I’m so glad I don’t work in an office and I dread the day I do
Heh, even with its all its cons, I’d rather work in the office with AC/Heat than have a job where I’m outside even a decent chunk of time
This is just rude office etiquette. By not indicating what the conversation is about in the invitation, you’re not respecting or valuing my time.
Most of the time does it suck but sometimes is it a hallelujah moment when they call because they keep asking the same question and it feels like I have explained it in so many ways already that I am starting to wonder if I am the problem. But thankfully does this not happen often and it is usually only ppl who do not work in the same field (aka do not think in the same way and do not have the knowledge).
I work with people who do this and I hate it so much that I will intentionally ignore their messages for 30+ minutes and then say I’m busy for X time just to delay it.
Why? Because these individuals, 100% of the time, will get on the call just to show me a screenshot of something and ask a question. Half the time it’s yes or no, I’ll answer, they’ll say thanks, and hang up.
I’ve asked them time and time again that they can just send me the screenshot and the question and I’ll answer - they refuse.
Write very detailed email with carefully worded instructions and explanations. Send email.
2 seconds later, get slack message: Hi, are you around?
Bonus points when they message you and send their zoom link.
I’m someone who does this, and let me explain why.
It’s so you don’t have any excuse to ignore me. When I need an answer for something, if I send you an email, you’re going to either lose it in that jungle you call an inbox, or put it aside as “something to get to later” and inevitably forget about it. So I’ll just cut through all that and give you a call directly. If you don’t answer your desk phone, I’ll call your cell phone. I’ll get my answer one way or another, then it’s done. I don’t have to continually pester you with emails or delay things. One and done.
Your work is not more important than what’s already on my plate, and if you do this frequently, it’s going to be intentionally deprioritized.
It’s amazing how busy I am when the squeaky wheel screams for the 6th time this week.
In my experience it depends on who is the caller. Sometimes some have to do a truckload of followup questions is not feasible to do in an email I reckon it happens when the caller is someone intelligent with a knowledgeable background. Many times I end up repeating the very fucking same thing of the mail 3 or 4 times this happens with suckers that got the position by sucking and don’t understand jack shit about what I do. Today coincidentally and sadly I have some of the second. And I wish I would turn this into a fist fight.
That’s fair, and if you work in an environment where people are responsive to emails, that’s great. Unfortunately I work with a bunch of dinosaurs who would almost prefer a Western Express telegram over an email. I’ve had to physically go to their office and knock on their door to get shit done sometimes.
Yeah I get it, some people just hasn’t their brain wired to handle telecommunications altogether. My. Mother thinks she gets Facebook but fb totally gets her.
Every single time I swear it’s because the person doesn’t want a written record and has figured out that they’re more likely to get what they want if they can bullshit you to your face, when it’s harder to parse out all the bullshit in person.
It’s a favoured strategy of rental agents for this reason.
At my last job I managed a team of coders in Bangalore. They absolutely always wanted instructions vocally because then there would be no written record of what I actually told them to do.
This is why I send a “summary” of every call as a message when we’re done. I’ve had some people call me right back and tell me to delete it. I tell them if we can’t agree on what happened on the call then it didn’t and I’ll just ignore the contents of the call.
I really hope you send them a summary of them calling to ask you to delete the summary.
The urge is very strong but I like to do what I can to foster good relationships with my coworkers (especially my leadership) so I usually just go with “We spoke about the summary of the previous call. Frank would like to add/clarify that _______” to be generous.
Jesus that’s shady. “Excuse me I just decided to call you again where there’s no record and tell you to delete the record of our call.”
“Why not correct the record in written form? You can email back can’t you?”
Like what do you say to that? Wow.
Very shady. Because they want the plausible deniability.
I just tell them I need notes to keep track of my conversations and refer back to them frequently because my autism and ADHD causes me to question myself or forget what was discussed.
Then if they wanna push it further I can take my records to HR and ask if they feel like allowing this ADA violation to continue. Doesn’t work for everyone, I know, but it works for me!
Quick call? 5min
2 hours late:
“I hope this email finds you before I do.”
ask specific questions in an email
5 minutes later
“I wanted to call to discuss the email”
Fuck. Off.
Just reply that you can reply by mail immediately but can only do a call much later/next day. They will choose speed most of the time ime.
Oh my fuck, this was literally my art teacher last year, I email her about my paintings and I thought she was just busy but no, she held be back after class to discuss the email, at least she has the excuse that she is old enough to not know anything about basic online communication…
then proceeds to ramble for 10 minutes
these people don’t need a call, they need a rubber duck
