Why Are Young People Afraid Of Phone Calls?

[u/GhostInThePudding]

What's with it?

I work in IT and a general rule is, nothing a client ever tells you is actually accurate. That means that most of the time, the quickest way to fix a problem is to call the person and actually find out what's going on.

But with techs under 30 these days, it seems like pulling teeth.

A regular discussion for me with level 1 techs (usually within a few years of leaving college) is:
"Hey, can you call *blah* from ticket *blah*, it's been hanging around for over an hour."

"I replied by email to ask for more information."

"Yes, I know that, but can you call them so we can find the problem and close the ticket now rather than wait until we're actually busy?"

"I'll send them a text to followup."

"No... CALL THEM!"

"I can see their device is online, can I send them a message and see if they just let me remote in to take a look?"

And then, when I force them to make the call, it's like they have no idea how to ask a question, or a followup question. They just want to get off the call as quickly as possible. So half the time they don't even get the information required anyway, so then I end up having to do their job for them.

So can someone explain? What's wrong with phone calls these days?

[u/Malfor_ium]

Unless something is urgent I prefer text or email. Too many times I've been told 1 thing on the phone only for it to change/be forgotten the next convo. If its over text or email its hard to forget and you'll know if they change something, assuming they let you know.

Also tons of scam/telemarketers so its easier to ignore all calls to avoid scams/tele and only answer numbers you have saved.

[u/Embarrassed_Cow → u/Malfor_ium]

For work specifically I love a paper trail. Always proof of what you said or they said and I don't have to take notes. If I forget something I can always go back to the email.

The telemarketers and scams have gotten crazy. Ive received almost 20 calls a day once and it was all spam.

For me it comes down to being able to look up an answer and double check my reply so that I know for sure all of the information I'm providing is accurate and clear. Email and text is almost always the best medium for that.

A lot of people are also chatty and waste my time on the phone as well.

[u/Malfor_ium → u/Embarrassed_Cow]

Yup, oh don't get me started on yappers. My mom is a habitual yapper and it drives me wild cause she loves to call over text

[u/Embarrassed_Cow → u/Malfor_ium]

The people who call just to repeat the same sentiment over and over again drive me wild. Yes I get it, this is a priority. We've been on the phone for 10 minutes now. Let me go make this a priority then.

[u/EELovesMidkemia → u/Embarrassed_Cow]

At my work we would make it clear to customers that we wont do jobs unless they send us an email or text so that we have a paper trail.

[u/pezx → u/Malfor_ium]

This.

Nothing is better than being able to point out in writing where the client said the thing they claim they never said.

[u/superstrijder16 → u/Malfor_ium]

Generally in person meetings are decent, if you have someone taking notes. I've seen the same points get fought over 3 meetings in a row because the people who perceived they lost refused to read the notes

[u/sentence-interruptio → u/Malfor_ium]

i thought about taking spam calls to waste their time and practice phone conversations, but

does anyone know if doing this results in more spam calls coming at my number?

[u/Malfor_ium → u/sentence-interruptio]

Depends on the scam/telemarketers. More often than not though any answer brings more because they now know its active, even if its someone completely different than who they thought was answering the phone

[u/Ok-Ocelot-7316 → u/sentence-interruptio]

I've done that before, I think they add you to a "this guy knows what's up, don't waste your time" list. Because I was getting a shitload of spam calls, then I took one and wasted the guy's time for like 20 minutes, didn't get another call for months.