Why you don't leave a partial voice message

Sac Arrow

Sac Arrow

Touchdown! Greaser!
PoA Supporter
Joined
May 11, 2010
Messages
20,703
Location
Charlotte, NC
Display Name
Display name:
Snorting his way across the USA
Because it stresses the recipient out. Like, me. So I get back from lunch right, and it's 12:05 p.m. PDT. I notice the little light flashing on my phone. I have a message.

"So, Sac, this is Wendy Carlson in the Reno office. I just wanted to share some news with you...."

Oh crap, this can't be good. She's quitting.

"....personally, over the telephone...."

Good lord, what is it? A harassment complaint?

"... and you can call me at my extension, or on my cell phone..."

Christ, it's urgent. Something's f**ked up.

".................................and it's good news."

She's pregnant. Just f***ing great.

Riiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnggggggggggg.

"Hi Wendy, this is Sac."

"How are you doooing?"

"Great. w'sup?"

"Just wanted to tell you, that the conference I'm going to in Hawaii is being sponsored partially by my professional society, I know you're watching the big items on the expense reports."

"Um, okay."

"That's good news, riiiight?"

"Yeah great. I already talked with Melvin about this so don't worry. Have fun." Click.

Okay, so let's see, I haven't lost a key employee, nobody's grabbed her ass and she's suing, and nobody knocked her up. Pressure is off.

WHY couldn't she have just said, in 20 words or less what the situation was, or send a short email?

(Answer: I know your ass is frosted because I'm attending a conference in Hawaii and my manager okayed it without talking to you first, and I wanted to detect the tone in your voice to determine how ****ed off you actually are.)
 
I'm so over Voice Mail.

For me, conversation happens with texts. Formal stuff I want in writing happens with email. Phone calls are last resort or when topic exceeds texting ability. Voice mail never ever happens. I never leave them or check them. In fact I consider it pretty rude to leave one at all.

On the list snail mail is never used except to send legal documents.
 
I was out on a long bike ride right around the time my wife was due to give birth to kid #3. I was out of cell phone range but did get notified that I had 3 missed calls from her. I rode so fast to get into cell range that Phil Ligett and Paul Sherwin rode up alongside in a car and started to provide commentary. When I was finally in range, I picked up the messages which, of course, were not of the emergent nature at all!
 
Captain said:
I'm so over Voice Mail.

For me, conversation happens with texts.
Click to expand...
I am so over text conversations. I simply hate it when, instead of taking a minute or two to have a simple conversation by phone, one of my relatives decides it's so much more considerate to interrupt me every 30 seconds for half an hour with texts. As a result, I just tell people (honestly) that if I'm at home I will not have my cell phone on me, nor will I respond to text messages. They can call... the home number, because I won't answer my cell.

I'm not being grumpy, honest. It's just a huge PITA to waste time sending texts when a 30-second phone call will do.
 
**** texts and **** phone calls. I really want to go back to a pager. Being constantly in touch with everyone is stressful enough. However unless I win the lottery, sell my business, or find a consigliere I'll have to have a damn iPhone.
 
DaleB said:
I am so over text conversations. I simply hate it when, instead of taking a minute or two to have a simple conversation by phone, one of my relatives decides it's so much more considerate to interrupt me every 30 seconds for half an hour with texts. As a result, I just tell people (honestly) that if I'm at home I will not have my cell phone on me, nor will I respond to text messages. They can call... the home number, because I won't answer my cell.

I'm not being grumpy, honest. It's just a huge PITA to waste time sending texts when a 30-second phone call will do.
Click to expand...


Agreed 100%... I am a voice kinda guy.. You can say more in 15 seconds then reading a text........I have NEVER sent a text,, don't know how to even do it...:no:
 
N801BH said:
Agreed 100%... I am a voice kinda guy.. You can say more in 15 seconds then reading a text........I have NEVER sent a text,, don't know how to even do it...:no:
Click to expand...

I used to be you. Saw no value in texts. Plus, ten cents per text made it the single most expensive method to transmit data. But now it's free and I'm hooked.

