My coworker spent 30 minutes trying to find another way to contact a vendor after I told her the easiest way to order the thing she needed was just to call and it would take 2 minutes. I hate calling too, but that’s just dumb. Or maybe I just like efficiency more than I hate the phone.
At work at least I have a script I can follow. I am The Role.
But please don’t make me order a pizza after work hours
I mean, if there’s a fully functional way to order online, why would you call? I just prefer a phone call when something would take paragraphs to explain or if there really isn’t an easy way to do something via a website/email.
Tbh I call because
“Pick up or delivery?”
“Pick up.”
"Name?
“[Name Redacted]”
“Alright and what can I get ya?”
“16” pepperoni, jalapeno, pineapple, that’s it."
“Alright 20min”
Is like a 1min conversation, and I’d rather do that than get charged $5 more for using online.
Some of the online ordering services are sneaky and bake their fee into the prices of the items you order, so it’s not even clear that you pay extra. My despise of that practice motivates me to call in my orders.
There is a script between you and the business. Learn it, master it
Or maybe I just like efficiency more than I hate the phone.
This is me. Texting is great for simple questions but if any sort of extended back and forth is needed just calling tends to be faster.
It’s not so much that I can’t make phone calls, as much as I don’t want to. 75% of the time you just end up playing phone tag, and I’d rather just email so they can reply at their convenience and there’s no question about who said what
Along with the fact that any more when you HAVE to call, it’s going to be dealing with a bullshit auto answering system that leads you in circles and intentionally misunderstands you.
This is the problem.
I needed a car battery the other day and just wanted to know if it was in stock because it’s a little uncommon. I went online, it said they did, went to the store, they didn’t, told me to call and verify because online updates overnight.
I called 4 different stores, nobody answered the first 3, 4th one rang forever, then an auto answering thing kept me for 5 minutes and when no option helped me it said “try again later, goodbye.”
Usually with automated systems hitting whatever option gets you to a human no matter how wrong it is will get you to the right place eventually
Some do some don’t. I love to play the mash buttons and hope for a real person game but more often lately it just ignores you or says that isn’t an input and keeps you locked in the automated, cause their just isn’t a person on the other side being paid to actually pick up a phone.
You play phone tag because people REALLY hate being called
I’m a millennial. I’m nearly 41. I’m the director of department.
I am also a fun little trash goblin on the weekends.
We can be competent at work and fun friendly people.
I find all this generational ontology very tiring nowadays
Always has been, stupid way to needlessly divide people
Thats exactly what a boomer would say
/s
What an Amos thing to say
What was she wearing?
Literally everything I learned in my high school careers class was useless because the world changed so much because of the internet getting more and more mainstream. Was told to keep calling and asking about applications; nobody actually answers the phone. Was told to collect and fill out applications in person; everyone moved to online-only applications. Was told to dress like I’m going to church for interviews; most interviews I’ve had were group interviews and 90% of the other applicants just wore jeans and t-shirts. Was taught to meet the higher ups so they would get to know me; the higher ups aren’t even on site except maybe once in a blue moon because something went wrong.
Make something go wrong, then
Force the target to come to you. Brilliant.
This but unironically. Seems like everyone works through recruiters now, because they’ve effectively outsourced HR.
Padding your LiinkedIn profile and dangling yourself like bait in front of recruitment firms (or just going through campus recruiters if you’re in college) is the best way to land a job that isn’t a series of MLM scams.
But you still have to wade your way through a surplus of MLM scams.
Employment fairs are fun
It’s a low bar, but they manage to be more fun than simply going on the computer and filling out a thousand applications
Some employers were happy with merely the quality of paper of my CV. Gave a good first impression, although they did direct me to a sign up link. It is worth noting that they were small businesses, though
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No, millennials with rich parents will inherit the Earth.
They’ll leave it all to their least empathetic, most entitled, most selfish brat of the litter.
The one’s they see themselves in.
Have you seen what they’re leaving us? No thanks.
When presented with a mad max waste land, would you prefer to be on a pole, or driving?
I’m a warboy at heart but I’m getting older and management in gas town is more stable and has better benefits.
Witness you, adulting so hard after the end of the world.
In the land of the blind, the one eyed man is king
Well in the land of the skunk the man with half a nose is king
Sing the song!!!
Bow, and kneel before me!!!
🎵 so take this ring
I’m a millennial and I’m fine at work with eye contact and whatnot (it’s uncomfortable, but I’m a manager now and do it regularly), but I detest phone calls. I don’t understand why, I’m fine going in to an institution to get stuff done, but the thought of calling someone is super intimidating for some reason. And I grew up with a landline at home and didn’t get a cell phone (i.e. no SMS) until I went to college. So it’s not like I was conditioned to avoid calls, I just grew to hate them for some reason.
That said, when I do call, I generally get things done much more quickly, so it’s completely irrational. Yet here we are. I have to give myself a small pep talk before pressing the call button.
Do you feel like it’s hard to understand people who are talking clearly when you’re on the phone? I do.
Not usually, but I do find I have to pay closer attention for whatever reason.
I take 30-40 calls daily, before this job I would never call, now I feel very comfortable calling, but I will still never ever answer an unknown call outside of work.
We already do now if they learn the dark art of not giving random people their entire lifesavings to a Nigerian prince via text…
We had a new Engineer start, fresh out of college, and he was terrified to call people at first. Now, only a few months later, he much prefers it as a more effective means of communicating.
The youngest millennials are turning 30, what you have there is a gen Z engineer.
So an Engen-Z-er?
I’ll show myself out
Whoa, how did that happen?
