Don't ever phone! Text instead or make an appointment!

[ValerieVomit]

Happy new year Mumsnetters.

I've read a thread over the holidays and some of the posts talked about not phoning people because it's intrusive, you should text or message some other way but don't phone them, you don't know what they are doing, what you are interrupting etc. One poster said that you should make appointments for a phone call.

Fair enough things might have changed with social media and mobile phones over the last 20+ years.

Do you think it's rude to call someone if they are not expecting it? I called someone this morning, they were in the middle of taking down the christmas tree but we had a chat. Somebody else called me but I was shopping. I called them back when I had finished.

And the big question is .....

What makes it rude now if it wasn't rude before 1993 or so? Would you have just called someone then?!!!!

Some people really think they're special!

In the office now everyone is on Teams it's definitely rude to randomly call someone without messaging first to check they are free to talk.

You mean in your office

I've been in work today and have made probably around 25 - 30 calls. (Plus 5 Teams calls - but they were to colleagues).
I got no answer at about 5. I presume therefore it wasn't convenient for them to answer. But I got the information I needed from the other 20 - 25 calls, there and then. Finished the thing I was working on that needed that bit of information.

There are so many posters posting on MN at the moment who seem to have difficulty understanding that there are lots of different people in different circumstances and, just because you do something one way, it doesn't mean everyone does it that way.

I hate the ‘can I call you’ Teams messages - such a waste of time. If you need to speak to me, call me and see if I pick up.

Unless I know someone is an owl, and a close friend, I would never ring after 9pm, though would answer any time before midnight, myself.

DF perfected the knack of ringing just as I was dishing up. I'd explain, he'd ring off, and I'd ring him back later. It wasn't complicated...

I suppose the difference is that until the last two or three decades, it was impossible for anyone to spend part of their day reading their phone!

We're all different, I don't like people calling me out the blue, especially when it's outside my official working hours and I am showing "red". I don't think it's a waste of time to message me first, I can say "give me a 5 minutes", run to the loo and grab a drink and then will give them my full attention. If they just call me out of the blue and I have a bursting bladder, that isn't going to go well

Times have changed, we now have asynchronized ways of working and communicating and might as well make use of them.

But if it wasn’t convenient to answer, I simply wouldn’t pick up and I’d call them back.