A request
Please, for the love of all that is wholesome and delicious, do not leave me a voicemail that consists entirely of "This is So-and-So. Call me when you get a chance."
This isn't an etiquette complaint, because standard phone etiquette as I learned it really doesn't require any more than that. It's purely a pet peeve. I know most people don't respond to that with "WHAT?? Tell me what you need!"
Here's the thing: I don't, as a general thing, much like talking on the phone. This might come as a surprise to those of you with whom I've cheerfully had hours-long phone conversations, but those have always been about something (usually fannish). There were meta thoughts to hash out, or fic to brainstorm, or whatever. I knew before I picked up the phone where the conversation would start, and it was easy to get into the groove of it, and once I'm in the groove of it, I'm fine.
But if I don't have a place to start, if there's just this nebulous "talk to this person" thing, I will not want to pick up the phone and call you. I think part of it is the whole Queen of Nonverbal thing: My brain wants a conversation to have more than just auditory cues, and gets restless if it doesn't get them. (You'll also never catch me on any type of real-time text-based chat unless I'm "meeting" someone there for a particular purpose. And of course, if there are details to work out about something, email is probably the more useful choice a good 75% of the time. Skype, however, is AWESOMECAKES.)
There's probably more to it than that, and all manner of weird exceptions, but the bottom line is, tell me what you want to talk to me about, and I'll call you back. Or don't, and I'll grumble and moan and then call you back. :-}
This isn't an etiquette complaint, because standard phone etiquette as I learned it really doesn't require any more than that. It's purely a pet peeve. I know most people don't respond to that with "WHAT?? Tell me what you need!"
Here's the thing: I don't, as a general thing, much like talking on the phone. This might come as a surprise to those of you with whom I've cheerfully had hours-long phone conversations, but those have always been about something (usually fannish). There were meta thoughts to hash out, or fic to brainstorm, or whatever. I knew before I picked up the phone where the conversation would start, and it was easy to get into the groove of it, and once I'm in the groove of it, I'm fine.
But if I don't have a place to start, if there's just this nebulous "talk to this person" thing, I will not want to pick up the phone and call you. I think part of it is the whole Queen of Nonverbal thing: My brain wants a conversation to have more than just auditory cues, and gets restless if it doesn't get them. (You'll also never catch me on any type of real-time text-based chat unless I'm "meeting" someone there for a particular purpose. And of course, if there are details to work out about something, email is probably the more useful choice a good 75% of the time. Skype, however, is AWESOMECAKES.)
There's probably more to it than that, and all manner of weird exceptions, but the bottom line is, tell me what you want to talk to me about, and I'll call you back. Or don't, and I'll grumble and moan and then call you back. :-}