't until 1910s-1920s when it become more common for someone to have their own telephone.
As someone who deals with Gen Z and Millennial regularly. They answer very quickly from a DM on Discord or Slack. Even if they are in the middle of a meeting or playing a game.
There is a gap separating generations on the priority for forms of communication. When 90% of the voice calls you get are a scam or spam, you learn pretty quickly to not bother answering. Now imagine doing that for most of your childhood and adult life.
It's a behavior that was taught to them by REALITY. And probably better than what my Mom is doing, which picking up the phone and talking to anyone. And helping them log into her computer remotely. JFC, she's had people in her bank and credit account so many times the banks formally notified her they won't cover the losses if it happens again.
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I sometimes won't answer a call from work after hours and that's a conscious decision. And true for emails too. If at work, or on call, then of course answering the phone goes without question. Although there can be times where a delayed call-back also happens. Like when on the loo.
Just ignoring it completely is clearly being lazy, at the least.
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Work avoidance? If I'm not at work, it's not my fucking problem. I'm not on call and nothing at my job is SO important it can't wait until I get to work at 5am the next day. I'm also not in charge of a team and texting between people in my department is always sufficient.
If you are on call or a manager, then expectations are different. Probably make more then I do as well. It's called a tradeoff.
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Texting is a pain (Score:3)
I always just use an operator to connect my calls, especially when calling long distance. Much more convenient and better than texting.
Voice calls are typically spam. (Score:2)
Those worthy of my attention know not to use voice unless it's a legit emergency i.e. the kind they should call first responders to before calling me.
I make that crystal fucking clear. RL Boomer here who prefers asynchronous comms. If I'm on call then I know whose messages to be alert for.
What about your car warranty? (Score:5, Funny)
If you don't pick up the phone you may not know that it's expired
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Hey now, I enjoyed the conversation that I had with a nice guy with an Indian accent from the IRS last week. I had no idea about the back taxes that I owed! It was also pretty generous of him to let me pay off my debts with Google Play gift cards. Much easier to having to send a check in the mail!
Too much spam and phishing (Score:2)
It is cheaper to make noise than signal, and sufficient laws have not been passed (which includes funding for enforcement) to allow a reasonable amount of signal to come through to be worthwhile.
Also, facilities to direct your call to the place you want when you want it are add-ons, if they exist at all.
Ringers should be off at school, automatically, for instance, and failing to turn them off can have big consequences.
Ditto in other venues.
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Spammers have ruined phones - I don't answer if your caller ID doesn't match something in my contacts list.
voice notes for murder (Score:2)
> Voice notes have emerged as a compromise, with 37% of 18-34 year-olds preferring them to traditional calls.
the worst. The. Worst.
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Voice notes? Like... sending people voicemail so you don't have to interact directly with another human being? Like... the least convenient of all phone-based communication methods?
I seriously think I'd just ghost somebody who only wanted to talk by leaving those kinds of messages. I don't want to waste my precious time compensating for your lack of social skills. And I say that as someone who is lacking in social skills.
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Why? Phone OSK is terrible for mail, and you might not be available for phone call, just leave a message it's fine. Voice notes are like answer phones, they served a purpose before phones had keyboards.
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No, they're really terrible. Voice notes are the equivalent of ten minute youtube videos explaining something that could have been expressed in two sentences. They're like rambling phone conversations where you can't tell the person at the other end to get to the fucking point.
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Voice notes
Voice mail.
It works. My system does a passable speech to text and e-mails me a copy. Sometimes it's hilarious but I can always revert back to the original recording.
The phone is mostly useless now (Score:5, Insightful)
Not a millennial, but I hardly ever use the phone as well. Cellphones sound like garbage, and that's where most phone conversations take place. I grew up having hours-long conversations on landlines with friends, family, girlfriends, etc., so it's not like I'm adverse to phone conversation. Same for the first half of my career - lot's of long meetings on those triangle conference phones.
It's just now every other sentence needs to be repeated due to being misunderstood from crap codecs or talking over each other due to lag. I don't want to have a detailed conversation over the phone because of that. If you want to talk, schedule a zoom meeting. If it's quick, shoot me a text or a DM.
Also, I get so many spam calls, that unless caller ID is enabled and shows a number I recognize, I'm not picking up.
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Not a millennial, but I hardly ever use the phone as well. Cellphones sound like garbage, and that's where most phone conversations take place. I grew up having hours-long conversations on landlines with friends, family, girlfriends, etc., so it's not like I'm adverse to phone conversation. Same for the first half of my career - lot's of long meetings on those triangle conference phones.