I had a job where I made 20+ calls per day. I worked there for almost 2 years, and hated it just as much the day i quit as the day i started. They weren’t even particularly difficult calls, just processing orders and looking up part numbers.
That being said now I sit in zoom meetings which don’t seem that different but I find them 100x less stressful.
My problem is, if I call someone and they lie to me I’m the one who gets fucked, if I send an email they get fucked if they lie.
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This is why I never read my work emails
Absolutely a concern. But calls build rapport, which makes people more likely to help you.
So that’s the question you always need to be asking: do I need this in writing? If not, then a call is enough. If you do, then even if you do call, insist on getting the info in writing. Sometimes this means writing the email yourself, and asking them to confirm.
My very first job, right out of school and before Uni, turned out to be almost only be “make calls” (not a call-center or anything, it was administrative tasks that required calling partnered businesses).
I only had that job for 6months or so, but I’m glad I had it. I still prefer Mail, but very often making a quick call is the way to go, and not being afraid of them makes your life way easier.
Edit: forgot to say, I’m Gen Z I guess.
Millennial with the opposite experience here. Once upon a time I’d use the phone all the time, could spend hours wandering the house and talking with friends, and calling anyone for any purpose was never a problem.
Then I got a job answering phones for Comcast, was there less than a year before I quit. It’s been about two decades since then but it installed a hatred of phones in me that has lasted to this day.
I worked in a callcenter for 4 years. I have zero fear of work calls, but I still avoid calls to a rediculous extent in my personal life
Chiming to say I am also a millennial that doesn’t break down over phone calls, shaking hands, and talking to strangers, even when the socialization is important to my livelihood
I don’t break down while interacting, but I certainly break down when I get home. Yay masking.
I’m pretty good at the whole interacting thing when it’s one on one, but put me in a room with more than one person and I freeze up, completely fall apart.
That sucks. I pretty much have the opposite issue. I don’t feel anxiety, don’t really understand it. Just know some of the people i know get anxiety attacks that are bad to the point they mimic heart attacks. Fucked up shit.
My favorite part is when the person I talk to or meet in person pretends their more important and I match their bravado. Alot of employees settle the fuck down. And the C level employees seem to meet my maturity instead of placate.
If anyone reads this I suggest you try. Their just people. Sometimes they have a Senior position becauS their older…
Because it’s not really a generational deficiency. It’s mostly a problem for the chronically online.
I’m on the youngest side of the millennials, when do I inherit, since I often like to phone in, as these days if you want something fixed quick, you’re better off calling (in Australia at least).
Much better waiting on hold for 10 mins than who knows how many business days before the customer service inevitably copy pastes something from the FAQ that doesn’t resolve your problem.
Also, I like to call friends, on the phone. And use SMS 0_0
Again, when can I get my inheritance, thanks haha
you gotta wait for the boomers and gen x to go.
Gen X mostly just does their own thing. I’m displeased that you even mentioned us.
Gen X mostly just does their own thing
I know, its all you lot talk about, that and your MTV and your Dan Fogleberg, your Zima, hula hoops and Pac-man video games!
Whatever…
Here, have a Pepsi.
In boomer times, phone calls were expensive and were transferred over landlines. It had an impact on the quality of the conversation.
Today people call you with 1% battery while at the register of the supermarket and instantly launch into a monologue about how they know it’s not a good time to call, and they might even cut off any moment, and they know you’re usually busy at 10am on a work day, but they really need to know if they can call you “later” to discuss something really important. And before you can tell them anything, they cut off. At least it’s over!
10 minutes later they call you from their car and it takes them a couple of minutes to get the audio working so they can repeat everything they said earlier. It’s what you have to do if a call was cut off! Then they drive into a tunnel.
Dealing with this shit is a dark art fr
Its never been easier to be lazy and unplanning about things and use other peoples time to try and cure your own boredom.
Yeah I can do this. And am not even 30 yet.
Nope.
It would probably help if phone calls still really existed as a method of getting stuff done but the amount of places not bothering / having automated / foreign staff for their call centers makes them basically pointless and a completely different skill set compared to old school charisma and phone etiquette.Patience and stubbornness to deal with the bullshit and still keep the effort applied will win.
Not some skill that feels nostalgic and forgotten like phone calls or cursive will save you from the onslaught of time.
Something that has me feeling old as shit is youngsters use loud speaker in public, on the bus, in city centre, now this would make sense to me if they were in a group but nope its just one person and I hear the entire conversation from both sides.
It isn’t even just “youngsters” at this point, it’s people in basically every possible demographic, and it’s absolutely infuriating. It’s literally never been easier to consume vast amounts of media privately, even in public. With shit like the Apple Vision or other headsets and a good pair of noise canceling headphones, you could literally be watching the dirtiest porn imaginable and no one would be the wiser, and yet people feel the need to assault everyone around them with their awful taste in content. And no, the type of content doesn’t matter, I don’t care if it’s Lil Nas X, Bach, the Beatles, your favorite YouTuber, a TED Talk, or anything else. If you’re playing it over a speaker in public, it’s awful.
I also don’t need to hear about your brother’s tragic drug problems over speakerphone while I’m shopping for groceries, I don’t want to hear your obnoxiously loud TikToks while I’m taking a shit, and you can put your game of fucking Candy Crush on mute while you’re on a redeye 8hr international flight and people are trying to sleep.
Yeah I guess we mocked those Bluetooth earpieces too much because now I wish everyone had one cause I’m so tired of people holding their phone 4 feet from their face at max volume yelling their conversation.
Honestly, that’s the best critique I’ve heard of this, so far; so much of us complaining about people’s noise in public just reminds me of the adults in our youth and just…I dunno, rubs me the wrong way.
