Don't Send An Email If You Can Pick Up The Phone

Megalith

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This headline caught my eye because—well, I regularly have people tell me to call them when we are already engaged via email, which is annoying. I suspect it has nothing to do with immediacy, but more about someone being at risk of saying something really stupid or offensive and not wanting to be on record.

The lesson is derivative of the popular adage in various professional circles that goes something like this: don't say shit in writing that you don't want to see published for everyone to see. It's the kind of thing you'd expect any skilled operative to have penciled into their pocket-sized US Constitution, but it can be a practical lesson for almost anyone — especially people who say things they really shouldn't. And yet, I suspect the vast majority of us ignore this rule completely. Like a group of teachers at a prep school in Rhode Island who insulted their students in Slack, only to have those conversations leaked to the whole school.
 
Don't say anything to me on the phone you are not willing to put in an email.

Two sides to every coin.
 
When ever I get tasked over the phone I always (politely sometimes) ask them for an email. If I don't get an Email, they don't get their job done, which has only happened to me maybe twice before.

Something else to consider is Email etiquette and how to actually email someone professionally. Its awesome when I get emails that have no headers, poorly worded and contains "lol" in an email that is supposed to be professionally oriented (ie going to my boss).
 
Unless something is on fire or you are my mother then a voice call should be the contact method of last resort. There are a billion other ways to get a message to me that don't involve me having to stop what I am doing to attend to your nonsense. I too am also tired of the "misunderstandings" that occur when people aren't forced to put things in writing.
 
Most people have no idea how these things on the internet work ;) Ask any celebrity about certain photo they did not really wanted to share. It is not just that it is any material online.
 
I prefer to speak to people. I'm not good at typing. And I hate texting. That's why I dictate them into the phone, check it for stupidity and send.
 
Im better at words in digital form but I can be so much more of an asshole online too.

Someone once told me to do a check every time you send an email. If your mom read this email, would she have an issue with it? If your boss read it would they have an issue with it?
 
I saw this article and I felt like I had to comment on it because the topic is very relevant in my life right now. I've been using the internet for years and I consider myself to be pretty familiar with it at this point, but at the same time I'm aware that when you're "trying" to communicate with someone using nothing but text, a LOT can be lost in translation and/or misinterpreted. I know plenty of @$$***** that probably should never open their mouths in public, because they are insensitive jerks, male or female, and a lot of these folks are my relatives. If you know that you choose your words poorly "in real life", when dealing with people, then obviously maybe you should be at least a little cautious when texting or e-mailing someone. I feel like the internet in too many cases encourages people to be more reckless and bold than they would otherwise be, because of the illusion of anonymity, but, come on, unless you are super tech savvy, if someone is determined to find you, they will, sooner or later, or they'll find someone close to you.

We all need to be much more careful about what we say, or text, and how we "say" it.
 
kinda hard to text on a phone and talk at the same time on a phone i guess kinda like walking and chewing gum at the same time but ppl expect alot from other ppl i guess
 
If you can not phone me then don't waste my time.I don't have to spell
 
I think the real lesson needs to be "stop getting butt-hurt over ever little thing people say". Every teacher out there bad mouths their students. Every manager does it about the people under them. Every politician does it about their constituents. Every celebrity does it about their fans. People aren't required to like you and people aren't required to agree with you. These are the real lessons people need to be taught.
 
We have a boss that is a serial flip-flopper and denier of stuff said previously when it's "convenient" (avoiding looking bad). Needless to say, we all email everything to get it on record. Sad, but it has to be done. Of course the boss hates emails and gets pissed when we lay things out.
 
I saw this article and I felt like I had to comment on it because the topic is very relevant in my life right now. I've been using the internet for years and I consider myself to be pretty familiar with it at this point, but at the same time I'm aware that when you're "trying" to communicate with someone using nothing but text, a LOT can be lost in translation and/or misinterpreted. I know plenty of @$$***** that probably should never open their mouths in public, because they are insensitive jerks, male or female, and a lot of these folks are my relatives. If you know that you choose your words poorly "in real life", when dealing with people, then obviously maybe you should be at least a little cautious when texting or e-mailing someone. I feel like the internet in too many cases encourages people to be more reckless and bold than they would otherwise be, because of the illusion of anonymity, but, come on, unless you are super tech savvy, if someone is determined to find you, they will, sooner or later, or they'll find someone close to you.

We all need to be much more careful about what we say, or text, and how we "say" it.