It's no good for long complex conversations. But most conversation is short bursts of needed info and it works perfect.

Wife shoots a text to pick up milk on way home. Reply 'k'. It's done. That's it. Milk is got and it was easy. A phone call to do the same requires two people pausing everything at the same time, greetings and salutations and then the exchange of the request and the acceptance. Then a goodby ritual takes place.

Does it replace romance or deep conversations with my wife? Of course not. But in life short bursts of info often are just what the doctor ordered. Proper tool for the proper job, right? Texts are a tool that often come in real handy.
 
Captain said:
I'm so over Voice Mail.

For me, conversation happens with texts. Formal stuff I want in writing happens with email. Phone calls are last resort or when topic exceeds texting ability. Voice mail never ever happens. I never leave them or check them. In fact I consider it pretty rude to leave one at all.

On the list snail mail is never used except to send legal documents.
Click to expand...

+1.

My voicemail at work goes unchecked for weeks until I finally get bored enough to clear the "You have voicemail" thing from my phone. I just wait until they start talking and press "7 to delete". I can't recall having ever listened to one. My Cell phone has VM turned off, they won't let me turn it off at work, so I'm forced to look at the "You have voicemail" prompt for weeks.
 
Email and text during work hours. If it's a question, then anything more than a few lines, pick up the phone. People will ping one-line emails and texts back and forth when one 30 second phone call would sort it out.

After work hours, I don't read emails or texts. If it's important enough to need my attention, make a phone call.
 
Captain said:
Voice mail never ever happens. I never leave them or check them.
Click to expand...

Do you have a VM message that tells me that you never check them and not to leave one? Otherwise, how am I supposed to know about your peculiar hatred of VM?
 
PilotAlan said:
Do you have a VM message that tells me that you never check them and not to leave one? Otherwise, how am I supposed to know about your peculiar hatred of VM?
Click to expand...

I'll field this one. If you don't get a response, that's a strong clue.
 
I honestly, rarely ever leave VM's. If I do, it's "call me".
 
PilotAlan said:
Do you have a VM message that tells me that you never check them and not to leave one? Otherwise, how am I supposed to know about your peculiar hatred of VM?
Click to expand...

Because you know me well enough. The fact that you left a voicemail puts you way down on the my list of people to talk to, that I just include your message in the repetitive "7777777777" pressing I do to clear the "You have voicemail" message while I wait on my computer to boot every thursday. If you want to talk on the phone, send an email, or an instant message. We'll work out a time based on both our priorities.
 
Captain said:
I used to be you. Saw no value in texts. Plus, ten cents per text made it the single most expensive method to transmit data. But now it's free and I'm hooked.

It's no good for long complex conversations. But most conversation is short bursts of needed info and it works perfect.

Wife shoots a text to pick up milk on way home. Reply 'k'. It's done. That's it. Milk is got and it was easy. A phone call to do the same requires two people pausing everything at the same time, greetings and salutations and then the exchange of the request and the acceptance. Then a goodby ritual takes place.

Does it replace romance or deep conversations with my wife? Of course not. But in life short bursts of info often are just what the doctor ordered. Proper tool for the proper job, right? Texts are a tool that often come in real handy.
Click to expand...

You know I have to say Captain is right. Texts are free these days and it's a fine way of communicating short, straight to the point messages. My original example isn't quite that, but yes.
 
What kind of profession do you have where you can decide to completely ignore voicemail messages for weeks at a time?
 
Rigged4Flight said:
What kind of profession do you have where you can decide to completely ignore voicemail messages for weeks at a time?
Click to expand...

Pretty common if you have a micromanaging boss who wants everything to go through them. BTDT. There was no point checking my VM under that guy.

He'd just be there hovering listening to it and cussing that "everyone knows they're not to call you guys directly!" and stomp off into his office to call the person back. Meanwhile I'd pen an email apologizing to the person and explaining I didn't rat them out to him, and "you know how he is".

Jerks think others don't know they're jerks, is the moral of this story.

I'd just let the VM light stay illuminated forever under that guy. Didn't even bother clearing them out, ever, once I figured out his MO.