It's just now every other sentence needs to be repeated due to being misunderstood from crap codecs or talking over each other due to lag. I don't want to have a detailed conversation over the phone because of that. If you want to talk, schedule a zoom meeting. If it's quick, shoot me a text or a DM.
Also, I get so many spam calls, that unless caller ID is enabled and shows a number I recognize, I'm not picking up.
I have that problem with zoom meetings, the quality is very hit or miss.
I guess this is me... (Score:3)
I refuse to answer the phone if I don't recognize the numbers, it's not in my phone already or the call ID isn't something I recognize. When I use to answer the phone, it was almost always a telemarketer. Why even bother.
Anyone I know would text or be in my phone. Government will send snail mail. So why would I ever answer the phone?
If they ever want to fix caller ID and stop letting scammers abuse the phone system, then I'll consider answering the phone. That won't happen else it would of already by now. It's a political issue, not a technical issue.
MY phone (Score:2)
I plan to use MY phone, that I bought and paid for, however I like. If I don't want to answer calls, I won't.
Work is a different story. Especially if you're carrying your employer's device. You might be expected to answer. But you should bill your time accordingly.
As a Gen Xer, there is merit to this (Score:2)
Those of us from an older generation were taught to listen and respond when someone is talking to you. For the younger generations, this is known as being polite. That said, entities who aren't friends feel that it's perfectly fine to call people, interrupt them, and waste their time. It's difficult to break oneself of the habit of answering the phone. The other side of this coin is that when you want to call some entity, their default position goes something like this: "We're experiencing higher than no
good luck trying to contact me on the works phone (Score:2)
As an older generation... (Score:2)
... I let answer machines and voice mails answer. I do mostly messaging.
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Forget that, I have an IVR system answer my calls. Yes that's my personal number. For work I have an AI answer the call. It's hooked up to chatgpt.
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That sounds rad. Is that free and easy to set up?
Simple rules: (Score:2)
>90% of calls are spam/scams; I never pick up if I don't have the number in my address book.
I never answer work calls if I'm not on the clock (I'm not paid to be on call).
I only ever answer calls on WhatsApp; There's where everyone I want to talk to is.
Most of the time it's easier to sort it out over chat (We typically read 3-4 times faster than we can speak). If it's more complic
Yes, I know that tech marches on, but... (Score:2)
...I don't text
I can't use the tiny screen and awful touch keypad
And no, I'm not some kind of clueless technophobe, I'm a semi-retired computer engineer
I just can't use the text UI
I use a proper computer, with a 32", 4K screen, keyboard and mouse
Maybe someday when brain to computer interfaces are perfected, I will use them, but for today, if you wanna talk to me, use the phone
I stopped answering unknown numbers (Score:2)
I work in IT and get way to many unsolicited vendor calls trying to sell me crap which puts me off answering the call if I don't know the number. I am talking multiple calls in one day.
99% phone calls are scams (Score:2)
That's why most people eventually learned to not answer phone calls, especially the younger generation who grew up never experienced the time when phone calls were usually important.
Many text are scams also, but those are comparatively easier to identify and waste less time to ignore.
Not always true (Score:2)
Younger folks will still call if it's something that's really sensitive. Unless someone is recording the conversation, there won't be any record of the discussion. No screenshot or logs (there will be a call log, but it only has the time and number) . Unless you're the NSA or the cops with a surveillance warrant.
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are you my boss? if not, FUCK you. i don't work for you. i'm not here for you. i manage my time. i respond to my boss, not to some random coworker (and also, not to my boss' boss). i have my assigned tasks, and finishing them is my priority, you are not.
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That's not always the case though. In a hyper busy project sometimes/often the boss will prioritise a certain task and it can mean the phone/email/messages are ignored, DND everywhere. Boss then tells team to pickup phone, normally you're part of a team ring group anyway.
This isn't that new is it?
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And they can leave a fucking message about why they called and to call them back. The boss, and their boss, and the CEO, isn't that important.
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And then you call back three hours later when they're no longer at work or are having lunch or are in a meeting, and you leave a message for them to call YOU back, but when they do you again don't pick up, and you end up spending a day or two just trying to find a moment where YOU want to be the one making the call and THEY are available to pick up.
Get off your high horse.
Re:Fuck that (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm gonna go out on a limb and say it's probably not entirely laziness. I'm technically in the generation that should still be okay with voice calls (born just at the end of gen X), but I can't stand 'em either. A big part of it is that modern cell phones have abysmal audio quality and the latency absolutely is noticeable, too. It's just frustrating to try to have a conversation when half the time you can't clearly understand what the other party is saying.
