Comments on: Voicemail Etiquette

By: psych 101

psych 101 — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 12:56:37 +0000

A sign of an unhappy workplace is when coworkers email each other instead of talking or phoning. Filtering human interaction through voice mail and email is safer — you don’t actually have to respond to another person. Maybe texting is the new two-way…we’ll see. Columbia, though, is offerring younger business people remedial courses in basic, one on one communication skills. Businesses are finding that the interpersonal skills among recent graduates and MBAs is abysmal.

By: Chris MC

Chris MC — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 03:35:14 +0000

“…And more times than not, I don�t listen to voice mail right away, preferring to call people back off the missed call list or sometimes knowing that eventually they will either call back, email or something…”

Ah. That explains it.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 02:43:07 +0000

I don’t have my voicemail configured for the same reason.

By: VanGogh

VanGogh — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 20:07:34 +0000

My favorite is “Hi, it’s me!” Me who?! Yes, there’s caller id, but it’s so juvenile – “Hi it’s ME”.

I just may turn my answering machine off.

Thanks, “ME”! (Oh, you made me think of something very interesting!)

By: nwlknative

nwlknative — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 12:40:16 +0000

From a business standpoint, I find voicemail very frustrating. Very seldom these days, do I get a real person on the other end of a phone call. Even calls into major corporations are answered with voice mail that directs you to dial the extension you want or punch in the name of the person you are calling. Even when someone is sitting at their desk, they let the call go into voice mail and may or may not call back in a timely manner. Instead of being cost effective and efficient, voice mail is actually taking up more time and costing employers more money with additional calls and lost productivity. I may be from the old school, but I feel voice mail and e-mail have made doing business very impersonal.