People who really needed something, had my cell number and I'd go outside or somewhere else to call them back, formulate a plan to make micromanager think it was all his idea, and then tell them what to send him. LOL.

It really stemmed from his insecurities... He didn't have a damn clue what he was doing.

A similar micromanager later was the only job I ever got fired from, and was proud of it. I patched a server during a server build instead of leaving it on code we knew we'd had hackers... Yes a real life breach... break into the previous machines through... because the boss was so clueless they thought restarting the services that were being shut down by a script kiddie every couple of hours was less risk than applying an Apache update. Seriously. Utter moron.

This was long before 3rd party security audits, etc. Wild West internet early days.

One morning (after the systems had been running a week without a break in and my pager wasn't going off every hour with a dead service... man I wished the script kiddie would have just powered down the machines to prove my point) they called me into a room and said I was "insubordinate" for patching the machines. LOL. I really did have to try really hard to not laugh out loud and just walk out, since I figured they might offer a little severance and they did... which basically proved they were not firing for the right reasons. But I had to sit there and pretend the little whine-fest from the manager was real and same long enough to get the envelope with the details... Very hard to keep a smirk off my face.

I walked out afterward with a huge smile on my face and they let me to tell my co-sysadmin what was up. They were a few steps behind me, so I caught his eye and rolled my eyes and grinned and he knew what had just happened... Then acted serious and "concerned" as I grabbed my stuff. Tossed the ex-boss my pager and said, "Good luck!"

Even better, in the two weeks following, the other sysadmin and various people were quietly interviewed by the CIO and when he found out what had happened, the clueless boss AND he VP above that person were asked to tender resignations by the end of the week. The Director in-between worked from home out of State and didn't actually know the full story of my firing, he just left it to the manager under him who he didn't hire and didn't have much confidence in when he was told to manage that person. But he left his managers alone to manage their staff. He was actually clueful but too far away to figure out what damage the idiot was causing. He survived.

My co-sysadmin left two weeks after he saw what they did to me, and that left the company without a sysadmin. He said it was great joy to leave the (going off again as he put it there) pager on the CIOs desk and say the same, "Good luck!" after he did his two weeks. The Director that survived, left another two weeks after that... After all the staff was gone he decided it was time for a change of scenery. Heh.

Place is amazingly still around. So, I've changed some key details to protect the innocents still there. If any are. The other sysadmin and I kept in touch for a while and he went to a cellular carrier in their text messaging division's engineering group, a couple of the developers took their Java experience at that place and cashed in... Cha-Ching!... Big money jobs...

I'm still just an Internet Janitor. Cleaning up the systems messes at night. :)
 
dmspilot said:
Civil servant?
Click to expand...
haha

denverpilot said:
Pretty common if you have a micromanaging boss who wants everything to go through them. BTDT. There was no point checking my VM under that guy.
Click to expand...
Ouch. I've only ever worked for a seriously insane micromanager once. I'll never willingly do it again.

I've never had a job that I could just ignore voicemail messages. I've always been too close to the end-user/client/customer/owner/etc to do that. Or maybe I just cared too much (not joking - there is such a thing).
 
denverpilot said:
He'd just be there hovering listening to it and cussing that "everyone knows they're not to call you guys directly!" and stomp off into his office to call the person back. Meanwhile I'd pen an email apologizing to the person and explaining I didn't rat them out to him, and "you know how he is".
Click to expand...

You're not one of those guys that works in an open area but still uses a speakerphone are you? :D That's a whole other level of annoyance I can go on about!
 
Rigged4Flight said:
haha

Ouch. I've only ever worked for a seriously insane micromanager once. I'll never willingly do it again.

I've never had a job that I could just ignore voicemail messages. I've always been too close to the end-user/client/customer/owner/etc to do that. Or maybe I just cared too much (not joking - there is such a thing).
Click to expand...

A voice mail isn't the most expedient way to get in touch with me. I've likely talked to you 3 or 4 times before I notice you left one.
 
Sac Arrow said:
I honestly, rarely ever leave VM's. If I do, it's "call me".
Click to expand...