If phones still worked like they did back in the day when everything was hardwired and the sound was crystal clear, yeah, I totally wouldn't mind it. These days it's like trying to have a conversation through a McDonald's order box, so I'd absolutely prefer a text or email instead.
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It is true that smart phones have much worse voice quality than first generation mobile phones.
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If I call you, you'd better answer
If you're paying my phone bill, yeah I'm probably gonna answer. If you're not? As you put it: fuck that.
I got bored about 3 paragraphs into the article, but the tenor of it seemed to indicate that they don't answer unknown numbers. Which I am 100% onboard with. (I'm Gen X/borderline Millennial.) If it's not a number saved in my phone 99.9% of the time it's not anybody I have any interest in talking to. For the other .1%, that's what voicemail was invented for.
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If you're paying my phone bill, yeah I'm probably gonna answer. If you're not? As you put it: fuck that.
What shithole company doesn't provide you with a company phone? Also, Teams/Zoom/whatever use the internet to make phone calls. I'm presuming you're no longer using AOL and being charged for the minute.
What other excuse are you going to come up with?
ut the tenor of it seemed to indicate that they don't answer unknown numbers.
And neither do I. Not on my company phone or my desk phone (Teams) or my persona
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If I had a company phone, then sure, I would answer that. I'd also have my boss and coworkers numbers in that phone. No problem answering that at all. Business is business after all.
Otherwise, I have no real reason to answer a phone call that I don't know. When I use to, it was always telemarketers. Fuck that noise.
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god i read these comments and i see why millennials and younger hate you fucking boomers with a passion.
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god i read these comments and i see why millennials and younger hate you fucking boomers with a passion.
If you can't verbally communicate, why should I keep you on? How are you going to explain things? Write a ten paragraph email? No one will read it. You won't die if you have to speak to someone for a few minutes.
This nonsense that people are adverse to a quick, ten minute discussion is exactly why this country is shit. No one wants to communicate in a clear, deliberate manner but instead, drag it out forever via thirty text messages which leaves much to ambiguity and back and forth questioning to be cl
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You are completely missing the point.
First, you claim that phone, a voice only communications device, is INFERIOR to zoom ,where i can show you my screen, draw on it, etc. What the hell are you talking about?
Second, you insist that you need my full attention NOW, when YOU want it, not when I can give it to you.
I'm perfectly happy to go on all of the required meetings, what i'm not happy about is having to drop everything i'm doing NOW to get on the phone with you.
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If I give you money to do something, NOTHING, short of life and limb safety measures, that you are doing during work hours is more important and requires your full attention more than interacting with me, the money provider. If you were THAT important to the business you would be the one that has to be answered immediately.
If you keep up that attitude the money provider is going to stop providing money. Good luck finding a different money provider if you can't answer a call either. The interviewers tend to
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If your world is that black or white then its probably not worth working for you.
Impromptu phone calls are not as efficient with people's time. Teams or Zoom calls are usually more worth it as you share content instead of explaining what's in front of you, its a waste of time. Impromptu phone calls also break concentration.
Nobody is averse to talking on the phone when its scheduled however, that you jump to the conclusion that all voice calls are out the window says a lot about how you view the majority of
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No one wants to communicate in a clear, deliberate manner but instead, drag it out forever via thirty text messages which leaves much to ambiguity and back and forth questioning to be clear of the meaning.
On the contrary, maybe being "clear on the meaning" leads them to prefer to have instructions "in writing" rather than verbally and thus create an electronic trail of such so there are no future misunderstandings or misattribution or responsibility. We shorten it to CYA for Cover Your Ass.
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That was a definite problem with my last boss, though he did it in person, never over the phone. When I thought about it, I would write and email in response to get it in writing, usually to someone else on the project, cc to the boss.
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^^^^ ***MOD PARENT UP***
Especially true about this part:
Want to chat about every little thing over the phone because you like to hear yourself talk
In most people's experience, their bosses are just like Michael Scott in The Office.
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Never had a boss like that.
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It's one thing if I need a quick, short answer from you then yes, Teams/Zoom/whatever is fine. But when I want to have a discussion to go over things, phone is the only way. It's either that or you get your fat lazy ass into the office and we meet in person (assuming you're not already in the office).
How is phone better than Zoom for anything? Disembodied voices communicate better than full video, how?
Personally, I find phone calls mostly annoying. If there is enough detail to need full interaction, there is usually too much detail to dispense with a text record.
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If I call you, you'd better answer.
..? Who are you that everyone, everywhere should always drop everything they are doing to take your call? What is this entitlement? Even my boss asks me if I'm free for a chat before calling me because it's just common courtesy. You're out here talking about "adults" as though this need for immediate social gratification isn't the most childish thing here.
