I don’t mind the phone, but I wish I could avoid certain calls. I’m not antisocial or nervous; I’m very much a people person and have great communication skills. Contrary to how some value the phone’s efficiency, I loathe the phone’s inefficiency.

I’m unsurprisingly logical and analytical, so I always prefer to have the facts. I can talk forever on a topic I’m knowledgeable about, but when I must talk about something for which I’m unprepared, the conversation will fail to accomplish anything and will waste time. If my only responses are likely to be “Thanks, I’ll look into it” or “Let me get back to you,” just shoot me an email instead. If I have questions in return, I’ll call you for answers when I’m ready. That brings me to my second point:

A phone call is disruptive. When the phone rings, I must immediately drop everything to answer the phone, and my concentration must completely switch to an arbitrary new topic. When I hear the “new email” sound, I can wait a few minutes and check when it’s less mentally disruptive (and then determine if I should respond now or if I can finish what I’m doing first). At my last job, this was a huge problem. I could rarely focus deeply on something without being interrupted by a ringing phone or a tap on the shoulder. Consequently, my productivity suffered greatly, and it became irritating. Call me if you need to disrupt me, but -please- do not call me if you don’t.
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I realize there are unfortunate reasons why some phone calls will always be necessary.

Since I’m a programmer, I’m a stickler for parsing and syntax, which is partly why I have exceptional written communication skills. Many people struggle to clearly express their thoughts in writing and instead need to talk it out. Emails from these people are a waste of time if you have to call them to ask what their email meant anyway.

Additionally, many people are less organized than I am. They might miss or skim their email then forget about it among the 10,000+ messages still in their inbox. They might lose their notes under a stack of other papers. And everyone forgets things from time to time, especially if it was only mentioned and was not in writing. Simply, you must follow up with these people. Unfortunately, sometimes you have to keep after someone, as telling them once or twice will not suffice.
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I agree that avoiding the phone entirely is ridiculous; it’s a necessary and very useful tool. However, it can also be quite a hindrance sometimes, particularly for programmer-types.

Nice article.

I honestly just don’t get it—and I’ve got the cell phone bills to show it :-)