Same here. My wife likes to leave minute+ long voicemails (even though she will be home in 15 minutes) where she updates me on current weather and traffic conditions, that her friend's kid just threw up, and then at the very end ask me to call her or go buy milk.
 
Voice call:

M: hello?
F: hello, good morning!
M: good morning to you, what's going on?
F: not much, its snowing, trying to stay warm.
M: yeah, I drove in today and had to be very careful.
F: yep, hey, can you get some milk on the way home?
M: 2%?
F: yeah.
M: I can do that.
F: great...well....I have to go take care of the baby...
M: how is he doing? Is he being good today?
F: better than yesterday...
M: good. Alright, I have a meeting. I will see you tonight.
F: OK. Goodbye
M: goodbye!

Compared to:
Text: pls get milk tonight.
Resp: 2%?
Text: yes. Thx
Rest: NP

Yeah, I love text. It is much easier to convey messages.
 
pilot_dude said:
Government employee?
Click to expand...

Government employees likely waste time leaving and listening to Voice Mails. I don't ignore them for weeks, I ignore them forever. I never listen to them.

Instant message, text message, email or call. All of these methods of communication are real time. VM requires me to notice I have one, take the time to pick the phone up, remember my password, listen to the annoying "instructions" navigate an audible only system using a key pad, and listen through endless "This is So and So, call me back", messages to get to yours, then more instructions on what to do with each particular message. The only command I know is "7 to delete" and if you keep pressing it, the "you have voicemail' message goes away, mission complete. VM is highly annoying, time wasting and unnecessary. I consider it rude to leave one. You're asking me to spend 5 minutes flubbing with a phone system for something that could have been otherwise been delivered instantly without any hassle to myself. If I don't answer, instant message, text message, call my cell. I'm highly available for conversation, VM is the least efficient and most annoying way to contact me.
 
I like txt as I can check it at my leisure, so it is great when I am at work, or even flying. It will wait on me, unlike a phone call.
 
JB1842 said:
Same here. My wife likes to leave minute+ long voicemails (even though she will be home in 15 minutes) where she updates me on current weather and traffic conditions, that her friend's kid just threw up, and then at the very end ask me to call her or go buy milk.
Click to expand...

Just testing to see if you are listening.
 
I wish I had a job where I could just ignore everyone, and get back to them whenever. I'd be in business about a month. I don't get how it's rude to LEAVE a voice mail. I'm calling, you didn't answer. The rudeness is on sending me to voice mail, not me leaving one. What do you want me to do, call back every 15 seconds until you answer the phone?
 
Last edited:
EdFred said:
I wish I had a job where I could just ignore everyone, and get back to them whenever. I'd be in business about a month. I don't get how it's rude to LEAVE a voice mail. I'm calling, you didn't answer. The rudeness is on sending me to voice mail, not me leaving one. What do you want me to do, call back every 15 seconds until you answer the phone?
Click to expand...

Have you considered politics? :D

I see you on my missed calls list, you could text message or send an email, or instant message me. I'm not at my desk all the time and when I am, I'm ususally too busy dealing with the people who've emailed, text messaged or instant messaged me to stop what I'm doing for half an hour and iterate through marketing voice mails, "hey call me" voice mails one by one to get to the one that actually is important. I'm HIGHLY available for conversation. Voice mail is unnecessary and annoying.

I don't work for the general public, if I did I would put up with the highly annoying things they do, like leave "call me back" voice mails.
 
I have always hated voicemail, even before texting was an option. Some here have said you can communicate more in 15 seconds of voice conversation, but in my experience most people who leave voicemail speak for 30 seconds and say absolutely nothing and with most voicemail systems, you are a captive hostage and have to listen to the blather before they finally say the one or two words that actually communicate the message. At least with email and text, you can skip to the good part.
 
Sac Arrow said:
You know I have to say Captain is right. Texts are free these days and it's a fine way of communicating short, straight to the point messages. My original example isn't quite that, but yes.
Click to expand...

