I totally agree. I had it a few times in which someone calls me, rips me out of my thoughs, we discuss something, hang up and I have nothing retained from what we talked about. Or, even better, someone says something on a call and I do that and then they never said anything about that.

Even worse, I can’t listen to the conversation in 1-2 weeks because that is the time I could actually work on it and remember every detail that we talked about.

Now I am strictly going with emails. Sure they can call me and we talk about the feasibility or discuss possible solutions but any request for implementation has to happen either over an email of which I then create a ticket/issue or they create one directly themselves.

That way I can prove that what I implemented was based on what was requested and if that was wrong then the request wasn’t clear enough.

Send the email, then call me to say “hey I sent you an email that I really need you to read and respond to urgently, I’ll let you go so you can focus while reading, talk later”

For one of my 3 jobs, I don’t have regular work hours, I’m employed just 5 hours a week, on call, for IT support for a little non for profit.

My contract, my email signature, my numerous discussions with the team all state “if you require a response within the same business day, please phone me to alert me to the issue”

I check my email once a day, I don’t have time to be checking it several times a day when I’m only paid for 5 hours work, I need to conserve those hours for maintenance and support I’m not about wasting anybody’s time.

So if someone happens to email me after I’ve already checked my inbox for that day, I won’t see it until tomorrow. Hence, phone me, I want to work, I just need a way to alert myself that work is available for me, a text message will also suffice.

I realise this is asking someone to change the way they operate to make my job easier. But the number of times I check my email at 1pm, and there’s zero tickets, so I turn off my computer because I’m not going to sit and watch an empty inbox for my free time.

Then the next day I check my email and I have 20 emails all from the same person from about 3-5pm all saying “hey I have an issue” “hey following up this is kind of urgent” “hey, are you even checking your emails?”…no obviously I’m not, it would have saved you so much effort to send 1 text after 1 email as I requested than to send 20 emails, and I would have actually gotten the text in time.

Also half the time the issue needs to be fixed with a phone call anyway because it’s something simple like “Microsoft Word is missing”… because the program was unpinned from the taskbar and the staff member just needs help remembering the start menu exists. Most of my support resolutions are the equivalent of describing the buttons on the TV remote to your grandmother over the phone. (lots of older, less tech literate folk working in NFP sector)

There’s a reason debt collectors refuse to deal via email.

Non- refudiation is golden.

You could record

That’s why I hate text and mail cause someone can use it against you and also with a call you can sufficiently enact some impression by subtle tone modulation and tempo.

Text is just text hard to convey any emotion, sarcasm or a joke. I cannot read anyone’s mind through text

Annoying thing is the phone system they use to divert your call. It feels almost intentional to get us not to speak to a representative.

I was in the “I hate calls” camp when I was younger, but I have realized that a call takes way less time than an email chain or texts. Also, it is extremely gratifying to tell someone to fuck off on a call, especially a scammer.

Because human brains aren’t supposed to be able to do emotional and mental parkour like completely redirecting our focus on a new topic in under a second without prior warning.

For me personally, if it’s a call I expect, it drops the anxiety levels by considerable amount. Even better, if I can prepare a plan/scenario for the call, and take notes during it.

Of course, if it’s someone from my close family or friends, that also helps. But unexpected calls from unknown numbers (or known, but from like work or distant acquaintances) freak me out.

For me, I think it’s the fact that I have to prepare for both a social interaction and a monologue depending on whether they answer or not. As someone with mild social anxiety, the uncertainty and the fact that I am unequivocally initiating the interaction messes with a lot of the ways I would cope with joining a normal social interaction and throws me off my game

I got a lot better at phone calls when I worked on trauma therapy. I’ve always had issues asserting myself and phone calls are sort of a form of saying “hey!! Quit what you’re doing and pay attention to me because I have something important!” which isn’t something I was used to doing or asking for nor did I even think anything I did was important

It’s gotten much better for me as I’ve aged, I really don’t think about it now.

If you’re getting a call, the “huge goddamn problem” better be “time”.