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If you are calling my personal cell during work hours AND I have your number AND I'm not busy, maybe I'll take your phone call - boss, boss's boss, co-worker, or whatever. You and they aren't more important than anything else I'm doing.
If I don't have your number, I'm not taking the call, period - leave a message.
If it's after business hours, I don't respond to any form of communication from anything work related until business hours resume. No business is more important than my scheduled time away from sai
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It's one thing if I need a quick, short answer from you then yes, Teams/Zoom/whatever is fine. But when I want to have a discussion to go over things, phone is the only way. It's either that or you get your fat lazy ass into the office and we meet in person (assuming you're not already in the office).
Over the years, I learned that the type of managers who always wanted voice discussion (phone or in-person), is really because they wanted *no written records* of what they said.
Either because they frequently contradict themselves, or they ask for unreasonable things that they *know* will get them in trouble if recorded, or they behave in extremely immature/childish ways that, again, will get them in trouble if on-record.
I eventually learned to always put what those manager said into an email and sent to th
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Teams/Zoom/whatever is fine. But when I want to have a discussion to go over things, phone is the only way.
You're quite wound up about this. The phone is the last thing I want to use to "go over things." I suppose if it was a travel situation I'd get it. Where I work, we don't have phones. I don't know the phone number of a single person where I work including the boss. We use Slack and Zoom and it works quite well. Start with Slack and if the conversation isn't resolved in a few back and forth messages, it moves to "Zoom okay? Sure." The conversation continues face to face and usually with screen sharing.
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no, it's just that younger generations found better ways to communicate.
you entitled cunts believe you deserve 100% of my attention whenever you want. you believe you have a right to interrupt me and demand an immediate answer.
I don't owe you anything, fucking boomer.
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Or... everyone's found a better way to ignore people on those better ways to communicate.
Send an email? Didn't get it. Fill in a web form? We'll get back to you ... never. Text message? Oh it went to the wrong number.
Anytime you need to get som
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I don't owe you anything, fucking boomer.
he's not a boomer. he's a boomer psycho.
i'm a boomer, and think just like you in this regard. maybe because i'm not a psycho.
to elaborate, i grew up when phone calls were the only sensible way to communicate efficiently over distance. it was normal and accepted, but not anymore. today there is no justification for it unless it's an emergency, some specific professional requirement or there is prior agreement, end of story. i just don't answer. sometimes i *might* *text* back, as a deference, if it is a pers
Re:Phone calls are confrontation (Score:5, Insightful)
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100% this.
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When's the last time you got a call on your personal cell phone from an new number that was someone you actually wanted to talk to?
Last week.
I remember when most landline calls were spam, but I haven't had that problem on mobile.
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Right? The only time I'll answer an unknown number is if a call comes in at a pre-scheduled time.
In any other instance it's spam. 100% of the time.
If it's someone I actually know they're either in my contacts at the least and that's if they haven't also straight up texted first to ask if it was a good time to talk.
Sometimes I genuinely consider that I could do without the phone number part of the cell phone and have a data only plan. I don't think it would impact my ability to communicate with anyone I ac
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texted first to ask if it was a good time to talk.
I've never heard of this idea. That would not be likely to work with me.
Calls are immediate, and texts are super asynchronous.
If you text me in the morning, I'll try to respond at lunchtime, or before bedtime at the latest.
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Phone calls involve a kind of interpersonal power dynamics. The caller is in control. If you are expected to take the call, they are higher on the totem pole than you are. People who are always on the phone are on short leashes.
I used to stop for coffee and read my paper at the Starbucks which Steve Ballmer frequented. While it was common for many people to be on their phones while standing in line, I noticed that Steve never was. He was always there with friends or coworkers in person. I imagine that, exc
Phone calls are intrusive (Score:2)
Phone calls are *intrusive*. A phone call is made at the *caller's* convenience, while the receiver has no control over when they get the call. The receiver needs to drop whatever they were doing to pay attention to the caller's asks & wants, spend the time to understand the context and then give a reply on the spot. Unless the receiver is a retiree sitting on the porch doing nothing, most people engaged in any other activities would not want that kind of interruption.
When one has been busy working m
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Do you think of Generation X as retirees?
Text and emails, OTOH, respect the receiver's time, and is answered at the *receiver's* convenience.
That's exactly why I answer the phone. If I call someone, that means a text is insufficient. And I'll assume the same when someone calls me.
A phone call is the only synchronous option.
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Re: (Score:2)
Hello.This is Lenny.
Re: (Score:2)