Ever try textng with someone that has to have the last word?
My friend and her sister both have to have the last word. It is funny to watch her text with her sister. She alwyas makes comments about why does she keep texting about this I thought we were done.
My answer is always why do you keep texting back:mad2:
 
bartmc said:
Have you considered politics? :D

I see you on my missed calls list, you could text message or send an email, or instant message me. I'm not at my desk all the time and when I am, I'm ususally too busy dealing with the people who've emailed, text messaged or instant messaged me to stop what I'm doing for half an hour and iterate through marketing voice mails, "hey call me" voice mails one by one to get to the one that actually is important. I'm HIGHLY available for conversation. Voice mail is unnecessary and annoying.

I don't work for the general public, if I did I would put up with the highly annoying things they do, like leave "call me back" voice mails.
Click to expand...

I don't have a missed calls list at the office. The only way I'm going to know you called is if you leave a message, especially if you are a new customer.
 
When I have known I won't have access to a phone for extended periods I've left a greeting on my voicemail that said "STOP - do not leave a voicemail message, as I will not be checking this system."

If your voicemail greeting doesn't specifically state that you aren't checking your messages, then you're intentionally being rude. If you can get away with that on a daily basis, you are either not in a client-facing position or you are artificially shielded from the consequences of your actions. edit: Or you interact with the same set of people on a daily basis and they know all of your idiosyncrasies and alternate methods of contacting you.

I've had positions where voicemail messages had the same importance and weight as email.
 
Last edited:
I have "voice mail" turned off on my cell phone. Voice messages are a huge intrusion into life.

Then I have "Google Voice," which takes voice mail and transcribes it into text and is sent as e-mail.
 
I think it comes down to expectations of the two parties of the communication.

With a phone call the caller is expecting the receiver to stop what they are doing and give them their attention. Same as when I see a friend in the mall and shout, "Hey Bob!". I'm alerting him to me and expect him to stop and exchange words. It's not a problem, but realize you are real time expecting someone to stop what they are doing to talk to you.

An email is less intrusive as the receiver can delay their response. But that response takes a bit of effort. Nothing wrong with that and works great for longer, more formal style communication. People can think out what they are going to say and put more effort into it. So the expectation of the sender is the receiver will respond when they have time and get back with a more thought out response.

A text has very little expectation, ergo it's the least rude. It's a short burst of info and the expectation is that if you're busy you can easily pass on a response. I'm not going to text you urgent stuff unless we've already established a link. It also has the expectation that when you do get around to replying that little thought will go into it. Just a simple answer or reply. This is further displayed the the super short hand that people use. if u txt u no wt i mean bcz u r fluent. lol

Anyway, different expectations for different modes of communication. Voice mail is the absolute worst. The phone companies are really to blame. In their endless effort to maximize profit at the expense of their customers they have implemented policies that slow down and stop the efficiency of voice mail. Notice that after someone's outbound message (Hi, this is Cameron...leave your name and number, I'll get back...not) the machine comes on and gives 15 seconds of instructions? Like we don't know what to do! Those 15 seconds add up and collectively the phone company makes money. That's why they do it. Except now they have destroyed voice mail and nobody uses it so in reality they shot themselves in the foot.

Sorry, got off track a bit. I'll just stop typing...
 
kgruber said:
I have "voice mail" turned off on my cell phone. Voice messages are a huge intrusion into life.

Then I have "Google Voice," which takes voice mail and transcribes it into text and is sent as e-mail.
Click to expand...

Yes Google Voice. Plus you can pick your own number 555.bug.smsh. Also, you can have multiple phones ring when someone calls a single number. Also, you can set individual outgoing messages for numbers. So, when my wife calls and can add an 'I love you' to the end of that message. I do like the transcribed VM feature as well. Sometimes its pretty funny what gets translated.
 
Sac Arrow said:
I'll field this one. If you don't get a response, that's a strong clue.
Click to expand...

Rigged4Flight said:
What kind of profession do you have where you can decide to completely ignore voicemail messages for weeks at a time?
Click to expand...

Probably any given single profession. I rarely respond to voice mails left by vendors - even at the cost of a free lunch. (Which, is why I tell the receptionist to send vendors to my voice mail in the first place.)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top