by Kat
I have a problem with the telephone. I despise it. Yes, I was one of those teens once-upon-a-time who sat on the phone into the night talking to friends because we couldn't hang out in person. I even ran up 70-plus-dollars-a-month bills talking to my long-distance boyfriend for hours. But now, I can't stand it.

Personal calls don't bother me much, though I still don't like them. What gets me are business calls for support, inquiries, or other things. I just don't seem to know the steps to the elaborate dance required of impressing someone on the other end. In person, I don't have difficulty with a conversation, casual small talk, and getting the information that I need from an interaction. On the phone, I feel like I turn into a stuttering idiot even if I write down what I want to say beforehand. Maybe I ought to stop doing that.

I've had the most trouble calling to follow up about jobs. It terrifies me, calling someone I don't know, whom I hope to cast as my future employer, and asking some range of questions about whether they have anything available. I don't relish waiting for a return phone call either, but it is somehow less stressful when the cards are on "their" table.

The problem, I think, is that everyone hates telephone calls equally. They hate getting them as much as I hate making them. Or perhaps not... perhaps some people like the incessant ringing that forces them into polite conversation with strangers at the other end of a line. I feel like I'm missing something, like there's some secret script to making someone take a shining to you over the phone without being stupidly formal or nauseatingly sincere. I just don't get it.

As you can tell, I just made a bad call. They say first impressions are everything, and if they're over the phone, I often feel I don't stand a real chance.

Posted on October 31, 2005 @ 9:31 AM | 3 comments

Comments:

I offer my sympathies.

Lately I've developed a wierd phobia of the phone-- I just hate it ringing, because it is a sign that I'm about to be forced into *some* kind of interaction, but I don't know what. Some days when it is bad, I just screen instead. Sad.

By Anonymous inkandpen, at 12:31 PM, October 31, 2005  

I am the same way. I hate talking to people on the phone, especially if I'm the one to call them. It was really hard for me to sell my car this way, since I'd let the machine get it due to the caller ID's reading, then keep putting off calling the person back.

Can't we all just use email? It's so predictable, and there's spell check.

By Anonymous Adrienne, at 3:31 PM, October 31, 2005  

Man...I hated the phone for awhile after I graduated from college. I just didn't have a lot of experience conducting myself professionally over the telephone line and I always felt apprehensive and somewhat unprepared for the conversation that was about to take place.

However, I have found that the business world is highly dependent on telephone communication still and that having the ability to talk professionally on the phone is a big deal. I was uncomfortable with it for about a year until I simply got used to the types of interaction and communication that happen on the phone.

Nothing bad will come of a phone conversation, just keep that in mind and don't psyche yourself up or out for a conversation. It's just like talking to someone in person, except you can always call back later or defer a question that you can't answer instantaneously on phone.

Just my 2 cents.

-M

By Anonymous msardell, at 3:13 PM, November 03, 2005  

Post a Comment