View Full Version : phone calling for work

Zoe Girl
6-1-11, 9:10pm
As an introvert, who seems to be moving towards more extroverted over the years, I still find phone calling really hard. I made one mistake recently at work and it was while I was sick and I should have made many phone calls that I didn't. Our summer camp director is very strict about people attending trainings, as she should be, and i didn;t call someone. It worked out but I felt horrible.

Okay so tonight I have to call all my summer staff (11 people) and all my school year staff (about 20). Summer staff it is to introduce myself and remind them of training tomorrow and school year it is because I need signatures on time cards for everyone for our grant. I am doing it but geez it is kinda hard.

Okay back to it. :|(

6-1-11, 10:10pm
I get it! I hate, hate, hate making calls. Email is just the best invention ever for me because if I have someone's email address I can shoot off 20 emails bugging them about something, but never have to actually pick up the phone. I have been putting off one call for a couple of weeks - no reason, it's just a routine call to a company - but I can somehow always find something better to do. Like being on here . . . :D

6-2-11, 7:01am
I hate phone calls, too. I prefer to use email wherever possible for two reasons: 1) Like you, I'm an introvert and I prefer email as a communication tool; 2) I have had bad experiences in the past with people "misremembering" what was said during a phone call and basically trying to reinvent history. That's being generous, I think. I think a lot of people actually use the phone as an excuse to lie. No papertrail, so they can say you said anything they want. My horrible former boss from hell was the king of this trick. Never documented anything and would always seem to misremember crucial things, always in a way that made him look good. So now even if I call to deal with something, if it is important I ALWAYS follow up with an email to document what was said (in summary) and what was agreed upon. Those backup emails saved my butt many times in my last year at my HSSJ.

I had to make about ten calls to follow up with people about the same thing today. Only one person picked up when I called. I then texted everybody else, sent a follow-up email to those who didn't respond to my text within a reasonable amount of time to let them know they need to call me. I don't mind getting calls nearly as much as making them.


6-2-11, 10:13am
I work in a library and have to make calls all day. I find that I make up a little quick script when I need to make a lot of the same calls to leave a message. I'm impatient about waiting to leave the message because of the answering systems.

Zoe Girl
6-2-11, 10:44am
Great ideas Lhamo, I also follow up with emails. Most of my lead teachers do not email however so that is an issue, however I can always leave a message at the site phones and I really get the messages through that way. I just had an issue with a principal I had to meet with who emailed a time for meeting and then sent the appointment to my calendar at another time. I never got a reply to which was correct and came at the wrong time. So we finally had our meeting, other than that I really LOVE that within our organization i can send and recieve appointments for work. It is soo cool,

iris lily
6-2-11, 11:01am
Yes the answering systems. ugh. I make a fair number of phone calls at work and am so tired of all of the voice mail messages that say, slowly and distinctly, as though I am an idiot "we are not home/or we cannot come to the phone/leave a message giving the time, day, and your name and a phone number where I can reach you/and we will call you back at our earliest convenience"--or else the automated voice--wish i could skip right through that. But the worst, the absolute WORST, are the personal evangelical messages that give a long speech about God or that play a loooooong selection of their music, etc. I hate that all, it takes up so much time.

I don't mind talking on the phone per se, I like to actually reach the human I am calling.

Due to having encountered so many long pointless recorded messages, I've streamlined my own home message to say " this is iris lily, leave a message." bam. done.

6-2-11, 11:16am
I loathe phones, period, whether it's making or receiving calls. They're so intrusive I feel like I might as well leave my front door wide open as have a phone in the house with the ringer and the answering machine on. I've left the phone turned off on weekends for a long time now, and recently I've gotten in the habit of calling home from work in late afternoon, checking messages, and then turning off the answering machine. For a while, I was getting calls from a broker at TD who was clearly interested in doing something with the cash I have in my investment account and I finally got so angry I wrote him a letter that probably burned his fingers.

I'll be retiring soon and I think I'm going to leave my landline off permanently, although connected in case I need to call out. Only very best friends and doctors will have the cell phone number. I'll continue to use the disconnected number when someone or some website insists on having it without mentioning that it will never be answered.

6-2-11, 11:55am
After working as a customer service rep i developed an intense hatred for phone calls. I email when possible. When its not possible, I find it very hard to get off the phone from long winded people. Some people you have to BUTT in and say I HAVE TO GO NOW. They wont hush otherwise. I had one woman, a former co worker, who would talk for two hours if i let her. I'd hang up with a headache. I do enjoy calls from close friends

Zoe Girl
6-3-11, 8:40am
OMG Iris, I have a very sweet staff person who has a message like that. She is so nice but I have also heard that she has shared some of her church stuff at work, just inviting people to church and all. the only thing I have to tell her next school year is to take me off the automatic text message system because I have a work cell and we are limited on that. Oh dear, but she is a really sweet person and hard worker.

pony mom
6-5-11, 9:29pm
Ooooh I HATE making phone calls!!! Even ordering a pizza makes me anxious. Leaving voicemail messages is a disaster too, as I usually rush through my message in a panic that I'll run out of time and then I hang up, wondering if I told them who I was. There have been times where I would rather drive to a place to find out their store hours rather than just call them on the phone.

However, I have gotten better since I have to help out at the front desk at the salon/spa where I work. Saying the same lines when leaving a confirmation call on a machine makes it easier. Talking with a real person I still sometimes talk half-*ssed backwards--they must wonder what's wrong with me.

It helps me to think that there may be someone on the end of the line dreading receiving my phone call as much as I am dreading to make it. A few of my coworkers who have had their calls picked up by me tell me that I sound much more 'professional' and they don't recognize me. Perhaps my anxiety has given me a phone alter-ego that exudes more confidence than I feel.

6-6-11, 9:59pm
Years and years ago (ok, literally 2 decades ago) in my first job out of college I was a box office manager for a non-profit performing arts organization. What an awful job. I literally spent 8 hours/day answering phone calls from nasty, complainy people. I lasted a little over 3 years. As a modestly introverted person that was quite a remarkable feat. For over a year after that I cringed every time I heard a phone anywhere ring. To this day there are only about 4 people I actually want to talk to on the phone. Email is my much preferred method of communication.

That said, I do need to use the phone occasionally for work. Most of the time I don't mind because it's generally people I have gotten to know fairly well through my job and, because I'm halfway decent at my job, I'm rarely calling for any unpleasant reason. One suggestion a co-worker had that I now use regularly is to get any unpleasant phone calls, even if it's just unpleasant because I don't really like the person, done first thing when I get in in the morning. That way I don't spend the rest of the day stressing about the call that I know I need to make. It's already done, I've accomplished something on my to-do list for the day, and the day can only go up from there.

6-9-11, 5:13pm
I had the misfortune of having a telemarketing job for about two months the summer after HS graduation. After that I've never had any problems making phone calls. In retrospect, gaining easy phone familiarity was probably worth putting up with all the other BS at that job.