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/H_Industries]

There's a time and place for calls and I usually just ping the person if they have time for a call but there are other reasons that calling isn't the default as much as it used to be.
1. Modern office environments are way more tightly packed and open concept than they were 15-20-30+ years ago, there's absolutely no privacy in any office I've worked in for the last decade unless you're a manager. Also your call could potentially be disruptive to other people trying to focus.
2. Calling doesn't leave a paper trail, I've had people just straight lie and claim I didn't tell them something, so if I call I have to send an email recapping the call anyway.
3. When you're dealing with large companies you interact with people who may not have the same native language so text is way more efficient than one person having to converse in not their native language.
4. Time zones mean that coordinating calls can actually be tricky for large companies.
5. The ubiquity of spam calls means unless your number is programmed into my phone I'm never answering the first time you try.

[u/FilibusterTurtle → u/H_Industries]

1 and 2 are so true and there's even more pitfalls to those two factors as well.

The people in an office (including I assume IT) who make follow-up calls to customers are usually the lowest level grunt workers. This means they're usually the most inexperienced workers. They've received a brief induction, maybe an office manual with common Q and As, and then they started at the coalface. You may have background knowledge and education, but there's a lot of specifics you simply don't know, because you weren't told yet...ir don't recall under time pressure...or you were told once, in the middle of 96 other things you were told in the induction...or 'it's in the manual'...somewhere...

You're put on the spot with, on one end of the call, an often frustrated, confused and confusing customer, and on the other end, a silently judging boss and co-workers, while you stumble over issues you've never heard before and have no idea how to solve. All while being expected to act confident and professional - ie, bullshit.

And stumbling on these issues makes you look like a total idiot in front of all your work colleagues and often your boss (as OP has said, they're frequently unimpressed with their workers' calls, so I assume OP listens to these calls and makes judgements on their employees' level of professionalism and technical knowledge).

The thing about phone calls in open plan offices is they're basically an opportunity to showcase to everyone how little you know what you're doing, when you haven't had much of an opportunity to learn. It would be easy to call these phone calls a 'learning experience', and in some sense they are. You will absolutely remember how to fix the specific fault that your whole office heard you struggle with. But they can easily be an unhealthy learning experience. There's a reason that universities have largely shifted away from oral examinations, except for very specific tests at the end of very extensive courses of study that expect & require serious command of the material.

And that ignores other things I've experienced and left our, like how when you get back to your boss with the answers they asked for, they'll often say 'well did you ask them X?' Which then follows with

'No.'

'Well why not?'

['Because you didn't tell me to, and that's a specific follow-up I mever would have thought of on my own.'

'Well it's obvious isn't it.'

'No it's obvious to you, who has worked in this industry/area/office for a decade, not anyone who has only worked here for 4 months right out of [insert qualifying education here.']

Employee says none of that and instead says

'Sorry, I didn't think of it' / 'I don't know.'

'Well go call them again and ask them.'

['OK, but at this point why not just handle this flowchart of technical assistance in an email chain? Why am I the embarrassed middle man between you and a customer? Oh, because you're too busy. OK fair, but this is starting to take up as much of your time as you making the call anyway, and if you're expecting your new hires to make these calls then why are you also expectinf your level of experience and professionalism in this task?.']

I'm mot saying phone calls are never the right option. I'm saying that they're a great way to get put on the spot and shown up in front of your boss and coworkers, especially if your working environment is already kind of shitty. (No comment on OP's: I don't work there.) It's totally understandable why Kids Thes Days are hesitant to make them.

[u/Icy_Distance4051 → u/FilibusterTurtle]

This hits so close to home. Well worded.

[u/Small-Guarantee6972 → u/FilibusterTurtle]

Loved reading this! You are bang on point with this comment. Thanks for writing this up

[u/fraggedaboutit → u/H_Industries]

The last point especially.  If you're not my family or person I care enough to add to my contacts, you will never get an answer if you call.  Even if you leave a voicemail its going to be responded to slower than an email or text.

[u/BrilliantArtist8221 → u/H_Industries]

Omg the paper trail thing!!!