Phones (Fear Of)

[scoffeepie]

Calling people on the phone (especially business type calls to people I don't know) terrifies me. Anybody have any advice on how to minimize/control my fear?

It's something about the finality of spoken language and how you can't edit yourself and take it back and also about the technological medium.

Comments

[carik]

You're not the only one!

A couple of things that help(ed) me....

1) take a job where you're required to make phone calls. I still hate it, and it still terrifies me, but at least I'm better at it now.

2) write out what you need to say/ask before making the call, and use the list! That, at least in my case, helps make sure I don't get nervous about forgetting something important and having to call back and look (or sound!) like an idiot.

[scoffeepie]

*nod* I'm ok at it (due to having done (1) but the terror still sucks.
(2) That does seem to help (for instance on the phone call I just made to a lab in Cambridge, I used the email that I had previously sent them (which they hadn't responded to) as a sort of script of the things i had to remember to ask.

[metabutch]

I disagree with the job recommendation, unless there was an implied "unless you feel it would traumatize you" in there.

I totally agree with the writing down things to say. I often write down what I want to cover in a phone convo. I don't usually script it, but I just have bullet points of what I need to remember.

[carik]

Well, I did find it mildly traumatizing, but it also helped. That is, it sucked while I was doing it, but it meant I had less trouble later.