I've learned from many years of internetting that text is so incredibly easy to take the wrong way. I would say that half of the meaning or more is lost compared to speaking. I have just seen so many misunderstandings through forum and messageboard communication over the years.
 
I *HATE* talking on the phone and I have my whole life. I don't even like ordering pizza on the phone.
 
By calling me, you are implying that whatever you want to talk about is more important than anything else I may have going on at the moment. There is no customer more important than the customer I am dealing with 'right now', so I generally don't answer if I am working on something for someone else, which is about 90% of the time.

My pet peeve is people who respond to an email request by calling to give me the information requested. It takes longer and isn't as accurate, not to mention almost always takes more time.
 
I prefer all my work communication via email. I work with some folks who like to turn around and deny ever saying to do this or that and getting said things done only fucked us over. So now i tell them if it isn't in an email it's not getting done by me. They leave me alone and i get back to working on what i know damn well needs to be done.
 
This headline caught my eye because—well, I regularly have people tell me to call them when we are already engaged via email, which is annoying. I suspect it has nothing to do with immediacy, but more about someone being at risk of saying something really stupid or offensive and not wanting to be on record.

The lesson is derivative of the popular adage in various professional circles that goes something like this: don't say shit in writing that you don't want to see published for everyone to see. It's the kind of thing you'd expect any skilled operative to have penciled into their pocket-sized US Constitution, but it can be a practical lesson for almost anyone — especially people who say things they really shouldn't. And yet, I suspect the vast majority of us ignore this rule completely. Like a group of teachers at a prep school in Rhode Island who insulted their students in Slack, only to have those conversations leaked to the whole school.
In business I do plenty of correspondence over e-mail. I myself find it faster to talk voice. I also would rather talk to somebody than over e-mail. I guess that makes me old school..:)
 
There are some people that I have to get everything in writing from, and email usually works for technical items that can be referred back to over the life of the project. That said, some topics are best discussed over the phone. There's less of a chance for things to be "lost in translation" and it's quicker. Instead of 2 days of back and forth emails, everything can be communicated in a 5 minute phone conversation.
 
SMS is good for "running late be there in 5" or "whats the address" and things along that. Of course you can commibicate a significant amounbt more of info through email but what a 5 minute phone call accomplishes can take 4-5 or emails back and forth to clear up. I prefer Phone call, then email summerizing the call. People who only want to text or email and avoid the call i'm suspicious of
 
My boss, my mom and my sister have a habit of doing things in 2s. If there's a phone call, there has to be 2 phone calls. If there's a text, there has to be 2 texts (minimum). 2 emails minimum.

My managers at work do flip-flop and one is notorious for making fun of people. They're reluctant to email much anymore, once they're caught doing those things in emails. So, they turn into a black hole and don't communicate with the people that need to know what's going on. SURPRISE! We're doing this now.

I have a tendency to favor emails. I'm not a good writer, but I'm a better writer than speaker. I can do a bit of banter with my friends, but I don't like to speak a lot. I really hate LONG phone conversations too.
 
At work I operate almost entirely via e-mail because it has accountability. People say whatever they want in meetings and can just deny it. I like a paper trail for everything.
 
Personally, I HATE phone calls. I can't remember stuff verbally as well as I can remember them visually. It also takes much longer to get the info than if I just read it. Emails are MUCH better than a phone call.

Right now, I'm looking for a job, and I keep coming across these recruiters who insist on calling and talking to me. Half the time I can't understand their accents, so it takes repeated questions of "what was that?" to get the info, and the other half of the time they want to chitchat or go over the same info 4 or 5 times. An email would get me the info I need in a few seconds rather than 15 minutes of a phone call, and I can get much more accurate info back to them from it. It drives me crazy.
 
In business, if it wasn't written down then it was never mentioned. As already said, paper-trail and ass-covering.
 
At work I operate almost entirely via e-mail because it has accountability. People say whatever they want in meetings and can just deny it. I like a paper trail for everything.

Take meeting minutes and email them out after the meeting.
I used to record meetings and take notes. We had one person who was full of awesome tidbits. "We don't have time to test anything before going live." etc.
Somewhere at my job(two ago), someone has some hilarious notes.
 
Unless its an emergency don't fricken call, I hate having my day interrupted by someone who wants to ask why this item need to be painted blue instead of grey or some other silly BS that I don't want to deal with at work only to have them forget the conversation and say I never explain crap to them. Ive got it down to 2 people at work who ever call me (my manager and company VP) and I cant do anything about that but even then anything important I insist they email me a request for accountability lol.
 
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